Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This is Lovecraftian horror done right! It has the budget, it has the talent and it definitely has the style. Atmosphere is the key for any movie inspired by the works of the great Howard Phillips, and this one gets it! The horror is not in your face, it is eerie, subtle and ever present. It might not be always visible, but in the back of your mind you know it's there if you close your eyes.. This movie is a must watch for all horror fans, but for anyone who has tasted the insanity of Lovecraft's works and has not looked away, it is a tasty mouthful indeed!

Sam Neil plays John Trent, who is an insurance investigator currently investigating the disappearance of a famous author-Sutter Cane. Trent believes it's all just a publicity stunt, but he finds out pretty quick that he's wrong. I failed to mention that Cane's books literally drives his readers insane. They pretty much become zombies. Anyway, Trent finds where Cane is hiding, a supposedly fictional town from his books known as Hobb's End. Everything is very murky and odd at first, however Trent eventually pieces everything together and finds out that everything is not what it seems. And that Trent may actually hold the keys to reality as we know it.Throughout the film the idea of reality and insanity being one in the same is toyed around with. It's a clichéd topic to talk about, but Carpenter actually brings some meat to the idea and makes it a serviceable subplot. The rest of the film is influenced heavily by H.P. Lovecraft and carries this incredible sense of dread throughout it. Sam Neil is great as John Trent and Linda Styles is pretty good as his partner. Sometimes her acting is a tad over the top, but, for the most part, she fits very well in the role.The pacing leading up to the discovery of Hobb's End is great. We spend a good fifteen minutes with John Trent as he tries to piece together clues found in Sutter Cane's books. He eventually finds out that when the covers to his books are put together they create a sort of map to Hobb's End. It's all very interesting and the way in which Hobb's End is discovered is also very intriguing and smart."In The Mouth of Madness" is a good Carpenter vehicle, but in places it relies way too much on simple jump scares and gross out effects. Instead of Carpenter's typical minimalism, the picture is very big and effects heavy. Sometimes this works, like in the ending when reality comes crashing down all around John Trent. But, sometimes the effect feel unnecessary and the the usually minimalist approach would have been better for the film.All in all though, "In The Mouth of Madness" is a pretty good film. It's creepy and disturbing, but sometimes it's a little clichéd. However, after flop after flop from Carpenter-"In The Mouth of Madness" is a great return to form from John Carpenter, even if it's a little flawed in places.

Sam Neill plays John Trent, an insurance investigator slash private eye, in this John Carpenter horror movie that sets out to expand your horizon and blur the lines between fiction and reality. Trent starts the movie as a patient in a mental institution where a doctor arrives to hear his tale. And what a tale it turns out to be. Trent was hired to investigate the disappearance of a horror author Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow), a known eccentric and mad savant.Accompanied by Linda Styles (Julie Carmen), Cane's editor, Trent travels to Hobb's End, a New Hampshire town none of them have ever heard of, except in Cane's novels. After a night of driving, they find their destination, but almost immediately dark tidings start to unravel and Trent finds himself pulled deeper and deeper into the unknown, into the realm of unnatural, of fiction and horror.In the Mouth of Madness feels very much like a Stephen King novel. The small town setting, an author and a book as plot points, the idea that the horror is an extra-dimensional threat trying to break into our reality, the somewhat meta approach the story takes. And I don't mean this in a bad way. Yet it's so weird to see Carpenter emulating King so faithfully. Their particular styles of horror have had similarities before and clearly they've both influenced one another, but this is Carpenter very much trying to tell a Stephen King style horror story. And he succeeds.More cannot really be said without spoilers. It's an enjoyable horror film with good actors, a twisty plot and a great style courtesy of one of the greatest horror director's to ever pick up a camera.

I saw this movie 3 times with my friends at the old Manors in Newcastle and of course we loved it, this movie just shows how Mr Carpenter never lost his natural aptitude and talent since he threw the classic anthology Body Bags at us a year earlier. I think I came across writing this review by listening to the soundtrack and inspired by the opening theme for the film. Sam Neill is superb and Julie Carmen still has that look in her eye and gives off the scent since the great 80s sequel Fright Night. The scene of the guy on the bike with the long white hair was creepy and wouldn't fancy passing him during the day let alone at night, there are a few memorable moments and maybe stay with you but not hauntingly. This is a creepy atmospheric,dream-like horror story which rolls into the satisfying horror of the mid 90's. And by the way " This is not the ending. You haven't read it yet"