What if Stephen King was writing horror novels under the influence of the eldritch horrors of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos? And what if those tentacled, world-shattering horrors crossed over into our world, driving everyone who reads the work of a popular horror author to insanity and extreme acts of violent behavior? That’s the provocative premise behind In the Mouth of Madness (1994), which takes the pulp-horror craze of the ‘70s and ‘80s and imagines what might happen if every word in those cheap paperbacks came true.
In the Mouth of Madness is the third movie in horror master John Carpenter’s so-called “Apocalypse Trilogy,” a similar (but unconnected) series of movies that all deal with the end of the world — or, rather, the beginning of the end of the world — in one way or another. The Thing (1981) and Prince of Darkness (1987) deal with extraterrestrial and Satanic threats, respectively. The evil of In the Mouth of Madness is harder to pin down, coming from another dimension, the mind of a horror writer, and human nature all at the same time. Originally one of Carpenter’s lesser-known films, it’s since risen to cult-classic status. Here’s why.
