MovieChat Forums > In the Mouth of Madness (1995) Discussion > WOW this movie was impressive

WOW this movie was impressive

posted 8 years ago by ehheSpeepe
10 replies | jump to latest

seriously deserves more praise and exposure than it seems to get, this was the most effectively lovecraftian film I've ever seen and the dark humor element in conjunction with the thought-provoking cosmic themes was all implemented all but flawlessly, not to mention damned good performances/casting on the parts of Sam Neill and the guy who played Cane. And God what a perfect ending. Seriously was blown away by this, was legit shocked to see the 51% on Rotten Tomatoes, f#cking ridiculous imo

I gave this thing a 9/10

[–] Navaros 8 years ago

This movie pretty much completely falls apart in its last third or so. That last third along with the ending itself is garbage. And the main actress was horrible.

[–] ehheSpeepe 8 years ago

clearly I disagree and you misunderstood the point of this topic

make your own bud mmk?

[–] PreachCaleb 8 years ago

I don't see how it falls apart. An author's word influencing the world taken to its most extreme conclusion. Eldrich abominations tearing through the fabric of reality. It's right out of Lovecraft.

It was a great ending.

You are sin.

[–] YRLY59E 8 years ago

I'm firmly convinced Styles is deliberately acted in that fashion. You're basically watching what Sutter Cane wrote. In such case he is a hack job horror writer. Those books typically contain a mostly unnecessary character to introduce sexual tension, they're usually shallow and under developed. That's all Styles is and hence the character.

[–] surgecess 8 years ago

Well said, anyone that gives Mouth Of Madness a 9 out of 10 is my type of person!

__________

"Angels to some, demons to others..... Now you must come with us!"

[–] Edward_de_Vere 8 years ago

I found this movie very frustrating, because it had some excellent material mixed with some terrible material.

Nowhere was this more obvious than in the casting and acting. Sam Neill did a good job (his delivery of lines like "Not the Carpenters too!" was among the highlights of the movie), and there were good performances from Jurgen Prochnow (Cane) as well as from David Warner in his cameo.

On the other hand, there was the acting disaster of Julie Carmen as Linda Styles. Her tone and inflection in just about every scene was completely out of place. For example, when she dismisses Trent's claim of having found Hobbs End on a map, she says "So you're saying he went someplace fictional" not with sarcasm or contempt, but with fascination. We get the same inappropriate facial expressions and tone in just about every scene that she's in.

If a more competent lead actress had been cast, my rating of this film would probably go up twofold, since it had so many good things going for it otherwise (the Lovecraft homages, some genuinely disturbing scenes, and as you say, the ending).

[–] YRLY59E 8 years ago

See my post about this, I believe her acting is intentionally this way. You have to look at her character as the unnecessary female love interest in a horror book. Notice how her character never gives her back story? What you're seeing is the portrayal of her as Cane is writing her.

[–] Edward_de_Vere 8 years ago

I'm firmly convinced Styles is deliberately acted in that fashion. You're basically watching what Sutter Cane wrote. In such case he is a hack job horror writer. Those books typically contain a mostly unnecessary character to introduce sexual tension, they're usually shallow and under developed. That's all Styles is and hence the character.

Interesting take, but there's a big difference between a shallow, underdeveloped character with no back story and bad acting. We get no back story for many of the other characters either, but the actors playing them do just fine.

Furthermore, Cane is apparently better than a hack writer, he's a stand-in for H.P. Lovecraft (some of the lines from his book that Styles reads are taken verbatim from Lovecraft). Trent even says that the books are far better written than you'd expect and have an original writing style.

So I think that the simplest explanation is the correct one: Julie Carmen just can't act worth a damn.

[–] apriloish 8 years ago

She wasnt bad in fright night 2 as for the film its really good its not great but its really good This film is made to were you can either see it as its happening how its happening or its all in sams head because after all hes the one telling the story an the film is about the effects of fiction on unstable people so if one wants the entire film is in the mans head or we the audience have been tricked into watching the sutter kane movie at the end because what we saw was the movie an so we seeing the same film in the theater at the end will also go insane like in the film they state the movie will come out meaning we have watched it an now were going to go crazy lol great ideas lol

[–] lordofthelake (147) 7 years ago

I love this movie. I wish there were more effective and creepy Lovecraftian films.