In the Mouth of Madness

An insurance investigator begins discovering that the impact a horror writer’s books have on his fans is more than inspirational.

• Director:John Carpenter
• Genre:Fantasy / Horror / Mystery / Thriller
• Runtime:95 minutes

Cast

Sam Neill : John Trent
Julie Carmen : Linda Styles
Jürgen Prochnow : Sutter Cane (as Jurgen Prochnow)
David Warner : Dr. Wrenn
John Glover : Saperstein

The story follows private investigator John Trent (Sam Neill), whose specialty is insurance fraud. At the opening of the film, John has been committed to an insane asylum. After being visited by Dr. Wrenn (David Warner), who is an agent of an unidentified group, he recounts his story. After closing a case of fraud, he is meeting with his contractor to discuss the next claim, when he is attacked by a man with a fire axe. The man, who is bleeding from the eyes, asks very calmly, “Do you read Sutter Cane?” before attempting to kill John. The man is then shot by police. John is called in by Arkane Publishing, and the director Jackson Harglow (Charlton Heston) asks John to investigate the alleged disappearance of the phenomenally popular horror novelist Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow). Having vanished with his most recent novel unfinished, Cane’s publisher asks Trent to retrieve the work at stake. Trent thinks the whole thing is a publicity stunt but agrees to take the case. He is paired with Linda Styles (Julie Carmen), who represents Arkane.

After reading some of Sutter Cane’s novels, John begins to have vivid nightmares, and also encounters several readers of Cane’s, who act listless and trance-like. Styles remarks that Cane’s work has been known to affect “less stable readers,” and has caused disorientation, memory loss, and severe paranoia. Upon inspecting the covers of his books, John notices a series of intricate red lines, which assembled, form the shape of New Hampshire, and identify one town, which is alluded to be Hobb’s End, the fictional setting for many of Cane’s works. John believes the town to be real, and remote enough to not be listed on a current map.

Styles and John depart, searching for Hobb’s End. Along the way, Styles passes a young boy riding a bicycle, who she passes a second time, though his visage significantly changes. Upon seeing the bicycle rider a third time, she strikes him with the car. He gets up and walks away, astounding John and Linda. The next length of the journey takes place, and Linda notices the yellow road lines vanish. After rolling down the window and looking outside, she appears to be driving over thunderhead storm clouds. She begins to panic when she finally finds herself driving through a rustic covered bridge, and comes out right next to a sign for Hobb’s End. John, asleep for this entire time, compliments Styles for finding it. Read more

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