In the Mouth of Madness

Dir. John Carpenter. 1994, 94 mins. 35mm. With Sam Neill, Jürgen Prochnow, Julie Carmen, David Warner, John Glover, Bernie Casey, Charlton Heston. In this darkly comic homage to H.P. Lovecraft’s cosmic horrors, Sam Neill plays a Quatermass-like rationalist who discovers that the world does not work the way he thought it did. Carpenter’s concluding entry in his Apocalypse Trilogy feels like a mirthless laugh in the face of the universe’s malicious surreality. As with most of Carpenter’s strongest films, In the Mouth of Madness‘s reputation has only grown over the years. And it stands as his last great film. For now. —Simon Abrams