O.K. I know this movie tanked at the box office because critics were successful in convincing people not to go see it, but I got a real kick out of John Carpenter's spooky, unnerving, end-of-the-world fright-fest. 'In the Mouth of Madness' is John Carpenter's best, most confident work since 1984's 'Starman' and his scariest film since 'The Thing'.
Sam Neill is John Trent, and he's the perfect Carpenter anti-hero: a cool, cynical insurance investigator who's hired (by Charlton Heston!) to find missing horror novelist Sutter Kane, whose writings have been known to have a perverse, often murderous psychological effect on his readers. After an appropriately ominous Raymond Chandler-esque build-up, during which Trent discovers the probable location of the missing author and then travels to this mysterious hamlet, the film becomes another "life inside a movie/book/dream" tale, exploring the possibilities of "alternate realities." If the "alternate reality" plot of "Madness" is wearing a little thin, then blame the inferior 'Last Action Hero' and 'Wes Craven's New Nightmare' for running it into the ground. If the film feels tired, at least Carpenter has some terrific cinematic tricks up his sleeve. Even when he resorts to traditional cheap thrills, the shocking payoffs are well earned. And for a low budget movie, there are more impressive visual effects and eye-catching sets than in a typical $40-million affair.
As with every film he's directed, Carpenter shot 'In the Mouth of Madness' in anamorphic widescreen. With this letterboxed disc, Carpenter's complex compositions are preserved (widescreen images that, quite simply, look like incomprehensible crap on the panned-and-scanned videocassette). Much of the film was shot at night and takes place inside dark rooms and shadowy corridors; amazingly, the laserdisc image offers a fine representation of how the film looked in a pitch-black theater. The sound (always an important but consistently underappreciated component in Carpenter's films) is superb. Carpenter's haunting score heightens the dreadful mood of the proceedings, and the slishy-sloshy monster sounds emanating from every corner will really make your skin crawl. By the way, this is New Line's first title to be mastered with the new Dolby AC-3 digital technology.
As a fan of this flawed but highly entertaining movie, I was more than willing to pay $40 for a letterboxed version. What made me even more elated was that the theatrical trailer is included, along with a handful of TV spots and a behind-the-scenes featurette! There's also a running audio commentary track by Carpenter and cinematographer Gary Kibbe. Carpenter doesn't have much to say about the film itself other than various technical aspects dealing with the lighting and camerawork. Kibbe seems to be the Andy Richter to Carpenter's Conan O'Brien, minus the humor: a typical exchange is: "So, Gary, tell us how you would light this shot" followed by, "Well, we used such and such because we had to block out the green light coming in from the tinted windows..." and on and on. This monotonous narration will be of interest mostly to wannabe directors and cinematographers, and doesn't lend itself to repeated listenings (unlike Carpenter's humorous frat-house-style chat with Kurt Russell on the audio track for 'Escape from New York'). Still, it's an added bonus on a disc that's priced--remarkably--identically to a movie-only presentation, so be grateful New Line bothered to offer the added material at no extra cost. Imagine that: a "Special Edition" for the same price many movie-only versions sell for. Perhaps this is a sign of things to come.
Vital statistics: New Line Home Video, 2 sides, CLV, Dolby Surround, AC-3 Digital, Chapter stops, Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1), $39.95.
S. Damien Segal.
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