Tag: horror

John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness (1995) represents one of the last horror movies by the acclaimed director, who only worked on five more feature films of various genres up until the current day. The film itself, though barely profitable (IMDB), would go on to gather critical and cult praise, including being considered one of the top films of its year by the Cahier du Cinema (Johnson). The film follows the investigation by John Trent (Sam Neill) into the disappearance of the reclusive horror writer Sutter Kane (Jurgen Prochnow), who is the most widely published and read author on the planet. Kane’s publishing company is expecting his final book, and sends Trent and Kane’s editor Linda Styles (Julie Carmen) to attempt to find the whereabouts of the writer. When Trent finds a map that leads to the fictional town represented in Kane’s writings, he believes that his investigation is a part of an elaborate scam by the publishing company. After driving to the location, his stay in the town of “Hobb’s End” becomes increasingly weird, as events and characters from Kane’s work begin to present themselves as reality. After escaping the fictional world of Kane’s writing, Trent hopes to find himself back himself back in the familiar surroundings of New York City, only to learn that the horrific power in Kane’s writing has begun to infect the reality of the world. As a horror film, In the Mouth of Madness expresses several paradoxes throughout its duration. While this process takes place within the film’s story as monsters assert themselves into the reality of the main characters, it also is represented through the use of conflicting narrative spaces within the film’s diegesis. A noticeable visual pattern signals a shift in setting as characters shift from one narrative space to another. The narrative space of the film becomes increasingly abstract and porous, as characters shift between these spaces, sometimes without their own knowledge or consent. This transference comes to a climax as Trent is seen running on an abstract bridge away from the fictional-turn-real horrors of Kane’s writing. As exemplified through an examination of these transitions and abstract spaces, In the Mouth of Madness’s use of paradoxes and their tensions within its diegesis creates a sense of disorientation for the audience through its narrative immersion.