In the Mouth of Madness (1995)

When it was first released , "In the Mouth of Madness" did so-so business at the box office yet found new life on home video and became a cult classic among John Carpenter's die hard fans. Having seen this movie for the first time on DVD via Netflix after seeing a commercial for it on a vhs, I like this movie. It's about a quest for a missing horror author named Sutter Cane (played by Jurgen Prochnow of Das Boot fame) by John Trent (Sam Neill). The ending of this movie has the detective having a good time at the premiere of the film based on the book of the same name and he's the only one left laughing!!! The quality of the DVD is pretty good (back when New Line used LaserPacific to master their films) and the extras include commentary from John Carpenter as well as the film's trailer which can be seen easily on Youtube. I might as well buy the Shout Factory bluray sooner than later....

I have been somewhat disappointed by Carpenter this year, "The Fog" was pretty good, a bit flawed, but still highly enjoyable. "Prince of Darkness" had some mediocre and dull parts, but had some great concepts, a good atmosphere and some good effects. "In the Mouth of Madness" has some of the same problems "Prince of Darkness" had, and much like "Prince of Darkness", it has many good elements that save it from being completely mediocre and elevates it.I liked this one better than "Prince" since it has a really good performance by Sam Neill, his character was really enjoyable to watch and you sympathize with him because of his charm, without him the film wouldn't have been as entertaining, unfortunately. I believe I liked the build up better than the action itself, once monsters start appearing and we find out more about what's happening the movie sort of becomes standard, nothing bad but nothing great either, much like "Candyman" this movie lacks more rules to its horror, it just feels like a bunch of random events and ghouls appearing just because.The ending is a bit inventive, predictable, but still riveting to watch. The movie actually has some creative moments and some great special effects to accompany them, but it never becomes more interesting than its premise.Overall, a good film that falls flat at moments but has some great ideas and very suspenseful scenes that save it.PD: Points extra for Robot Monster.

Second best Lovecraft movie I saw (I watch them in chronological order), after Cast a Deadly Spell. I can not say I'm amazed, but it is a very pleasant surprise. It's not ordinary monster horror although some monsters appear. It's based more on mystery and suspense than on scary scenes. Effects are very good for 1994. and Sam Neill is perfect choice for leading role.7,5/10

As someone who has read all of Lovecrafts books I can assure you that this movie has a strong Lovecraftian vibe to it. And even the title seems to be some sort of homage to Lovecrafts work, I presume (In the mouth of madness -> Innsmouth ?) Or maybe I'm just over-interpreting things. Who knows?With that being said I really enjoyed the movie. It was refreshing and different. Sometimes the prospect of "not knowing what's real or not" is even scarier than straight up gore or monsters. After all the fear of the unknown is the ultimate essence of true horror. This movie had plenty of it so I can't complain.