Horror Master John Carpenter knows you read Sutter Cane and is once again bringing some In the Mouth of Madness movie magic to this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, kicking off today.
Carpenter revealed on Twitter this morning that the Lovecraftian entity dubbed “Meatball,” seen in the film’s climax among a throng of toothy, tentacled beasts, will take up residence at Storm King Comics’ exhibition booth for the con’s duration.
The creature was designed and built by Knb Efx Group under Greg Nicotero for the final entry in Carpenter’s Apocalypse trilogy, which also includes The Thing and Prince of Darkness. “Meatball” is one of many Lovecraftian denizens created for the eighteen-foot Wall of Monsters seen in the film’s climax, chasing down the protagonist in an attempt to invade our world.
If you are at Sdcc this year, be sure to stop by booth 1935 and visit Meatball...
Carpenter revealed on Twitter this morning that the Lovecraftian entity dubbed “Meatball,” seen in the film’s climax among a throng of toothy, tentacled beasts, will take up residence at Storm King Comics’ exhibition booth for the con’s duration.
The creature was designed and built by Knb Efx Group under Greg Nicotero for the final entry in Carpenter’s Apocalypse trilogy, which also includes The Thing and Prince of Darkness. “Meatball” is one of many Lovecraftian denizens created for the eighteen-foot Wall of Monsters seen in the film’s climax, chasing down the protagonist in an attempt to invade our world.
If you are at Sdcc this year, be sure to stop by booth 1935 and visit Meatball...
- 7/20/2023
- by Meagan Navarro
- bloody-disgusting.com
John Carpenter planned "Halloween" to be an anthology series, but the relative failure of "Halloween III: Season of the Witch" put the kibosh on those plans. Instead, the series reintroduced classic antagonist Michael Myers, Carpenter's involvement lapsed until 2018's "Halloween," and "Season of the Witch" had to settle for being a cult classic.
However, Carpenter did get to create a different type of film series: a thematic one. His so-called "Apocalypse trilogy" is made up of "The Thing," "Prince of Darkness," and "In The Mouth of Darkness," three films that were released across more than a decade, hitting theaters in 1982, 1987, and 1994, respectively. Despite no overt story links between them, they each depict the end of the world, wrought by a force much greater and terrifying than humanity.
In a 2022 interview with Vulture, Carpenter recalls how this loose trilogy was not something he planned, but instead a career arc that happened...
However, Carpenter did get to create a different type of film series: a thematic one. His so-called "Apocalypse trilogy" is made up of "The Thing," "Prince of Darkness," and "In The Mouth of Darkness," three films that were released across more than a decade, hitting theaters in 1982, 1987, and 1994, respectively. Despite no overt story links between them, they each depict the end of the world, wrought by a force much greater and terrifying than humanity.
In a 2022 interview with Vulture, Carpenter recalls how this loose trilogy was not something he planned, but instead a career arc that happened...
- 10/31/2022
- by Devin Meenan
- Slash Film
Average fans of A Christmas Story likely don’t know that director Bob Clark had once made creepy horror pictures with Alan Ormsby, but this independent shock effort of the early ’70s still casts a spell of dread. Although Vietnam is never mentioned, the war’s shadow strikes deep into the heart of a small-town family. John Marley and Lynn Carlin lead a fine cast.
Deathdream
Blu-ray + DVD
Blue Underground
1974 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 88 min. / Dead of Night, The
Night Andy Came Home, Night Walk, The Veteran, Whispers / Street Date November 28, 2017 /
Starring: John Marley, Lynn Carlin, Richard Backus, Henderson Forsythe,
Anya Ormsby, Jane Daly, Michael Mazes.
Cinematography: Jack McGowan
Film Editor: Ronald Sinclair
Original Music: Carl Zittrer
Written by Alan Ormsby
Produced by Bob Clark, Peter James, John Trent
Directed by Bob Clark
This gem comes back every ten years in an improved transfer. Bob Clark and Alan Ormsby’s Canadian-financed...
Deathdream
Blu-ray + DVD
Blue Underground
1974 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 88 min. / Dead of Night, The
Night Andy Came Home, Night Walk, The Veteran, Whispers / Street Date November 28, 2017 /
Starring: John Marley, Lynn Carlin, Richard Backus, Henderson Forsythe,
Anya Ormsby, Jane Daly, Michael Mazes.
Cinematography: Jack McGowan
Film Editor: Ronald Sinclair
Original Music: Carl Zittrer
Written by Alan Ormsby
Produced by Bob Clark, Peter James, John Trent
Directed by Bob Clark
This gem comes back every ten years in an improved transfer. Bob Clark and Alan Ormsby’s Canadian-financed...
- 12/5/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
“Sometimes it’s fun to do something a little darker.”
It’s John Carpenter’s birthday this week, so of course we gave a listen to one of the few commentary tracks he’s done that we haven’t covered yet. (And now we know why.)
In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
Commentator: John Carpenter (director), Gary B. Kibbe (cinematographer)
1. Carpenter himself refers to this as the third film in his unofficial “Apocalypse Trilogy” which also includes The Thing and Prince of Darkness.
2. The opening credits sequence was filmed by the second-unit at a printing press in Toronto, Canada.
3. The asylum exterior/main hall is actually a water reclamation plant off Lake Ontario, while the basement cells were built on a set.
4. Sam Neill, who plays John Trent, was cut by broken glass in the scene where his cell door window is shattered. “He wasn’t too happy about it.”
5. Neill is apparently “the world’s biggest fan...
It’s John Carpenter’s birthday this week, so of course we gave a listen to one of the few commentary tracks he’s done that we haven’t covered yet. (And now we know why.)
In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
Commentator: John Carpenter (director), Gary B. Kibbe (cinematographer)
1. Carpenter himself refers to this as the third film in his unofficial “Apocalypse Trilogy” which also includes The Thing and Prince of Darkness.
2. The opening credits sequence was filmed by the second-unit at a printing press in Toronto, Canada.
3. The asylum exterior/main hall is actually a water reclamation plant off Lake Ontario, while the basement cells were built on a set.
4. Sam Neill, who plays John Trent, was cut by broken glass in the scene where his cell door window is shattered. “He wasn’t too happy about it.”
5. Neill is apparently “the world’s biggest fan...
- 1/18/2017
- by Rob Hunter
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Part of our continuing partnership with the online film journal cléo, which guest programs a film to watch on Mubi in the United States. In conjunction, we'll be hosting an exclusive article by one of their contributors. This month Mallory Andrews writes on Cecil B. DeMille's Joan the Woman (1916), now showing through December 15, 2015.It’s a bit of a shame that Cecil B. DeMille’s two-hour 1916 silent film will likely always be overshadowed by Carl Theodor Dreyer’s indelible The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928). The universal praise for Dreyer’s intimate take on La Pucelle is well-earned and full of images that remain some of the most moving uses of close-ups in cinema. By contrast, Joan the Woman (being a typical DeMille joint) is concerned more with epic, operatic imagery. The climactic Battle of Orleans is teeming with detail, an elaborate scope that pushes at the boundaries of the square Academy ratio frame,...
- 11/16/2015
- by Mallory Andrews
- MUBI
Special Mention: C’est arrivé près de chez vous (Man Bites Dog)
Written by André Bonzel, Benoît Poelvoorde, Rémy Belvaux and Vincent Tavier
Directed by André Bonzel and Benoît Poelvoorde
France, 1992
Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, and Benoît Poelvoorde set out to make their first feature film with little resources and little money. In the tradition of filmmakers who can’t afford much film stock, the trio settled for a faux-documentary-style approach – the result is a high-concept satire of media violence that would spoof documentaries by following around a fictitious sociopath named Ben as he exercises his lethal craft. While the cinematic tradition of presenting villains as suave, charming, attractive, and intelligent individuals is nothing new, Man Bites Dog was still ahead of its time. Much like the great Hitchcockian villains such as Joseph Cotten in Shadow of a Doubt, Ben is a man of action and ideas. He expounds on art,...
Written by André Bonzel, Benoît Poelvoorde, Rémy Belvaux and Vincent Tavier
Directed by André Bonzel and Benoît Poelvoorde
France, 1992
Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, and Benoît Poelvoorde set out to make their first feature film with little resources and little money. In the tradition of filmmakers who can’t afford much film stock, the trio settled for a faux-documentary-style approach – the result is a high-concept satire of media violence that would spoof documentaries by following around a fictitious sociopath named Ben as he exercises his lethal craft. While the cinematic tradition of presenting villains as suave, charming, attractive, and intelligent individuals is nothing new, Man Bites Dog was still ahead of its time. Much like the great Hitchcockian villains such as Joseph Cotten in Shadow of a Doubt, Ben is a man of action and ideas. He expounds on art,...
- 10/26/2015
- by Ricky Fernandes
- SoundOnSight
In a padded cell adorned with crudely drawn crosses resides John Trent. Trent has gone so far as to not only decorate his new insane asylum home with crosses but himself as well — they run up and down his mental patient uniform and dance across his very face. Outside the asylum, the world is going to hell, and John Trent knows it. When the kindly Dr. Wrenn comes to talk with Trent, Trent tells him the cold hard truth: “Every species can smell its own extinction.”
Thus begins In the Mouth of Madness, the third and final film in director John Carpenter’s “Apocalypse Trilogy.” The trilogy contained his films The Thing, Prince of Darkness, and this film, released in 1995. The three movies are, according to Carpenter, “in one way or another, about the end of things, about the end of everything, the world we know, but in different ways.
Thus begins In the Mouth of Madness, the third and final film in director John Carpenter’s “Apocalypse Trilogy.” The trilogy contained his films The Thing, Prince of Darkness, and this film, released in 1995. The three movies are, according to Carpenter, “in one way or another, about the end of things, about the end of everything, the world we know, but in different ways.
- 10/22/2015
- by Chris Evangelista
- SoundOnSight
You love the horror, suspense thriller, action and science fiction films that make up the world of Canadian cult cinema affectionately known as Canuxploitation.
You’ve watched the entire David Cronenberg genre filmography (if not, please do so now as The Brood, Scanners and The Fly are three of the greatest horror films ever made).
You’ve seen Black Christmas and The Changeling and watched a slasher-ific marathon of Prom Night, Terror Train, Happy Birthday to Me and My Bloody Valentine.
You caught up with Cube, the Ginger Snaps series, Splice, Hobo with a Shotgun and WolfCop all while keeping close tabs on the works of Astron-6.
Yet your hunger for Canadian genre film productions and co-productions cannot be satiated.
To aid you in your deeper exploration of the field, following is a chronological look at a number of Canadian genre films that simply don’t get enough attention.
****
The Groundstar Conspiracy...
You’ve watched the entire David Cronenberg genre filmography (if not, please do so now as The Brood, Scanners and The Fly are three of the greatest horror films ever made).
You’ve seen Black Christmas and The Changeling and watched a slasher-ific marathon of Prom Night, Terror Train, Happy Birthday to Me and My Bloody Valentine.
You caught up with Cube, the Ginger Snaps series, Splice, Hobo with a Shotgun and WolfCop all while keeping close tabs on the works of Astron-6.
Yet your hunger for Canadian genre film productions and co-productions cannot be satiated.
To aid you in your deeper exploration of the field, following is a chronological look at a number of Canadian genre films that simply don’t get enough attention.
****
The Groundstar Conspiracy...
- 4/21/2015
- by Terek Puckett
- SoundOnSight
By Darren Allison
Following the break-up of Emerson, Lake and Palmer at the end of the 1970s, Keith Emerson ventured into the world of film soundtrack composition with his score for Italian director Dario Aregento’s horror film Inferno in 1980. This, in turn, led to Emerson being commissioned to compose and perform the music for the Sylvester Stallone film Nighthawks in 1981. From here a succession of film scores were to follow for directors in Italy, Japan and the United States. At the Movies gathers together Emerson’s music for seven movies including Nighthawks, Best Revenge, Inferno, La Chiesa (The Church), "Muderock, Harmagedon and Godzilla Final Wars.
Disc One (Us Movies) contains 2 full soundtracks. Firstly, there is Nighthawks (1981) an enjoyable cop thriller from Sylvester Stallone. The movie co-starred Billy Dee Williams as Stallone’s partner, Lindsey Wagner (of TVs Bionic Woman fame) as the love interest and Rutger Hauer as terrorist Heymar Reinhardt.
Following the break-up of Emerson, Lake and Palmer at the end of the 1970s, Keith Emerson ventured into the world of film soundtrack composition with his score for Italian director Dario Aregento’s horror film Inferno in 1980. This, in turn, led to Emerson being commissioned to compose and perform the music for the Sylvester Stallone film Nighthawks in 1981. From here a succession of film scores were to follow for directors in Italy, Japan and the United States. At the Movies gathers together Emerson’s music for seven movies including Nighthawks, Best Revenge, Inferno, La Chiesa (The Church), "Muderock, Harmagedon and Godzilla Final Wars.
Disc One (Us Movies) contains 2 full soundtracks. Firstly, there is Nighthawks (1981) an enjoyable cop thriller from Sylvester Stallone. The movie co-starred Billy Dee Williams as Stallone’s partner, Lindsey Wagner (of TVs Bionic Woman fame) as the love interest and Rutger Hauer as terrorist Heymar Reinhardt.
- 8/13/2014
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Deep sleep is shattered by the sound of inhuman screaming. The aggressive chords of The Sword's "Freya" blast from hidden speakers throughout the camp. The usually calm night air of Griffith Park is total chaos. You know that moment from In the Mouth of Madness where Sam Neill's John Trent hears all hell breaking loose in the outside world from the confines of his cell in the psychiatric clinic? That's what's happening. I'm totally groggy, having just fallen asleep perhaps an hour ago. At least I think it's an hour ago, I'm not quite sure. All I know is that I was out cold, exhausted by the evening's events. And now a friggin' Cthulhu creature - tentacles cascading off of its face - is crashing through my tent, having unzipped the flap with its claw (or tentacle or whatever it calls a "hand").
The post The Great Horror Campout Review – Ghouls,...
The post The Great Horror Campout Review – Ghouls,...
- 6/7/2014
- by Ryan Turek
- shocktillyoudrop.com
Living in a small town can be a drag. Everyone knows everyone else’s business, there isn’t much room for growth, and there’s usually nothing exciting going on. But before you decide to feel sorry for yourself and your existence in a miserable town, just think that things could be worse... a lot worse. In the horror genre, there are places where no one dreams of going; places where your dreams and life will be destroyed. Let's take a look at some of the worst towns to visit in horror movies – towns that will surely make you grateful for your own uneventful living situation. Santa Mira, California (Halloween III: Season of the Witch) When the suave Dr. Challis and his lady love, Ellie, enter the small factory town of Santa Mira, they immediately sense that something strange is going on in the quaint town. There to investigate the...
- 3/11/2014
- by Amanda Tullos
- FEARnet
It’s that wonderful, frightful, cool and creepy time of year again, when everything including the leaves on the trees are dying and our taste buds are craving sugary sweets and pies made from the guts of our jack-o-lanterns. It’s October, which means Halloween is nearly upon us! Get you costumes completed, your home haunts constructed and your candy collected for trick’r treaters, because you have to make time to watch some of the scariest movies this time of year.
In an effort to assist you in your cinematic scare-fest, we’ve come up with a list of the scariest movies to watch on Halloween… with one caveat. We have excluded virtually all “slasher” flicks. Why? Well, let’s just say we all know them, we all love them on some level, but really… don’t we all want something more in our scary movies? In honor of...
In an effort to assist you in your cinematic scare-fest, we’ve come up with a list of the scariest movies to watch on Halloween… with one caveat. We have excluded virtually all “slasher” flicks. Why? Well, let’s just say we all know them, we all love them on some level, but really… don’t we all want something more in our scary movies? In honor of...
- 10/30/2013
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Odd List Ryan Lambie Simon Brew 17 Oct 2013 - 06:29
Here are 25 more great, unsung films - this time, from the year 1994...
Yes, 1994. The year cinemas were dominated by such whimsical wonders as The Lion King, Forrest Gump, The Mask and, erm, True Lies. It was also the year Gump dominated the Academy Awards, and Four Weddings And A Funeral loomed large at the Baftas.
As ever, there was so much more to the year's cinematic landscape than Tom Hanks' park bench ramblings or Hugh Grant mithering from beneath his gorgously crafted hair. To prove it, here's a list of 25 films that, in our estimation, are among its most underappreciated. There's much horror, drama, tears and laughter, plus a couple of classic documentaries, too.
25. Phantasm III: Lord Of The Dead
The Phantasm series was quite unusual, in that writer and director Don Coscarelli made all four of them. This means that,...
Here are 25 more great, unsung films - this time, from the year 1994...
Yes, 1994. The year cinemas were dominated by such whimsical wonders as The Lion King, Forrest Gump, The Mask and, erm, True Lies. It was also the year Gump dominated the Academy Awards, and Four Weddings And A Funeral loomed large at the Baftas.
As ever, there was so much more to the year's cinematic landscape than Tom Hanks' park bench ramblings or Hugh Grant mithering from beneath his gorgously crafted hair. To prove it, here's a list of 25 films that, in our estimation, are among its most underappreciated. There's much horror, drama, tears and laughter, plus a couple of classic documentaries, too.
25. Phantasm III: Lord Of The Dead
The Phantasm series was quite unusual, in that writer and director Don Coscarelli made all four of them. This means that,...
- 10/16/2013
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
Welcome back to The Stack! Is anyone else thinking about anything other than Halloween at this point? I am finding it more and more difficult to plan my annual Hallow's Eve Movie Marathon. New films like Horror Stories from Artsploitation, and Maniac starring Elijah Wood are competing with my desire to see what untold clarity Blu-ray provides to classics, like 1963's The Haunting and In The Mouth of Madness. Oh well, I'll just have to watch 'em all and pray I don't wind up like poor John Trent covered in crayon crucifix's and laughing like a hyena at my own fascination with the horror genre. Either way I bet it will be worth it. The Blue Mite Returns shirt by Harebrained ...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 10/15/2013
- Screen Anarchy
Scream Factory will be releasing John Carpenter’s The Fog, Body Bags, and Prince of Darkness on Blu-ray this year and Warner Bros. is joining in on the fun by releasing In the Mouth of Madness on Blu-ray as well. At this time, a list of bonus features has not been revealed, but we know that the movie will be hitting shelves on October 15th.
“Best-selling author and Stephen King contemporary Sutter Cane’s newest novel is literally driving his readers insane. When the author inexplicably vanishes, an insurance investigator named John Trent (Sam Neill) is hired by Arcane Publishing director Jackson Harglow (Charlton Heston) to track the author down. But Trent, along with Cane’s editor Linda Styles (Julie Carmen), soon finds himself crossing the barrier between fact and fiction, and entering a terrifying world of evil and madness from which there is no escape.”
Here are link to...
“Best-selling author and Stephen King contemporary Sutter Cane’s newest novel is literally driving his readers insane. When the author inexplicably vanishes, an insurance investigator named John Trent (Sam Neill) is hired by Arcane Publishing director Jackson Harglow (Charlton Heston) to track the author down. But Trent, along with Cane’s editor Linda Styles (Julie Carmen), soon finds himself crossing the barrier between fact and fiction, and entering a terrifying world of evil and madness from which there is no escape.”
Here are link to...
- 6/10/2013
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
We start the Top 7. You finish the Top 10.
The remake of Fright Night hits the theaters this weekend, and a little bird told me it was pretty darned enjoyable - surprisingly so, for a remake. Actually, it was more along the lines of a tall, gangly bird with an air of dry snarkiness (I’m talking about Jeff Bayer) - tomato/tomahto. It got me thinkin’ about other remakes I’d love to see come bobbing to the surface of that cesspool of soulless plasicity we call Hollywood.
Two important points:
1. I can pick anything I want to remake even if it was released a few months ago (translation: good idea, sh*tty execution).
2. If I pick a movie that is still solid in its own right, I mean no disrespect to the original.
Onward!
7. One Missed Call (2008)
Recap: People start dying after receiving creepy, portentous phonecalls. The phone call...
The remake of Fright Night hits the theaters this weekend, and a little bird told me it was pretty darned enjoyable - surprisingly so, for a remake. Actually, it was more along the lines of a tall, gangly bird with an air of dry snarkiness (I’m talking about Jeff Bayer) - tomato/tomahto. It got me thinkin’ about other remakes I’d love to see come bobbing to the surface of that cesspool of soulless plasicity we call Hollywood.
Two important points:
1. I can pick anything I want to remake even if it was released a few months ago (translation: good idea, sh*tty execution).
2. If I pick a movie that is still solid in its own right, I mean no disrespect to the original.
Onward!
7. One Missed Call (2008)
Recap: People start dying after receiving creepy, portentous phonecalls. The phone call...
- 8/20/2011
- by Morrow McLaughlin
- The Scorecard Review
by Mike Pickle, MoreHorror.com
For this week's request we're going back to 1995 for John Carpenter's atmospheric mind-bender In the Mouth of Madness starring Sam Neill in one of his most memorable performances. This film was the 3rd entry in what Carpenter calls his Apocalypse Trilogy along with The Thing (1982) and Prince of Darkness (1987). It's definitely reminiscent of The Thing with it's amazing creature effects, but what sets this film apart is the sheer abundance of assorted horrors. Being set in a town that doesn't really exist gives Carpenter plenty of room to work his magic and boy does he take liberties.
The film opens with John Trent (Sam Neill) being committed to an asylum. He fights and pleads with the doctor and staff that he is not insane. A senior doctor arrives to analyze him and the story behind John's current condition begins to unfold in flashbacks. Turns...
For this week's request we're going back to 1995 for John Carpenter's atmospheric mind-bender In the Mouth of Madness starring Sam Neill in one of his most memorable performances. This film was the 3rd entry in what Carpenter calls his Apocalypse Trilogy along with The Thing (1982) and Prince of Darkness (1987). It's definitely reminiscent of The Thing with it's amazing creature effects, but what sets this film apart is the sheer abundance of assorted horrors. Being set in a town that doesn't really exist gives Carpenter plenty of room to work his magic and boy does he take liberties.
The film opens with John Trent (Sam Neill) being committed to an asylum. He fights and pleads with the doctor and staff that he is not insane. A senior doctor arrives to analyze him and the story behind John's current condition begins to unfold in flashbacks. Turns...
- 3/24/2011
- by admin
- MoreHorror
Today's pick is kind of deep cut, but it's so freaking cool that I had to give it a shout. In 1994, director John Carpenter released a horror flick called "In the Mouth of Madness." If you haven't seen it, you should. Critics didn't love it and, I'll admit, there are some gaping flaws. It nonetheless remains an atmospheric, incredibly creepy scarefest with deep-rooted influences from literary horror genius H.P. Lovecraft.
Sam Neill stars in "Madness" as John Trent, an insurance investigator tasked with looking into the mysterious disappearance of acclaimed horror novelist Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow). Since Cane's disappearance leaves his latest book unfinished, the publisher calls Trent in to find out what happened. The investigation leads Trent to the town of Hobb's End -- a fictional location named in the title of Cane's unfinished book -- where some unusual stuff starts to happen.
Those books comprise the collected works of Sutter Cane.
Sam Neill stars in "Madness" as John Trent, an insurance investigator tasked with looking into the mysterious disappearance of acclaimed horror novelist Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow). Since Cane's disappearance leaves his latest book unfinished, the publisher calls Trent in to find out what happened. The investigation leads Trent to the town of Hobb's End -- a fictional location named in the title of Cane's unfinished book -- where some unusual stuff starts to happen.
Those books comprise the collected works of Sutter Cane.
- 7/14/2009
- by Adam Rosenberg
- MTV Movies Blog
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.