In New York City, insurance investigator John Trent narrowly survives an attack by an axe-wielding man with deformed pupils. Soon after, he is hired by book publisher Arcane to investigate the disappearance of acclaimed horror author Sutter Cane, whose new novel, In the Mouth of Madness, is eagerly awaited. Arcane's director, Jackson Harglow, assigns Cane's editor, Linda Styles, to accompany John, though he suspects the whole affair is an elaborate publicity stunt.
John discovers that Cane's book covers form a map to Hobb's End, New Hampshire, the fictional town featured in Cane's stories. He and Linda set out to find the location. During the drive, Linda experiences surreal phenomena, passing the same cyclist as both a youth and an old man, and even seeing the road vanish, before they abruptly arrive in Hobb's End. The town's landmarks and residents, including innkeeper Mrs. Pickman, appear exactly as Cane had written them. While John insists it is staged, Linda admits that although Cane's disappearance was a hoax, the current events are not. At a local church, described in Cane's novels as built on a site of ancient evil predating humanity, angry townspeople arrive demanding Cane return their missing children.
Back at the hotel, Linda insists events are unfolding as written in Cane's new book, which foretells the end of the world. She later confronts Cane at the church, where he exposes her to the unfinished manuscript, driving her insane. Cane reveals that while he once thought his stories were fiction, he now realizes that "they" have been guiding him all along. Disoriented, Linda returns to the hotel, where she transforms into a monster, as does Mrs. Pickman, forcing John to flee into a mob of mutated townsfolk. He seeks refuge in a bar, where a resident kills himself, claiming Cane wrote it that way. Attempting to escape, John repeatedly finds himself teleported back to the town center until, after crashing his car in frustration, he awakens inside the church, confronted by Cane and Linda.
Cane explains that the sheer number of readers who believe in his work has made his stories real, dissolving the boundary between fiction and reality and enabling the return of the "old ones". He tells John that Hobb's End and even John himself exist only because Cane wrote them, and that John must deliver the completed manuscript to Arcane. John rejects Cane's claims. Cane then tears himself apart, creating a portal through which the old ones emerge. John escapes through a tunnel, while Linda, who claims she already knows the ending, refuses to follow. Pursued by monstrous beings, John suddenly awakens on a country road.
John destroys the manuscript and returns to Arcane, but Jackson denies any knowledge of Linda and reveals that John delivered the manuscript months earlier. The book has already been published and a film adaptation is underway. Soon after, a disheveled John kills a Cane fan with mutated eyes and is committed to an asylum.
After recounting his story to a doctor, John concludes that humanity will soon be reduced to a myth "they" will tell their children. That night, inhuman screams echo through the asylum as his cell door bursts open. John discovers the facility deserted and hears a radio broadcast describing a worldwide epidemic of mass violence, mutations, and the fall of entire cities. Wandering into a cinema, he watches the film adaptation of In the Mouth of Madness. As the movie replays his own actions—including his insistence that "this is reality"—John breaks down in hysterical laughter.
Michael De Luca wrote the script in the late 1980s and one of the first directors he offered it to was John Carpenter,[3] who initially passed on the project. New Line Cinema later announced production in 1989 with director Tony Randel to direct.[3] Later, Mary Lambert was also attached to direct.[3] Finally, Carpenter signed on as director in December 1992, and filming took place from August to October 1993.[3] The film had a budget of approximately $8 million.[4]:21
The town scenes in Hobb's End were filmed on Main Street Unionville, and the exterior of the Black Church is actually the Cathedral of the Transfiguration. Both are located in Markham, Ontario.[5] The rest of the film was shot on location in Toronto due to its unique mix of "New York skyscrapers and New England remoteness" according to Carpenter.[6]
The visual effects for the film were done by Industrial Light & Magic, and the practical effects (including creature prosthetics and animatronics) were done by the KNB EFX Group. It took seven weeks for KNB to create all the practical effects for the film, the biggest of which was an "eighteen-foot Wall of Monsters" that was mounted on rollers and operated by a crew of twenty-five people.[7][8] "We had under seven million [dollars] to spend on the picture", Carpenter said in 2001. "It was tough. The monsters had to be outrageous Lovecraftian demons, but in H.P. Lovecraft's novels, they are always so horrible that they are beyond description, that they are too terrifying to see. So how do you visualize something like that? Well, very, very quickly. They also had to be slightly cartoonish since Sam Neill spends most of the movie ridiculing horror only to discover it's all too real."[9]
Influences
In the Mouth of Madness pays tribute to the work of seminal horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, with many references to his stories and themes. Its title is a play on Lovecraft's novella, At the Mountains of Madness, and insanity plays as great a role in the film as it does in Lovecraft's fiction. The opening scene depicts Trent's confinement in an asylum, with the bulk of the story told in flashback, a common technique of Lovecraft. Reference is made to Lovecraftian settings and details (such as a character who shares the name of Lovecraft's Pickman family). Sutter Cane's novels have similar titles to H.P. Lovecraft stories: The Whisperer of the Dark (The Whisperer in Darkness), The Thing in the Basement (The Thing on the Doorstep), Haunter out of Time (The Haunter of the Dark/The Shadow Out of Time), and The Hobbs End Horror (The Dunwich Horror), the latter also referencing Hobbs End underground station from Nigel Kneale's Quatermass and the Pit.
The film also can be seen as referencing Stephen King, who, like Lovecraft, writes horror fiction set in New England hamlets. In fact, the characters even directly compare King (unfavorably) to Sutter Cane within the film itself.[10][11] Linda Styles tells Trent early in the film, "You can forget about Stephen King, Cane outsells them all!"
The film's main theme, heard during the opening credits, was inspired by the Metallica song "Enter Sandman". Carpenter had originally wanted to use the song, but was unable to secure the rights and instead composed his own theme, with the help of composer Jim Lang and guitarist Dave Davies of The Kinks.[12][13]
Release
Box office
In the Mouth of Madness premiered at Germany's Fantasy FilmFest on August 10, 1994[14] and was released in the United States on February 3, 1995. For its worldwide release, the film opened at the #4 spot and grossed $3,441,807 in 1,510 theaters in its first weekend. It fell to #7 in its second week before leaving the top 10 in week three. The film ended up grossing $8,924,549 on a budget ranging from $8 million to $14 million, making it a box-office failure.[1]
Critical reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, In the Mouth of Madness holds an approval rating of 58% based on 53 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "If it fails to make the most of its intriguing premise, In the Mouth of Madness remains a decent enough diversion for horror fans and John Carpenter completists."[15] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 53 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[16]
Critics generally commended the film on its technical aspects, particularly its special effects, acting, and directing, but perceived it as being too complicated, confusing, pretentious, and underwhelming. Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars, saying that the film has an intriguing premise, but squanders it by relying on hackneyed jump scares and gore, taking the form of "a horror house movie, in which the protagonists creep along while creatures leap at them."[17]Gene Siskel gave the film the same rating,[citation needed] as did James Berardinelli, who said the film "comes close to doing something interesting but gets cold feet" and is "confusing, weird, and not very involving", comparing the film to buying an exotic sports car only to drive it slowly.[citation needed]Lisa Schwarzbaum, writing in Entertainment Weekly, gave the film a C rating, remarking that "much of it [is] bloatedly self-indulgent and a small part wicked funny", with only a smattering of successful moments.[18]
In fully positive reviews from the time period, Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it "a thinking person's horror picture that dares to be as cerebral as it is visceral".[19] John Hartl of the Seattle Times also gave the film a positive review, saying it is "a stylized collection of well-timed shockers, helped along by the contributions of its capable cast."[20]The Chicago Reader gave it three stars, calling it "a must see".[21] In a later review, Chris Stuckmann also awarded the film with an "A," noting its ambition, creativity, and originality alongside Carpenter's direction.[22] Reel Film Reviews gave the film three out of four stars.[23]
French magazine Cahiers du Cinéma listed the film as #10 on its 1995 Top 10 List.[24]
Novel adaptation
In 2025, Arcane Publishing released a novelization of In the Mouth of Madness under its imprint Echo On. Although the book is credited to the pseudonymous Sutter Cane, Echo On's chief editor Christian Francis wrote the novelization.[25][26][27]
Following the early VHS releases, a Blu-ray version of the film by New Line Cinema was released in 2013.[28] In 2016, the film was re-released on DVD by Warner Archive Collection.[29] In 2018, Shout! Factory re-released the film under its Scream Factory sub-label as a Collector's Edition Blu-ray.[30]
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