John Carpenter (“The Thing”, “They Live”) directs “In The Mouth Of Madness”, which is probably his best movie since “Halloween”. This movie is packed with eerie sights and great special effects. It really feels like “Hellraiser” meets “Children of the Corn”.

In this film, Sam Neill (“Jurassic Park”, “Event Horizon”) plays John Trent, an insurance investigator hired to find a missing author. The author is Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow “Dune”), a horror writer more popular than Stephen King. His books have a significant impact on some readers, even turning them violent. As Trent continues his search, he begins to realise how powerful Cane’s books really are.

Sam Neill is a terrific actor and he does a spectacular job here as John Trent. This man is used to exposing people’s fraudulent claims and therefore, he is determined to believe that what he is seeing is part of an elaborate publicity stunt. Julie Carmen (“Fright Night Part 2”) is good as Linda Styles, Cane’s book editor that joins Trent on his job. Jürgen Prochnow is okay as Cane. There are also some good performances from David Warner (“Tron”), John Glover (“Scrooged”) and Charlton Heston (“Ben-Hur”). Most of the special effects on the creatures look really good but there are one or two that do not look good.

“In The Mouth Of Madness” is an entertaining horror film because it does not focus on the blood and guts but instead on creating a disturbing atmosphere. The music used during the opening titles and for the credits is also really good. I like how the film starts and the ending of the movie is brilliant. John Carpenter can make some really entertaining horror movies and he shows that with this film. If you are a fan of Carpenter or Sam Neill or you like horror movies where the focus is on the atmosphere and the visuals, you should check out “In The Mouth Of Madness”.