Another day, another horror flick. Just 2 days left now. But we can’t stop the ritual just yet. This Guy must finish his list of films if the Old Ones are to be appeased. Strap in tight, because we’re in the final stretch now, and things can get a little spooky.

This Guy’s got a taste for the classics of horror. And it doesn’t get much more classic than Lovecraft himself. Now, it might be a bit hard to adapt the indescribable to film, but that doesn’t mean you don’t try. So, tonight This Guy’s gonna be watching the best college try anyone in Hollywood’s ever given HP Lovecraft’s unique imagination. . .

John Carpenter’s In The Mouth Of Madness

In The Mouth Of Madness rounds out John Carpenter’s “Apocalypse Trilogy” that begins with The Thing, followed by Prince Of Darkness. All 3 films are starkly different in tone, but all with that unmistakable Carpenter flair. With a soft spot for Lovecraftian terror, Mouth Of Madness holds a special place in his heart.

“Reality is not what it used to be.”

The film follows John Trent, an insurance investigator brought on to inspect a claim by a major publishing house when their top author, Sutter Cane goes missing. Trent suspects a publicity stunt, but Cane’s works are not without their own strange history. His books cause paranoia, insomnia, and even psychotic episodes in some readers. And when Trent goes searching, he finds Cane, alive and well, in a fictional town from one of his own stories. As the town descends into chaos, Trent has to try to escape before Cane’s latest work can drive the world absolutely mad, and release an ancient evil from its slumber.

The acting is a bit wooden, and the effects are oddly sloppy for a Carpenter flick, but all in all, In The Mouth Of Madness is just a ton of fun. The story is straight up cosmic strangeness. It’s a movie about a man, within a town, that’s within a book, being told in flashback, preceding a movie within a movie. It’s so meta it hurts.

So, 2 days to Halloween, and if you’re ready to just give in, and let the madness take you, This Guy’s watching In The Mouth Of Madness. . . do you read Sutter Cane?