First Thoughts on 'In the Mouth of Madness'

In the Mouth of Madness came at a weird moment for John Carpenter. His most recent feature, 1992’s Memoirs of an Invisible Man, had been an unsuccessful attempt to branch out of his horror box; there had been four long years between that and his previous picture, They Live. We now think of that as quintessential Carpenter, but reviews and box office were mixed. So who knows, maybe JC wasn’t worried about his career when he got an offer from New Line Cinema—to direct a script written by Michael De Luca, then rising through the ranks at the company (he would soon become its President of Production). But it probably seemed like a smart move, all things considered.

Sam Neill, then hot off Jurassic Park (and boy, really truly GOING FOR IT), stars as John Trent, a hot-shit insurance investigator first seen being dragged into a loony bin, and into the care of John Glover—and folks, when John Glover is the sane guy, you’re in trouble. (This cast has character actors out the wazooooo—Glover, David Warner, Bernie Casey, Jurgen Prochnow, and, well, Charlton Heston.) “You think he’s one of… them?” Glover asks, as our hero is thrown in a padded room; this is Carpenter at his most baroque, going for a real throwback, ‘40s, almost Val Lewton vibe. Soon enough, Warner shows up to hear this crazy man’s story, and off we go.