John Carpenter's treatise on the psychological power of horror begins well, only to descend rapidly into special-effects genre cliché.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 13, 2024

The film articulates that moral standards are representative of a dominant system of beliefs rather than an ingrained sense of righteousness, and that the fabric of our experience with the natural world itself can be altered through an infectious idea.

| Jun 5, 2024

Carpenter's work with music and sound design has never been so radical and the film's set pieces are breathtakingly executed.

| Mar 2, 2024

John Carpenter's 1994 finale to his Apocalypse Trilogy is a no-holds-barred blitzkrieg of horror that will have you watching the movie a second time just to confirm that you did indeed see what you think you saw.

| Original Score: FOUR STARS | Nov 5, 2023

In the Mouth of Madness is a film that defies expectations and promises to be an unsettling journey. Imaginative and distinct, it’s a treat for all horror fans to embrace with plenty of tricks along the way.

| Oct 7, 2023

In the Mouth of Madness isn't John Carpenter's best horror movie to date, but it may well be his scariest.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 7, 2022

While it's more ambitious than most Carpenter works from this period, it's not any more satisfying.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 7, 2021

This is one of those self- referential horror movies that gets buried alive in an avalanche of clever special effects and an incredible imploding plot.

| Mar 29, 2019

This is one of the best Lovecraft adaptations committed to film and it's not even based on any of his works!

| Nov 6, 2018

The most simplified stories are often the best ones...it's not just an entertaining Twilight Zone-esque film, you can really tell that Carpenter and De Luca were trying to create something different.

| Original Score: A | Nov 2, 2018

In the Mouth of Madness is another marvelous work of art by John Carpenter, albeit a lesser known work.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Nov 2, 2018

Filmmaker Carpenter, working from Michael De Luca's screenplay, kicks John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness with a striking (and engrossing) in-media-res opening that immediately captures the viewer's interest and attention...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 1, 2018

[The] movie has a lot to say about the dangers of cultural obsession and what happens when you give yourself over to the creators you idolize.

| Oct 29, 2018

We've all seen monsters and murders on the screen before, but what's terrifying is not understanding the very nature of the reality that you occupy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 29, 2018

In the Mouth of Madness features some notable special effects and maintains some of its unsettling atmosphere thanks to its subversive, cerebral ideas.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 7, 2018

Chillingly blurs the lines between truth and fantasy, between logic and the malevolently illogical.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 24, 2018

An oddball homage pic to HP Lovecraft, while at the same time spoofing Stephen King.

| Original Score: B- | May 18, 2016

Despite its otherworldly milieu, "Madness" taps into apocalyptic anxieties about real-world rhetoric - chiefly that it's turning virulent to a point where our collective cultural antibodies can't, or won't, fight off the disease. A fine horror film.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 29, 2015

| Original Score: C | Sep 7, 2011

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 4, 2011