IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS: When I first saw this movie in the theater I wasn't overly crazy about it. Now, years later, it seems much more coherent and creepy. I suppose it's just one of those movies you have to see more than once to appreciate, like ALIEN 3 (which I like more each time I see it).An insurance investigator (Sam Neill) is sent by a publishing house to find a missing novelist who has only partly finished his newest novel. They've pre-sold it so they are in dire need of the remainder of the story. He's accompanied by a woman editor (Julie Carmen of FRIGHT NIGHT 2).They discover that the artwork of the author's books connect when you line them side by side, forming a map to a supposedly fictional town. They follow the directions and ultimately find the place, which is inhabited by characters from the author's books. Did he base his stories and characters on this place or did he make all of this up-and his stories are becoming reality?Neill finds himself in a living nightmare as he encounters Lovecraftian creatures-and a final confrontation with the missing author, who admits that everything he writes becomes real. And he tells Neill that he made him up as well. He wants him to carry the rest of his newest novel, the one that ends the world, to the publishers.Of course, this doesn't sit well with him and he determinedly escapes from the creepy town. But he can't get rid of the novel, no matter how many times he leaves it behind or tries to destroy it. In the end he ends up at a mental institution, as the ending of the story unfolds.IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS is a very good homage to H.P. Lovecraft and his works.
IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS: When I first saw this movie in the theater I wasn't overly crazy about it. Now, years later, it seems much more coherent and creepy. I suppose it's just one of those movies you have to see more than once to appreciate, like ALIEN 3 (which I like more each time I see it).An insurance investigator (Sam Neill) is sent by a publishing house to find a missing novelist who has only partly finished his newest novel. They've pre-sold it so they are in dire need of the remainder of the story. He's accompanied by a woman editor (Julie Carmen of FRIGHT NIGHT 2).They discover that the artwork of the author's books connect when you line them side by side, forming a map to a supposedly fictional town. They follow the directions and ultimately find the place, which is inhabited by characters from the author's books. Did he base his stories and characters on this place or did he make all of this up-and his stories are becoming reality?Neill finds himself in a living nightmare as he encounters Lovecraftian creatures-and a final confrontation with the missing author, who admits that everything he writes becomes real. And he tells Neill that he made him up as well. He wants him to carry the rest of his newest novel, the one that ends the world, to the publishers.Of course, this doesn't sit well with him and he determinedly escapes from the creepy town. But he can't get rid of the novel, no matter how many times he leaves it behind or tries to destroy it. In the end he ends up at a mental institution, as the ending of the story unfolds.IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS is a very good homage to H.P. Lovecraft and his works.
