IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS (1995)
With special guest Mary Wild
Intro, Math Club, and Debate Society (spoiler-free) 00:00-32:15
Honor Roll and Detention (spoiler-heavy) 32:16-1:07:24
Superlatives (so. many. spoilers.) 1:07:25-1:25:20
Director John Carpenter
Screenplay Michael De Luca
Featuring Frances Bay, Julie Carmen, John Glover, Charlton Heston, Sam Neill, Jürgen Prochnow, Wilhelm von Homburg, David Warner
Released February 5, 1995
Budget $8 million
Box office $9 million worldwide.
SPOILER-FREE SYNOPSIS
We begin in an asylum for the criminally insane. A man in a straitjacket is hauled into the facility and thrown into a padded cell. Visited by a psychiatrist, the man begins telling his story, while acknowledging that something awful is happening in the outside world. We flash back: renowned horror writer Sutter Cane has disappeared. Seeking to locate Cane, and collect his new novel, In the Mouth of Madness, the head of Arcane publishing, Jackson Harglow, hires crack Insurance investigator John Trent – a man with a nose for frauds and whose skepticism seemingly knows no bounds. Trent has already run into a spot of trouble – after reading a couple chapters of Cane’s latest, Cane’s agent becomes an axe-wielding maniac, crashing through the window of a local café where Trent is dining. The why, for now, is left unexplained, but as we learn, Cane’s novels have a strange, disorienting effect on its ‘less stable’ readers. Trent and Cane’s editor, Linda Styles, head to Hobb’s End, New Hampshire, where they believe Cane is living. Trent and Styles discover a place that seems almost too quaint to be real, and almost immediately, a terrible secret that upends Trent’s life as he knows it, and has major repercussions for Sutter Cane fans worldwide.
SPOILER-FREE GUEST BIO
Mary Wild is a 'Freudian Cinephile’ and pop psychoanalyst, creating content related to cinema, philosophy, and the modern cultural landscape. She is the founder of the Projections lecture series at Freud Museum London, applying psychoanalysis to film interpretation, which has been running since 2012. She teaches film at City Lit and Picturehouse Cinemas, and has produced events for London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, Picturehouse Cinemas, White Cube Gallery, and Morbid Anatomy. She also co-hosts Projections Podcast, contributes to The Evolution of Horror Podcast, and posts exclusive content on Patreon. Favorite recess snack: Kit Kat bars.
EPISODE NOTES
Music from “In the Mouth of Madness” by John Carpenter & Jim Lang.
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TRAILER
SUPERLATIVES
The Gaspar Noe Award for Most Disturbing Scene
Mary: Linda Styles’ crab walk
Eric: Meeting Mr. Pickman
Bradford: Linda Styles swallows car keys, then is punched in face by Trent
The Ellen Ripley Award for Character Who Most Deserves to Live
Mary: The poor reader who gets an axe to the head towards the end
Eric: Simon
Bradford: The paper boy
The Michael Myers Award for Character Who Most Deserves to Die
Mary: The poor reader who gets an axe to the head towards the end
Eric: Jackson Harglow
Bradford: [Abstaining]
The Ken Russell Award for Most Baroque Screen Moment
Mary: The town of Hobbs’ End
Eric: Linda Styles is seduced by Cane, who grows a creature out of his back
Bradford: The rip and the beasties beyond in the church basement
The Brad Dourif Award for Character Who Could Have Been Played by Brad Dourif
Mary: The creepy bicycle man on the night road
Eric: Jackson Harglow
Bradford: Sutter Cane
FINAL LETTER GRADE
Mary: B+
Eric: C+
Bradford: B+