On its 25th anniversary, we look back on Carpenter’s 90’s love letter to Lovecraft and why it’s one of the director’s best films.

“Reality’s not what it used to be.”

John Carpenter has made a number of terrifying films that explore deeply upsetting topics like a deranged serial killer or a shape-shifting alien species, but arguably the most frightening premise that he’s played with is the idea of “catching” insanity, like it’s some kind of plague. Curiously, Stephen King himself would approach a similar concept decades later via cell phones with Cell, but Carpenter provides such a crazier and better take on the mass insanity idea. One of the biggest reasons for this is that Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness addresses insanity like it’s a living, breathing thing with weight to it. It’s “that thing that offers pain and suffering beyond human understanding.”

In the Mouth of Madness explores the fluid idea that reality is a fragile thing that only is what we say it is and if “sane” were to suddenly become “insane,” all would be lost. This film tells a story where it’s villain, Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow), literally has that power, flips this exact switch, and throws reality into a blender. This idea also gets warped into the concept of how the protagonist, John Trent (Sam Neill), may simply be one of Cane’s characters and only exists because Cane wills him to be and wants to use him. That’s no crazier than any of the other things that Cane has control over and so it’s understandable that this possibility idea kind of breaks Trent’s mind and leads to the growing mass insanity that the film is so interested in.

Whether John Trent is actually a creation of Sutter Cane or not, the shots at the end where he’s in the asylum show him and his room covered with scrawled writing, as if he’s literally part of a book. Furthermore, as soon as the film starts to drag, characters begin to act in inexplicable ways, citing that Cane is making them do these things in order to maintain the audience’s interest. It’s a brilliant analysis of structure, specifically with horror films. The film’s introduction perfectly distills this when Trent gets dragged into a padded cell and screams that he’s not insane, only for the hallways of the asylum to erupt with the same pleads from other cells. If Trent’s not insane, then maybe they aren’t either. We learn that madness is all relative.

What’s also great about this flashback structure is that the film becomes largely about watching the sequence of events that break Trent’s brain. Each new encounter he has with someone who’s “infected” rattles and effects him just a little bit more and Neill shows the cracks that start to form in Trent. It also makes each strange encounter become increasingly tense. You worry over Trent’s mental state because you know a breakdown happens. Just under ten minutes are spent on this introduction before the clock turns back and it’s enough to perfectly pique your curiosity without going too far or overstaying its welcome. Trent’s story becomes progressively trippy, non-linear, and riddled with hallucinations. This is easily Sam Neill’s best performance. He hints at his range during this unhinged introduction, but his descent during the course of the movie is even more impressive.

It’s important to recognize that In the Mouth of Madness is also considered to be the end of Carpenter’s unofficial “Apocalypse Trilogy,” which includes The Thing and Prince of Darkness. In the Mouth of Madness certainly goes all out and is more aggressive with this theme than the previous two efforts. There’s a reason this is the “conclusion” of Carpenter’s fascination with the end of the world. It’s just such a satisfying film that clips along at a fast pace and each new set piece gets better and pushes the premise into deeper insanity. It’s hard to begrudge The Thing, but one could make the case that In the Mouth of Madness is Carpenter’s best and most entertaining film of the trilogy. It’s still from a time period where Carpenter’s a master of his trade.

The film’s Sutter Cane feels like a Stephen King analogue, but he’s probably more likely an H.P. Lovecraft surrogate. Even the film itself feels more in-line with Lovecraft’s oeuvre as opposed to King’s type of horror. The structure where the film begins with Trent’s confinement to a mental asylum and then plays out through flashback is also a popular structural device for Lovecraft. The occasions in the film in which passages from Cane’s books are read aloud all essentially pull direct quotations from H.P. Lovecraft short stories. Trent’s dramatic monologue about how the black church being is “the seat of an evil older than mankind and wider than the known universe” is right out of “The Haunter of the Dark.” The six titles of Sutter Cane novels that are shown are also all homages to Lovecraft stories and even the film’s title itself is a riff on Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness.”

These aren’t the only Lovecraft references throughout the film (Cthulu gets recognized!), so clearly Carpenter wants his apocalypse to have a bit of a cosmic Old One evil kind of vibe. With how the Old God character has become so open to the public, you could even argue that this is Carpenter’s contribution to the larger Cthulu mythos. This film’s script comes from Michael De Luca (Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, The Lawnmower Man) and although De Luca initially offered the script to Carpenter, he at first passed and Mary Lambert and Tony Randel were in the running before Carpenter got back on board.

The broad strokes of the film see John Trent, an insurance agent, go out to locate a missing horror author, but things get considerably crazier once Trent finally tracks down Sutter Cane. Trent learns that Cane’s books are a dangerous conduit for the Old Ones, who want to consume and take over humanity after the population has been turned into insane, helpless wrecks courtesy of Cane’s books, which will light this spark. The first example of this “insanity” virus hits so casually during the beginning of the film and more than anything it reminds me of the exceptional surprise attack by Doctor Octopus on Peter Parker in the street-side café in Spider-Man 2. Carpenter pulls off an extremely similar sequence a decade earlier that conjures the same amount of fear and shows you that danger can strike at any moment, even in scenes that seem safe and expository.

Another well done sequence early on shows a cop beating up a pedestrian, yet the audience doesn’t get to learn if this guy is controlled by Cane, or just a corrupt cop in an already flawed world. Cane is fundamentally wrong, but there is some solace in how his plan to wipe the slate clean for the Old Ones will hopefully lead to a less broken world the next time around. The film chronicles the voyage of insanity from the Old Ones, to Sutter Cane, to his literature, to the universe, and then back to the Old Ones. This does make it poetically cyclical in a way, especially when it implies that the Old Ones will be Cane’s new publishers.

Cane’s books begin to form a strange reputation for planting seeds of madness in the psyches of “less stable readers,” and Trent b encounters the various types of these insane individuals, which range from brief symptoms to mobs of mass murder that break out. Additionally, each of Cane’s books seem to grow in power, where it gets to the point that his final book, “In the Mouth of Madness,” is so powerful that there’s no fighting the fact that it will make you go mad. The book’s tagline is even, “You’ll go mad with fear.” Trent gives it a go, but as noble as this is, he fails accordingly. One could say his obsession and desire to read Cane’s book in the first place is already a sign of insanity and just a result of how far Cane has already pushed him. The film poignantly states that “God’s not supposed to be a horror book writer.” It also poses the question of “when does fiction become religion?” and people openly treat Sutter Cane like a prophet even before he’s warping reality to his whims like an actual God. His books are even advertised on coffee mugs. Stephen King is extremely popular, but I can’t ever imagine a mug with “STEPHEN KING’S DOCTOR SLEEP” printed on it. Sutter Cane is on a whole other level.

It still makes me laugh that the opening credits for the film just show the work sequence of how a printing press operates, but passionate rock music blares over all of it as if it’s the most hardcore thing in the world. Of course, these are copies of Sutter Cane’s latest apocalypse-causing novel that are being printed, which in a way is extremely hardcore. The audience just doesn’t know it yet. This rock approach is rampant for most of Carpenter’s later works, but it largely feels out of place here. However, the old-timey romantic comedy vibe of the road trip that John Trent and Linda Styles (Julie Carmen) find themselves on surprisingly works and tonally doesn’t throw the film off course. The film also really effectively builds the feeling of isolation as John and Linda—and then eventually just John—are up against huge mobs of people. Linda’s entire existence is later robbed from her by Cane and Trent is forced to go it alone. The cyclical, labyrinthine nature of the film is staggering and Cane’s slow evolution into a literal ruler of the universe is handled in a terrifying way.

In the Mouth of Madness goes out on a deliciously nihilistic epilogue, which makes sure the film concludes with a bang. Cane’s book is set to take over the world and when the valid question of “What about the non-readers?” is addressed, Trent is told that a movie is already on the way. Now not even readers are susceptible to Cane’s magic. Furthermore, it posits that the movie that you, the viewer, has just watched is this very vehicle that will drive you insane. It’s The Ring before The Ring. The final shots where Trent wanders in isolation really hammer in the apocalypse feeling. Finally, the concluding sequence where Trent watches himself in Cane’s movie is so insanely perfect. The editing around the phrase “reality” continues to pick apart Trent’s brain and his final breaking point is better than Max Cady’s movie theater eruption in Scorsese’s Cape Fear. This really goes for the jugular and leaves Trent in utter Hell.

During this meta moment where Trent watches himself in the movie, the poster that’s in the theater has all of the correct credits for Carpenter’s In The Mouth of Madness and addresses itself as such, however, the leads’ names are changed to John Trent, Linda Sykes, and Jackson Harglow. It’s an amazing little touch, but it’s details like these that all accentuate just how much fun this movie is. It feels like everyone is having such a blast and there’s such a palpable sense of grandiosity that builds with each new scene.

Aesthetically, this may also be Carpenter’s best looking film. Everything is so well composed and some of the wide shots of exterior locations with full, clear skies are just so freaking cinematic. The overhead shots that occur throughout the hotel were apparently Sam Neill’s idea, drawing inspiration from his work as a documentary director in New Zealand. It’s such an effective, creepy angle. There’s also a shot of a church that has a weird reputation where it’s presumed to be a matte painting due to how gorgeous it is. Carpenter insists that it’s no painting and that it’s actually a shot of a Russian Orthodox church that they found. It’s just so fucking gorgeous that you can understand the skepticism.

Carpenter especially knocks it out of the park with the official introduction of Sutter Cane, which is sublime and looks like the stuff of a classic Universal monster movie. It’s really exceptional and all of the horrific psychic visions that Cane causes in people are also expertly edited for maximum creepiness. Another effective scare comes out of the whole car freak out sequence with Linda, which is almost better than everything out of Carpenter’s Christine. It’s such an effective sequence that grows out of something so simple. Another similar example is the “It’s Mommy’s Day” scene, which is only a few seconds long, but everything about it—the prosthetics, the music, the dialogue—is immensely unsettling.

Carpenter thinks outside of the box with a number of these creepy set pieces. Mrs. Pickman’s creature is done through use of miniatures, which again speaks to the director’s practical creativity. It was a creature he originally wanted to do through prosthetics and a man in suit, but when it wasn’t effective enough, he shifted directions. Speaking more to Carpenter’s uncanny necessity to do things practically, the shot where Linda exits the car with her head spinning around is actually performed by a contortionist who wears an upside down prosthetic mask, but they actually do it, which is why it looks so weird. Perhaps one of the best creations from Carpenter’s entire career is the impressive “Wall of Monsters” sequence where Trent is chased by otherworldly creatures.

The many monsters that appear here are an amazing mix of animatronics, man in suit costumes, and a literal full-sized “wall” of monsters,” which required over thirty people to operate in order to bring to life. The effects work for the film was a heavy group effort from KNB EFX Group, with Robert Kurtzman, Howard Berger, and Greg Nicotero responsible for special makeup effects, like sculpting, but the entire team was responsible for the other aspects necessary for bringing the comprehensive production to life. These Lovecraftian monsters are nearly on the same level as The Thing. They’re so great and so tentacle-heavy.

There are also plenty of occasions where Carpenter uses the filmmaking itself to frighten the audience. That scene where Trent wakes up from a dream, only for the movie to fake you out and have him wake up from another dream is a tactic that’s also done in Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness. It may be a little more effective there, but it doesn’t rob this moment of its impact. Carpenter also illustrates Sutter Cane’s power in a truly bizarre way when he announces that his favorite color is blue and then any time in the movie that there’s a close up an actor’s face, they’ll have blue eyes, implying Cane has worked his magic. It’s a bonkers, but kind of brilliant, idea. The fact that the music that plagues Trent in the mental institution is The Carpenters also feels like a weird joke on Carpenter’s part, but one that shows the sliding scale of sanity. It’s a detail that almost makes you feel as if you’ve gone insane.

During the 1990s Carpenter was no stranger to frustrations and setbacks from the studio. Both he and fellow producer (and wife), Sandy King, faced continual push back and aggravations from New Line Cinema. Their budget was cut from close to $15 million to $8 million, which led to a major change to a set piece set during the film’s third act where literally the whole town was supposed to be swallowed up into Cane’s book. The compromise that Michael De Luca comes up with is the effect where Sutter Cane rips himself as if he’s made from paper. It’s great, but the original would have been even crazier and really speak to Carpenter’s themes of collective madness and cap out his Apocalypse Trilogy on a big note. On the bright side, the tear effects during the final act are easily the most iconic and thematically resonant images from the whole film.

In the Mouth of Madness didn’t amount to a huge success, but it’s budget of $8 million made a minor profit with a domestic gross of nearly $9 million. The film also didn’t critically set the world on fire, as it sits at a middling high 40%/low 50% on Rotten Tomatoes, but honestly, it’s got infinite appeal and barely feels dated 25 years later (the soundtrack is maybe the only weak link that seriously feels ‘90s). In the Mouth of Madness has only gone on to find a more passionate fan base since its debut and factors like Shout! Factory’s Blu-Ray release of the film have only made Carpenter’s trippy picture more accessible. Whether you’ve watched the film countless times or have never checked out this chapter from John Carpenter’s career, now’s a great time to kick back and relax with some soothing Sutter Cane.

Note: A previous version of this article only highlighted Greg Nicotero’s contributions to the film’s effects work, when in fact it was an extensive group effort by Robert Kurtzman, Greg Nicotero, Howard Berger, and their team at KNB EFX Group.