Earlier in the week I watched "Quatermass and the Pit" (see my previous review) and the name "Hobbs' End" stuck in my head. I was sure I'd heard it before. A quick google later and I realised I'd heard it mentioned in "In the Mouth of Madness" by John Carpenter. It's been ages since I'd seen it - about 15 years - so time for a revisit. "Hob", with or without the second "b" is an old folk name for the Devil. He who casts no shadow. The one who walks backwards. Old Nick. You get the picture..this guy's got many names. He also appears in quite a few films which may explain why Hobb's End does too. This is the ...  Read the complete review

I'm not really a fan of John Carpenter's movies although I do tend to watch most of them in the hope that one day he may stop spinning out trash for cash and return to the times when he gave us Halloween and the excellent remake of the sci-fi classic The Thing. In reality though, it doesn't look like he is going to and is more content to give us nonsense with his name attached and as many references to himself as possible within the running length. Shame, but there ya go, Wes Craven has taken a mooch down the same road of course leaving the horror genre somewhat devoid of decent directorial talent. If you take a wander back into the back catalogues of either .  Read the complete review

A very underrated good film from John Carpenter, who has been on a downwades slide every since Halloween, mind you he has made some very good films such as The Thing and Assault on Precinct 13. In the Mouth of Madness is one of his good films which is strange because its quite new, In Carpenter we have a director which Hollywood spoiled, He was good in his low budget Indie films but in trying to break into Hollywood his level of film making declined. Here he seems to return to form giving us a horror/thriller with lots of twiests and turns and you never quite nknow what is going on. The story follows a very succesful Insurance Investigator Trent(played very well ...  Read the complete review

Imagine a horror novel coming out that was such powerful reading that it drove everyone who read it violently insane. That is the premise for IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS: As the world awaits the latest novel by bestselling horror writer Sutter Kane (do those initials remind you of a real-life bestselling horror writer?), an investigator (played by Sam Neill) is hired by Kane's publisher to track him down and deliver the final manuscript for publication. However when he finds Kane, he discovers that the author's writing is now being guided by an evil force. This is a cracking horror movie, not least because it creates a world entirely constructed from ...  Read the complete review

In The Mouth Of Madness was one of the less successful horror films to be directed by John Carpenter and was released in the mid-nineties to mixed critical reviews. Featuring Sam Neil in the lead role, the film borrrows heavily from H.P.Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos stories and is heavily influenced by many of the ideas and themes that first attracted Carpenter to the horror genre in the first place! John Trent is an Insurance Investigator who is attacked by a crazed fan of horror writer, Sutter Crane with a fire ax whilst eating in a restaurant. Shortly afterwards, he is hired by Crane's Publishers to find the author who has disappeared from all contact and is ...  Read the complete review