Bounding Into Halloween Salutes John Carpenter On Night 18 With ‘In The Mouth Of Madness’ And ‘Prince Of Darkness’
This edition of “Bounding Into Halloween” features two deep cuts from horror master John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing, The Fog). Most horror fans have at least one of his films on their Top Ten lists, and those who don’t should never be trusted.
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The double feature tonight is the second and third entries in his “Apocalypse Trilogy” that started with the 1982 Sci-Fi/Horror masterpiece, The Thing. Before the show begins, I have a question…do you read Sutter Cane?
In The Mouth of Madness (1995)
Horror’s most competent actor, Sam Neil (Possession, Omen III: The Final Conflict, Event Horizon) returns to Carpenter’s filmography as insurance investigator John Trent. He is hired by a publishing company to track the whereabouts of their client, popular horror author Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow).
The deadline for Cane’s new novel is approaching, and it’s expected to outsell all previous bestsellers, but they have neither manuscript nor scribbler.
There’s also a rumor going around that some readers are going insane after finishing Cane’s stories – something which is given legitimacy when Cane’s former agent tries to murder Trent with an axe during the meeting before being shot dead by police.
Always the skeptic, John dismisses the whole thing as a publicity stunt and sets out for the town of Hobbs End to find the hoaxer wordsmith. When he gets there, John’s skepticism turns on itself, and he begins to question reality and his own sanity before discovering the terrifying truth.
One of the best, and most underrated horror movie of the 90s, it combines Meta Horror with Lovecraft’s patented cosmic terror, and it doesn’t hold out on the nihilism. A lot of the onscreen scares are conveyed through the classic “less is more” approach, and it works.
In The Mouth of Madness is a favorite among fans, and it’s his last good horror movie. Find the film on TUBI, and the trailer below:
Prince of Darkness (1987)
The next movie is quite possibly the most underrated by a director whose entire filmography is almost synonymous with the word. This takes place at a Catholic monastery in Los Angeles owned by the mysterious Brotherhood of Sleep.
The head of the ancient order who communicate through their dreams (Donald Pleasence) invites a quantum physicist professor (Victor Wong) and his students to join him in the basement of the monastery to assist him in investigating a cylinder that’s filled a swirling green liquid.
They decipher the texts etched upon the ancient cylinder and learn the terrifying secret of the ooze. It contains the corporeal embodiment of the devil who is the offspring of an even more powerful “Anti-God” entity that exists in the realm of anti-matter.
A mass of schizophrenic homeless people (led by rock legend Alice Cooper) surround the building to prevent anyone from escaping while the Prince of Darkness possesses the inhabitants and tries to free his father from the other dimension and bring him to Earth.
If bleak endings aren’t your jam then you’re not going to be happy after this movie, and it serves you right. Despite the obviously low budget, the concept is enough to disturb anyone the longer they ponder it, and seeing a team-up between Egg Shen and Dr. Loomis is worth the price of admission alone.
Prince of Darkness can be summoned through AMC+, but descend to find the trailer below:
NEXT: Bounding Into Halloween Night 10: It’s A Deep Dive Underground In ‘The Descent’ And ‘C.H.U.D.’
