H.P. Lovecraft was a wonderful horror writer.
He gave us such classic stories as At The Mountains
of Madness, The Rats in the Walls, The Color from
Outer Space…more stories than I could ever
possibly name here. Many filmmakers have taken
his stories and adapted them to the screen: Dagon,
Re-Animator, From Beyond,
not to mention the filmmakers who have make films
inspired by him: Alien, The Thing, Hellboy, again
far too many to mention, any filmmaker who has
made a film with 'the slimy darkness. Crawling
from beneath the earth, driving men insane'
styled storyline has, at some point, gotten some
influence from Lovecraft. John Carpenter wears
his Lovecraft on his sleeve in his 1995 picture
'In The Mouth of Madness'. Though
the name Lovecraft is not mentioned in this film,
his dark influence is surely there (other Lovecraftian
names do appear) and it lies as a great homage
to his work. Don't just write this off as
a monster flick, though, this film is also a fascinating
journey into fear and one's perception of
reality and how it differs from another.
In the Mouth of Madness in
the tale of John Trent (Sam Neill), an insurance
investigator who, along with a representative
from a publishing company, Linda Styles (Julie
Carmen), is sent to investigate the mysterious
disappearance of author Sutter Cane (Jurgen Pronchnow),
whose horror stories do far more than just inspire
and entertain the reader. Trent finds himself
in the imaginary town of Hobb's End, or
is it imaginary, or is Trent's frame of
mind being tried, and his predestination already
written?
Sam Neill is always best in his manic roles,
like the Dr Weir character in Event Horizon,
and his nutso portrayal of the insurance investigator
John Trent is right on the mark, and with cast
mates such as David Warner, Jurgen Pronchnow and
Charlton Heston, how can you go wrong?
At Fantasporto in 1995, this film was nominated
for the International Fantasy Film Award for Best
Film, and John Carpenter won the Critics Award.
Again this is a film that is far too good to be
treated the way Roadshow have treated it |
