Unseen Terror: Day 22

Sutter Cane is one of, if not THE most, popular horror writers in the world. When he mysteriously vanishes, his publishing company hires investigator John Trent (Sam Neill) to find him, so that his latest work, In the Mouth of Madness, may be printed soon. He is joined by Cane's editor Linda Styles to help track the enigmatic novelist down, but where they arrive and what they stumble upon may be beyond that of John's, and even humankind's, comprehension.

This film seems to split a lot of people. I've met more than a good amount of people who love the film, and a few who think that it's too disjointed and that director John Carpenter could have done better with it. After watching the film in it's entirety, I could make arguments for both sides being right. The film actually opens in a mental institution, which should immediately (and maybe not so subtly) tell you that what you're about to bare witness to is pretty crazy. The first half of the movie is pretty decent, but somewhat slow. It unfolds like a mystery rather than a horror, usually taking it's time to play tricks on the audience rather than outright scare or disturb you. It's in the latter half where things get particularly interesting, and the movie goes into what I can only describe in internet terms as "OMG WTF?!" mode. Throughout the whole film, there are some questions raised about how large of an impact one writer can have on the general public, and more specifically, his rabid fanbase.

The cast is pretty good. Sam Neill does a fine job here, though I think his accent threw me off at first glance. For what little we see of Jurgen Prochnow, he is pretty creepy as the missing Cane. I think the weak link was Julie Carmen, who doesn't give a bad performance, but just seems like she's losing interest at times in the script. Which is a shame considering that this IS a pretty damn interesting script. It weaves it's influences from H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, and Clive Barker together rather well and it's dialogue doesn't feel too forced, all the while making you question what may be real and may not be.

That being said, I do think the final act of this is a bit of a mess. Sure, they wrap most of the open ends up in the very last scene, but it still doesn't really give us a "how" or "why" for one of the biggest reveals in the film (perhaps someone might be able to clue me in if I missed something). But even with that bizarre final act, and a very out of place metal song played at the beginning and end credits (seriously, what was that about?), I'm still recommending In The Mouth of Madness to anyone who likes some good supernatural and psychological horror. This is one I may have to go back and revisit down the line.

Tomorrow, I see a bad moon rising, but hope it doesn't give way to a bad movie with THE HOWLING.