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Movies / Upcoming / In the Mouth of Madness
In the Mouth of Madness

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In the Mouth of Madness (1995)

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48 %
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Reviews Counted:29

Fresh:14

Rotten:15

Average Rating:5/10

Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins

Genre: Horror/Suspense

US Box Office: $0

Synopsis: IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS is John Carpenter's foray into the world of H.P. Lovecraft and surreal horror. An insurance investigator (Sam Neill) is sent to find a missing author, Sutter Cane (Jurgen... IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS is John Carpenter's foray into the world of H.P. Lovecraft and surreal horror. An insurance investigator (Sam Neill) is sent to find a missing author, Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow). As he comes closer to finding the author, things start to change around him, and soon nothing is what it seems. Madness seems to be the normal state of things, while reason and sanity have no place in this new world created by the mind of Sutter Cane. Carpenter plays with changing perspective, making the audience aware thay they too are part of the story, and maybe, just maybe, this is not just make believe. The story is very ambitious in its attempt to put a whammy on the viewer's imagination, but the direction is steady and thoughtful enough to pull it off. Sam Neill is superb in the lead role of the only sane man left on Earth, incredulous to the destruction of reality as he knows it. It is his controlled performance that makes the bizarre events in the film threatening and scary. Jurgen Prochnow is deeply creepy as author and madman Sutter Cane, who's imagination is so vivid it is spilling out of his head into the real world. John Carpenter is known for his scary movies, and he does not fail to deliver with IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS. [More]

Starring: Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, Jürgen Prochnow, John Glover

Starring: Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, Jürgen Prochnow, John Glover, Charlton Heston, Frances Bay

Director: John Carpenter

Director: John Carpenter

[See More Credits]

Reviews for In the Mouth of Madness

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1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

The names are big, but the payoff is small.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Examiner | comment Comment
01/01/00
David Armstrong
David Armstrong
San Francisco Examiner

Confusing, weird, and not very involving.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
01/01/00
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews

One wonders how In the Mouth of Madness might have turned out if the script had contained even a little more wit and ambition.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
01/01/00
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Great fun to watch, with even the requisite cheap shocks doling out a good jolt.

Full Review Source: Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus | comment Comment
01/01/00
Bryant Frazer
Bryant Frazer
Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus

This is terror at its most delicious.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
07/25/01
Almar Haflidason
Almar Haflidason
BBC

Eventually falls apart because of its erratic plot and gaps in logic.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
01/01/00
Richard Harrington
Richard Harrington
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A stylized collection of well-timed shockers, helped along by the contributions of its capable cast.

comment Comment
01/01/00
John Hartl
John Hartl
Film.com

After awhile, the redundancies begin to hamper the narrative, and it becomes rather tiresome.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
01/01/00
Chris Hicks
Chris Hicks
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Horrormeister John Carpenter (of Halloween fame) is back in fine form as a master of suspense and ghoulish fantasy.

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
01/01/00
Bruce Kirkland
Bruce Kirkland
Jam! Movies

Cheesy horror celebrating the power of cheesy horror, while pretending to be appalled.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
01/01/00
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle

A fun, clever horror picture, full of creepy crawlies, things that go bump in the night, and references to everyone from H.P. Lovecraft to Dario Argento.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
01/01/00
Joey O'Bryan
Joey O'Bryan
Austin Chronicle

Carpenter can't establish the kind of welling dread that Lovecraft conjured, so he shifts to makeup and pyrotechnics.

Full Review Source: Goatdog's Movies | comment Comment
02/28/02
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
Goatdog's Movies

best of the post-cold war carpenter movies

Full Review Source: sbs.is | comment Comment
04/03/06
Stefan Birgir Stefansson
Stefan Birgir Stefansson
sbs.is

A thinking person's horror picture that dares to be as cerebral as it is visceral.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
02/13/01
Kevin Thomas
Kevin Thomas
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Uninvolving, abysmally scripted horror picture.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
01/01/00
Desson Thomson
Desson Thomson
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Limp performances and ludicrous special effects remove this study of reality from any sense of it.

Full Review Source: Cinematter | comment Comment
01/01/00
Madeleine Williams
Madeleine Williams
Cinematter

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
01/01/00
Dragan Antulov
Dragan Antulov
rec.arts.movies.reviews

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Mike Bracken's Horror Films | comment Comment
02/13/01
Mike Bracken
Mike Bracken
Mike Bracken's Horror Films

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: ToxicUniverse.com | comment Comment
01/27/02
Jeremiah Kipp
Jeremiah Kipp
ToxicUniverse.com

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
01/01/00
Mark R. Leeper
Mark R. Leeper
rec.arts.movies.reviews
 
 
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