To put it very simply, my take is that John Trent is completely insane. Simple as that. I don't think that any of the supernatural things that happened in the film happened. He's just crazy.
It's a good film, though.
The plural of mouse is mice. The plural of goose is geese. Why is the plural of moose not meese?
So the character of Linda Styles never existed, except in John Trent's mind?
What about the riots, etc.? Did they never happen?
Was he always crazy or did he go crazy at some point in the movie? If so, when?
Don't let anyone ever make you feel like you don't deserve what you want.
He's not even a real person. His entire existence is an invention of Sutter Cane. He's only as insane as Sutter has written him to be.
Prof. Farnsworth: Oh. A lesson in not changing history from Mr. I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!
I don't know if I believe that. After all, John Trent is the central, main character, whereas Sutter Cane, although central to the story, is not the main character.
I still think that he was just insane, and perhaps reading a Sutter Cane book, that is if Cane really even existed, threw him off the deep end. It's completely within the realm of possibility. After all, schizophrenics imagine some really, REALLY bizarre things, sometimes.
The plural of mouse is mice. The plural of goose is geese. Why is the plural of moose not meese?
I don't know if I believe that. After all, John Trent is the central, main character, whereas Sutter Cane, although central to the story, is not the main character.
I still think that he was just insane, and perhaps reading a Sutter Cane book, that is if Cane really even existed, threw him off the deep end. It's completely within the realm of possibility. After all, schizophrenics imagine some really, REALLY bizarre things, sometimes.
Except that wouldn't really be much of a story, the way it's presented. Now would it? Especially the scenes where Trent doesn't feature. If it were all a schizophrenic hallucination why would other characters talk about what's going on in the world outside of his purview?
Now that's the real question, isn't it?
Is what we see as being outside of his purview truly that way?
Or, is it just another hallucination within his mind?
Just because many scenes don't include him, that doesn't mean it definitely is not happening within his mind, does it?
Think of the way a writer writes a novel. Everything that happens in that novel is within the writer's mind, yet has nothing whatsoever to do with the writer.
I know this is stretching it and delving into something else, but it's entirely possible that every single thing that happens in this film is within John Trench's mind. After all, even the things that happen out of his purview effect him in some way.
I've been reading your posts and although I like your theory, I'm more inclined to go with aeternus from the "Trent delivered the book to publishers months ago" thread who said that John is real, but is increasingly able to be manipulated by Cane. Going with your theory, how is the agent trying to stop Trent explained? Cane tells Trent that the agent had read the story and through his madness(caused by the story, of course) realized he had to stop Trent from bringing it into the real world.
I think it makes sense to believe that there's a layer of reality to John Trent. It's the power of Cane's writing(or the monsters controlling him. Cane says it turned out to always be the monsters, but we can't be sure which came first) that allows Trent to become fiction. Cane knows that someone is going to be sent after him and he knows it would be Trent(remember, originally there was going to be a publicity stunt involving Cane's disappearance) so he writes Trent into the story and further alters reality though him.
With all that said, this isn't an easy film to get a hold of, there are a lot of layers. So, there's plenty of room for a meet in the middle theory, maybe including some stuff that dolenraug wrote as well.
Well, in the end, the film is open to interpretation. I never said my take was the correct one.
The plural of mouse is mice. The plural of goose is geese. Why is the plural of moose not meese?
I've been reading your posts and although I like your theory, I'm more inclined to go with aeternus from the "Trent delivered the book to publishers months ago" thread who said that John is real, but is increasingly able to be manipulated by Cane. Going with your theory, how is the agent trying to stop Trent explained? Cane tells Trent that the agent had read the story and through his madness(caused by the story, of course) realized he had to stop Trent from bringing it into the real world.
Actually, instead of addressing each of your points, one by one, then having you refute them as impossible, once again, I will just say this...schizophrenia is a scary thing, and it can affect people's minds in ways that you can't understand.
And yes, it is possible that every single scene in this film that did not involve him could be in his mind alone. I know that you can't understand that, but it is entirely possible.
I never said that my take was fact and that I am correct, it is just my take, but make no mistake, if you think that people with schizophrenia don't have things in their head that make absolutely no sense and seem impossible, you are dead wrong. Everything that happened in this film is in the realm of possibility to be in someone's head.
AND BTW...I'm not "arguing" anything about the film. I gave my take...that's all. I never said that "this is what happens in the film and all other opinions are incorrect", though you don't seem to understand that.
Have a nice day.
The plural of mouse is mice. The plural of goose is geese. Why is the plural of moose not meese?
You have an interesting theory but I don't agree with it. My take on it is this:
Everything that happens in this movie is part of a self-aware "movie universe." Watching the film "The Mouth of Madness" itself is the vehicle that supposedly makes people crazy--as in the actual the film you as the audience just watched. The implication is that Sam Neil's character is actually entirely fictional, invented for this movie you just watched which is now going to make you go crazy. It's not clear whether he is crazy, and that's actually beside the point. The real point is that watching this movie is supposed to make you, as an audience member, go crazy, because you've been tricked into watching it.