The forces of madness

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Movie
German title The forces of madness
Original title John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1994
length 95 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director John Carpenter
script Michael De Luca
production Sandy King
music John Carpenter,
Jim Lang
camera Gary B. Kibbe
cut Edward A. Warschilka
occupation
chronology

←  Predecessor
The princes of darkness

The Forces of Madness is an American horror film by John Carpenter from 1994 and also the third part of his apocalyptic trilogy , which began in 1982 with The Thing From Another World and was continued in 1987 with The Princes of Darkness .

action

When the novel The Powers of Madness by the world's most successful horror book author Sutter Cane is about to be published, Cane can suddenly no longer be found. Because of his notoriety, Cane's mysterious disappearance has attracted a lot of public attention, especially since no one, not even his editor Linda Styles or his publisher Jackson Harglow, has seen the manuscript of his latest work.

Harglow hires private detective John Trent to find the author. Trent finds a trail that he believes Cane left on purpose and that leads to a secluded village called Hobb's End. This strange village is also found in the novels of Sutter Cane. Together with Linda Styles, Trent sets out to look for the author, whom he and his publisher suspect of fraud. Arrived in Hobb's End, they find Cane who is in a church. The author is in a state of euphoria. He reveals to the two that his books are no longer just fiction, but have become reality through the power of millions of fanatical fans. The more people consumed Cane's work, the faster his fiction would become a reality. Hobb's End and the detective Trent himself are also fiction. In the book, which Trent is now in the process of completing, the people are gradually falling into complete madness , while at the same time the end of the world is ushered in. Cane himself, as the creator of the event, assumes the role of the new god.

While Linda is still a victim of the madness in Hobb's End, John brings the manuscript under the influence of Canes and against his own will back to Jackson Harglow. All of his attempts to destroy the work during his journey fail.

When he arrives at Harglow, Harglow tells him that he received the manuscript months ago from Trent and that the book has been in stores for weeks. A film is also in the works. Indeed, madness is beginning to spread throughout the world. Trent, totally neglected a few weeks later, kills a Sutter Cane fan and is admitted to a mental hospital. While he sits half-mad in a padded cell, the world is ending outside. He comes out of the cell, finds that all the people have disappeared, and goes into the deserted city. There Trent visits an empty cinema screening of "The Forces of Madness" and has to realize that the film reproduces exactly the events that have happened to him so far. From this he concludes that it is actually just an invention of Sutter Cane and finally loses his mind.

background

  • The shooting took place in Markham , Toronto and West Montrose ( Ontario , Canada ) among others .
  • The film budget was $ 14 million, but the film only grossed $ 9 million and was a financial flop, partly due to bad reviews.
  • Hayden Christensen can be seen in one scene as a boy on a bicycle who meets Trent ( Sam Neill ) as he manages to escape from Hobbs End.

Reviews

The lexicon of international films judges: “Horror film located between fiction and reality, which spices up its cultural criticism of the powers that manipulate the brains of people with shock effects aimed at the pit of the stomach. Worth seeing for friends of the genre. "

Roger Ebert identifies deficiencies in the drawing of individual characters, especially Sutter Cane and the publisher portrayed by Charlton Heston, and weaknesses in the script (“it's not enough to send the beleaguered hero on a roller-coaster ride through shocking images”). The film initially comes up with a lot of fascinating ideas, but bypasses them for the most part in favor of a special effects show that seems to be inspired by the Nightmare series (“starts out with lots of intriguing ideas, and then sidesteps most of them in order to provide a special effects side show that looks inspired by the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series "), whose latest film, Freddy's New Nightmare, deals with a similar topic in a much more original way and also offers the better special effects.

Awards

The film was nominated for the Saturn Award in two categories. John Carpenter won the Critics' Prize at the Festival Internacional de Cinema do Porto and was nominated in another category.

Trivia

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for The Forces of Madness . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , November 2013 (PDF; test number: 72 720 V).
  2. ↑ The Forces of Madness. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 5, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ Roger Ebert: In the Mouth of Madness , Chicago Sun-Times, February 3, 1995

Web links