30 Years Later, This John Carpenter Horror Flick Is Still the Best Lovecraftian Movie Ever Made
It is almost impossible to translate Lovecraft's ideas to the big screen, but the director of The Thing managed it.
Howard Phillips Lovecraft is one of the few masters of 20th-century horror who was able to create something truly terrifying. The author became an icon of horror literature and also had a significant influence on cinema.
However, most Lovecraft adaptations turn out to be failures – it is almost impossible to transfer the indescribable and unimaginable horror that Lovecraft wrote about to the big screen.
The best adaptation was released 31 years ago, and no one has made anything better yet. We are, of course, talking about John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness, loosely based on the novella At the Mountains of Madness.
What Is In the Mouth of Madness About?
Sutter Cane's literary works have broken all records. The effect on some admirers of Cane's talent is complete disorientation and memory loss, mass outbreaks of violence.
The author of horror novels that bring in huge profits to publishers disappeared two months ago. The publisher hires insurance agent John to find him, and the search leads him to a town described in the book, but not on the map.
In the Mouth of Madness Is a True Love Letter to Lovecraft's Work
In the Mouth of Madness is both a dark, strange neo-noir, one of the best incarnations of Lovecraft's works on the screen, and one of the most unique takes on the end of the world.
The movie feels like an homage and a strange love letter to Lovecraft. It is one of the few works that captures the creative principle of the author, and even his paradoxical psychological motives.
The narrative style is maintained in the form of memories, characteristic of many of the writer's works. The main character is an insurance agent John, played by Sam Neill, who ends up in a mental hospital.
The introduction, in which the main character begins the story while in an asylum, is the most classic Lovecraftian trope, found, for example, in Dagon and The Rats in the Walls.
In the Mouth of Madness Was a Box Office Flop, but Eventually Became a Horror Classic
In the Mouth of Madness was not popular when it was released. The movie made only $8 million of its $8 million production budget. Critics panned the film, calling it pretentious and mediocre.
However, like many of Carpenter's other works, In the Mouth of Madness eventually became a horror classic and an inspiration for hundreds of filmmakers.