Still from In the Mouth of Madness
Guest writer April Ridge gives a quick introduction to the John Carpenter classic.
“You’ll go mad with fear!”
The Carpenters’ “We’ve Only Just Begun” pipes into the insane asylum as John Trent (played by the wonderfully terrified and terrifying Sam Neill) is freshly admitted into his padded cell. His jarring shouts of “I’m not insane!!!” are mirrored by his neighboring inmates, who peer from tiny windows in their doors, hopeful for an inkling of attention from someone who might listen.
Trent ceases his shouting as the scene fades to black upon a padded wall.
We ask, how did he get here, from successful insurance claim investigator to dirt-streaked, raving mental patient?
The camera zooms out to a different timeline, moving back in to show Trent mid-thrust in an insurance claim interview, where he triumphantly nails a sweating and obviously guilty party in the act of committing insurance fraud by arson. The resulting scene brings him to a highly reputable publishing house, ironically named Arcane Publishing. The penthouse office is aglow with a beaming Jackson Harglow (Charlton Heston) at the desk, excitedly explaining their most successful writer, Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow), has gone missing, and he wants John to find him.
Cane’s books are rumored to make unstable readers absolutely crazy, and John takes it upon himself to prove that this author’s disappearance is a hoax waiting to be exposed. John Trent’s own adventure into madness ensues as he and Arcane editor Linda Styles (played by the talented Julie Carmen) venture off into the unknown and find a little slice of the American dream, a small town called Hobb’s End. What they find there is its own mystery, and you will have to step inside the doorway of the cinema to find what is in the final chapter of this mix of Lovecraftian dystopian horror and pulp fiction.
Giving any further detail would leave the glee and gore of the story spoiled for the viewer, so I will only go so far as to say that this film shows the evil that mankind will do in the pursuit of success, “people that turn into things,” and the terror that trembles just at the periphery of reality. There be monsters in these walls!! The strangeness of small-town familiarity when faced with an ancient horror and hints of religious zeal are revealed on the other side of the entrance door to the Black Church, and all have been warned that once you have entered, you may never return the way you came.
In the Mouth of Madness will be screened at IU Cinema on October 9 as part of the Friday Night Frights series, followed by a live taping of the Weird Studies podcast, which will discuss the movie and all things Carpenter.
April Ridge lurks in the rural hilltops of Monroe County, akin to Mothman’s tomboy cousin, listening for hints of poetry on the wind. She enjoys horror films, the sordid affairs of 1920s circus performers, long walks in pitch-black tunnels, and the occasional waffle cone from Jiffy Treet. April serves as the chair of the Writers Guild at Bloomington and is a poet and spoken-word performer at heart, but she makes room in her diet for spooky movies, candy corn, and has a quiet obsession for all of the Universal Monsters, specifically the Bride of Frankenstein.