In the Mouth of Madness....with John Trent?

It should have said starring Sam Neil, instead of John Trent.

Then it would have been perfect and really made your head spin.

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Everything that happens is the result of Cane and his writing. He can make anything come true at this point (like turning the world blue and allowing the old ones through). Once his book was complete, and his power as well, he created the movie out of what actually happend (which happened because he wrote it). Just because the doctor is aware of people going insane, doesn't mean he's a film buff and knows about the movie. Who knew how quickly the movie came about, considering when trent got back the book had already been published and a movie was on the way. Once he leaves Hobbs End all bets are off. Reality makes no more sense because it is being controlled by Cane. I wouldn't really call that a plot hole...

"You and me are goin' on a car-ride to hell... and you're riding shotgun! "

[deleted]

I'll bring up the topic (I'm sorry.. I just watched the movie for the first time...)


Well.. my opinion about what's reality on the movie:

90% of the movie is "madness" from Trent...

He always was schizophrenic.. (that's why he sees Linda.. the fact that the big boss introduced her is just part of his imagination..)

Since he read the first book .. (and couldn't manage what was real and what wasn't - on the dream scene with the fat guard beating a guy ..) he lost himself into madness...

The main dialogue on the movie is (at 30 minutes on the movie - that i think is still part of his imagination..) when Trent says to Linda that Cain's books are not real.. Linda answer that they are not real on his point of view (In this moment, Treant isn't aware that he's "in the mouth of madness"..). She says that reality, at that point, shares his point of view.. and what would scary her is if reality shared Cain's point of view.. After that she says sane and insane could easily switch places if the insane would become the majority ...


The scenes on Hobb's End and of Cain getting powerful and stuff.. its all on Trent's mind.. part of his imagination trying to justify his madness...

Soo, the movie would all be his imagination and the history of how he went to the sanitarium.. And the last scenes aren't real either.. he doesn't leaves the sanitarium.. he just imagine how the world is on that evil Cain logic..

Summarizing... I read the film in this way:

**** Treant is nuts the whole time..
-(That's why he sees Linda, Cain, monsters and stuff.. - this can be proven on scenes like the music slowing down on the sanitarium.. and when he wakes after "leaving" Hobb's End.. and can be fortified by the fact that all the insane people on the sanitarium says that they aren't insane either..)

**** The movie mix real moments with Trent mind's moments
-(Real -> Like when he kills the guy on the bookstore.. ; Unreal -> Almost the entire movie.. )

**** Trent is a crazy dude who killed under the influence of his schizophrenia and for that, went into a sanitarium... a place where he has time to revive his schizophrenic history..


That's how I read the movie..

Anyway.. great movie.. makes u think about it!

(PS: Someone knows why, on the begin of the movie the sanitarium employee says that Trent's name is "John. J." ?!)

That's the brilliant thing about the "With John Trent" idea. Everyone who knows John in person WILL see this movie, because he's curious whether or not it's THIS John Trent, the one they know about, or just an actor with the same name. That's how Cain lures even more people into the "cult" and into the madness. Everyone who sees the film will go insane, so they won't be able to go like "Oh God, that's really Trent, everyone this movie is real! That's creepy".

To me that was kind of a weak ending, especially for a Lovecraft inspired film. It's like it literally was a never ending story. That's not insane it's annoying, it's looping, might as well have the movie on repeat.

I took the theatre scene at the end to mean that John Trent was really the actor who played the private eye. The private eye, we don't get to know his real name or identity. The actor who played him in the movie - John Trent - became so enmeshed in the role of the private eye that things about himself and things about the private eye's journey merged.

Or maybe there is a heavily meta thing going on where all three levels of the story - the "real" story (that of the private eye tracking down Suter Caine), the "book" story and the "movie" story all merge. Either for us as the audience or for John Trent himself. Everyone has become insane from reading the book or watching the movie - but what becomes of those who made the movie?

Watching the film, for most of it I started to think that "John Trent" was Sutter Caine - what a twist that would have been? But I am glad it got the ending it did, which is a major mind-[beep].

I don't know if you're aware of this but I've already changed things. I killed Ben Linus.
--Sayid

It's not that hard to understand.
The film is from Trent's POV as he is the storyteller, from the asylum, to the detective guy or whatever he is.
He is an insurance investigator. Trent starts reading Cain's books. He's been told 15 times that these books have a tendency to mess people's mind.
Trent starts seeing stuff, mostly weird dreams at first.
Trent becomes obsessed with Cain and his work (in order to find him at first).
Trent finds himself at Hobb's end where a bunch of crap happens. He is in the book, he is reading and empathizes with the hero. Cain is his god. Reality is distorted. Reality is what you believe real is.
That's why in the end he sees himself in the movie. And that's why we're seeing the movie through his eyes. It's not an objective shot.
Summary: Trent reads the book and gets in the book. The book becomes his own reality. That's why Cain compares In the Mouth of Madness with the Bible so many times in the film. If people believe it it's reality (paraphrasing but Cain's words).