Watching Movies! ‘John Carpenter Edition’…
In a break from the norm, I actually managed to get some reading done this weekend; didn’t actually manage to finish the book but you know, baby steps and all that ;o)
Nope, this weekend was all about estate agents showing my studio flat to prospective buyers, taking my youngest daughter on another trip through ‘Brooklyn 99’ (she loves Doug Judy), some fireworks (the good kind) and of course, catching up with some movies. After sleeping through most of it the other day, ‘The Thing’ felt like a film that I had to finish and ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ was cheap, on Prime Video, so it was clearly the best time to finally give it a watch. Let me tell you about them…
‘The Thing’ (1982)
We all know the plot to this one but on the off-chance that you don’t, here goes…
A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims. Can they stop the Thing before it escapes Antarctica and infects the rest of the world…?
Every time I watch any of Romero’s zombie movies, it always strikes me how the protagonists are doomed because they can’t settle their differences and work together. ‘The Thing’ takes this to the next level and does it bloody well. The research team are doomed because they have no choice in not being able to work together; the Thing is assimilating them faster than they can work out how to identify it (or work out who is still normal…) The thing, no pun intended, that struck me this time round was how that sense of paranoia is expertly drawn out over the runtime of the movie. It doesn’t get boring because the reasons for it have a habit of popping up, and getting right in your face, when you least expect it. That pushes the plot onto the next scare and we’re on the edge of our seat in the meantime. Questions are asked but the answers swiftly become more questions, and any answers we do get are presented upon a bed of viscera or in a stomach that becomes a mouth (my favourite bit). It’s glorious but you probably already knew that ;o) I always forget how much I love ‘The Thing’ until I watch it again, I mustn’t leave it so long next time.
‘In the Mouth of Madness’ (1994)
An insurance investigator, looking into the disappearance of a famous horror author, must battle the strange inhabitants of a fictional town whilst also battling to keep his own sanity intact in the face of revelations that will destroy him if he lets them…
Wow, that escalated quickly… ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ started off looking like an inoffensive ‘mystery in Manhattan’ mid-nineties TV movie and then before I knew it, there were axes flying about, weird horror in New England (I loved that painting!) and an ongoing battle between Sam Neill and Jurgen Prochnow to see who could chew the most scenery. That ended up being pretty much a photo finish by the way, I couldn’t tell you who won…
What did I think though? For the most part I loved ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ with it’s mad blend of Lovecraftian horror and a Chandleresque ‘Private Eye’ trying to solve the case as best he could. It was a great mixture and I thought it worked very well, especially when you throw in all those creepy bits that happen outside of Trent’s vision but we see it all too well. It was a lot of fun but the ending felt slightly flat to me, like it wanted to go a little further but didn’t quite have the energy for that last step. Not a deal breaker though, the movie had a lot of credit in the bank for me at that point, but worth highlighting. All in all, I’m really glad I finally got round to watching ‘In the Mouth of Madness’.
Nope, this weekend was all about estate agents showing my studio flat to prospective buyers, taking my youngest daughter on another trip through ‘Brooklyn 99’ (she loves Doug Judy), some fireworks (the good kind) and of course, catching up with some movies. After sleeping through most of it the other day, ‘The Thing’ felt like a film that I had to finish and ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ was cheap, on Prime Video, so it was clearly the best time to finally give it a watch. Let me tell you about them…
‘The Thing’ (1982)
We all know the plot to this one but on the off-chance that you don’t, here goes…
A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims. Can they stop the Thing before it escapes Antarctica and infects the rest of the world…?
Every time I watch any of Romero’s zombie movies, it always strikes me how the protagonists are doomed because they can’t settle their differences and work together. ‘The Thing’ takes this to the next level and does it bloody well. The research team are doomed because they have no choice in not being able to work together; the Thing is assimilating them faster than they can work out how to identify it (or work out who is still normal…) The thing, no pun intended, that struck me this time round was how that sense of paranoia is expertly drawn out over the runtime of the movie. It doesn’t get boring because the reasons for it have a habit of popping up, and getting right in your face, when you least expect it. That pushes the plot onto the next scare and we’re on the edge of our seat in the meantime. Questions are asked but the answers swiftly become more questions, and any answers we do get are presented upon a bed of viscera or in a stomach that becomes a mouth (my favourite bit). It’s glorious but you probably already knew that ;o) I always forget how much I love ‘The Thing’ until I watch it again, I mustn’t leave it so long next time.
‘In the Mouth of Madness’ (1994)
An insurance investigator, looking into the disappearance of a famous horror author, must battle the strange inhabitants of a fictional town whilst also battling to keep his own sanity intact in the face of revelations that will destroy him if he lets them…
Wow, that escalated quickly… ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ started off looking like an inoffensive ‘mystery in Manhattan’ mid-nineties TV movie and then before I knew it, there were axes flying about, weird horror in New England (I loved that painting!) and an ongoing battle between Sam Neill and Jurgen Prochnow to see who could chew the most scenery. That ended up being pretty much a photo finish by the way, I couldn’t tell you who won…
What did I think though? For the most part I loved ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ with it’s mad blend of Lovecraftian horror and a Chandleresque ‘Private Eye’ trying to solve the case as best he could. It was a great mixture and I thought it worked very well, especially when you throw in all those creepy bits that happen outside of Trent’s vision but we see it all too well. It was a lot of fun but the ending felt slightly flat to me, like it wanted to go a little further but didn’t quite have the energy for that last step. Not a deal breaker though, the movie had a lot of credit in the bank for me at that point, but worth highlighting. All in all, I’m really glad I finally got round to watching ‘In the Mouth of Madness’.
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