John Carpenter's 1995 picture In The Mouth Of Madness opens with a scene where we see an insurance investigator named John Trent (Sam Neil) locked away in a padded cell inside a mental hospital under the care of Dr. Saperstein (John Glover). John fights this every step of the way but eventually concedes defeat, after which he's interviewed by Dr. Wrenn (David Warner). During this interview, we learn what happened to Trent and how he wound up in this predicament.

And so we flashback to when Trent interviewed Paul (Peter Jason), a man suspected of committing insurance fraud and then after that, dinner with his boss, Mr. Robinson (Bernie Casey). During dinner, Robinson talks Trent into taking on a rather unorthodox case on behalf of one of their clients, Arcane Publishing, led by Jackson Harglow (Charlton Heston) and top editor Linda Styles (Julie Carmen). They've come to Robinson and by default, Trent, because their hot shot horror writer Sutter Cane has vanished and taken with him his latest manuscript, one that they were set to publish. Cane's so popular that there's clearly a lot of money at stake here. This ties into a recent event that took place shortly before the meeting wherein Trent was attacked by a man wielding an axe attacked him, asking the question ‘Do you read Sutter Cane?' before the cops managed to shoot him dead. That man turns out to have been Cane's manager, one of only a few people to have read the author's latest tome.

Not convinced that this isn't just an elaborate publicity stunt, Trent takes the case, eventually putting together a series of clues and then teaming up with Styles to track Cane down. When they eventually find Cane (Jürgen Prochnow), he's hiding out in a strange church and, well… things just get weirder from here on out.

In The Mouth Of Madness is a pretty strong effort from Carpenter, thought it never quite matches the quality of his best work like Halloween or The Thing in terms of creating gripping suspense. Clearly inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, the script meanders a bit here and there but it starts and finishes quite strongly and it does offer the movie more than a couple of genuinely effective, and unsettling, set pieces and in doing so, presents an interesting way in which Cane's writing begins to seemingly twist the reality that Trent and everyone else exists in. It's a twisting, turning bit of filmmaking that also features some impressive effects work courtesy of KNB Effects that do an admirable job of bringing some of the more grotesque moments of the film to vivid life.

Shot wide the way the best-looking Carpenter films are, the cinematography in In The Mouth Of Madness is also top notch. There are some seriously impressive compositions on display here, from scenic widescreen shots that draw us into the small town where Trent and Styles wind up to haunting closeups of certain characters that get pulled deeper into whatever it is that is happening here (no spoilers!). The score, courtesy of Carpenter and John Lang, isn't always perfect but it generally tends to suit the story well enough.

A big part of what makes the movie as entertaining as it is, however, is the cast. Sam Neill is fantastic in the lead and hands down the best part of the movie. Trent tries to keep a level head throughout, he's very suspicious about all of this but more than a little hesitant to acknowledge any supernatural goings-on. He plays this part well, a little surly and a little bit of a tough guy, but you'd have to be in that line of work. Julie Carmen is decent enough as his sidekick while Bernie Casey and Charlton Heston are both a lot of fun in their respective supporting parts.

Video:

In The Mouth Of Madness comes to Blu-ray from Shout! Factory properly framed at 2.35.1 widescreen in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer on a 50GB disc taken from a new 4k scan of ‘original film elements.' Really, there's nothing to complain about here. This is an excellent looking transfer that boasts beautiful color reproduction and very strong detail throughout. Depth and texture are both very impressive and the disc retains a very organic, filmic look sporting enough film grain to look ‘right' without looking too gritty. There's virtually no print damage here at all, the picture is very clean, while skin tones look nice and natural as well. The transfer appears free of any obvious noise reduction or edge enhancement and there are no noticeable compression artifacts to note. It's hard to imagine the movie looking much better than it does here.