In the Mouth of Madness
John Carpenter and Jim Lang
" In the Mouth of Madness, by John Carpenter "Written by Thomas Glorieux - Review of the regular release
In the Mouth of Madness is considered to be John Carpenter's last successful movie. After all, what followed after that just wasn't of the same league. And when you watch In the Mouth of Madness you'll understand why it is considered successeful. In it, Sam Neil stars as John Trent, an insurance investigator who must search for the writer of critical acclaimed horror novels who has mysteriously disappeared. Only he soon realizes that the horror from the books might be true in the first place.
This leaves room for John Carpenter to toy away in imagination. And that he does. It may not contain the sheer horror of a movie like The Thing, but it is spooky merely because it sounds intriguing. And luckily the special effects are up to par, giving you sheer wonder in the horrific sense of the word.
For the music, John Carpenter asked the assistance of composer Jim Lang (who aided him on his movie Body Bags). But it all begins the way only John Carpenter could begin it. After all who doesn't expect a totally cool rocking attitude when we see mere books in the opening credits. This is the musical scenario of "In the Mouth of Madness".
From then on Carpenter walks all sorts of paths. A soothing guitar solo in "Robby's Office", electronic horror in "Axe Man" (notice the bells that signify Hobb's End or Sutter Cane), eerie dissonance in "Bookstore Creep" and "The Alley Nightmare", the return of the bells in "Trent Makes the Map", the hypnotizing "A Boy and his Bike" or the pure horrific "Don't Look Down". Not everything might be as interesting as the next one, but it is effective beyond words.
When they finally get to Hobb's End, the mood becomes particularly mysterious, as explained in "Hobb's End" and "Pickman Hotel". But there are moments when Carpenter is just something more than a mere composer. Throughout his career, he has always understood the musical need of a specific scene. And "The Black Church" is movie magic inside the film. On disc it creates mystery and building suspense.
The building horror in "Do you Like my Ending?" and "I'm Losing Me", the insanely catchy string work during "Main Street", the choral supported mystery in "Hobb's End Escape", the cool orchestral horror music in "The Old Ones Return" and the mysterious resolution in "Just a Bed Time Story", they are all part of John Carpenter's sound design for what's happening in Hobb's End.
Basically from the moment Carpenter starts unleashing the horror of the books, we are left with horrific music, suspenseful music, mysterious music and effective music. But is this all satisfying? At least to a degree yes. After all this is written specifically for a motion picture and music just needs to support that. But I won't call it one of Carpenter's better soundtracks that's for sure. In the Mouth of Madness is one of John Carpenter's longest regular soundtrack releases and I'm pretty sure all the music in presented here. And it is best described as a soundtrack that needs to stay in the film. It is mysterious, effective and horrific and those qualities need to remain in Hobb's End no matter what.
This leaves room for John Carpenter to toy away in imagination. And that he does. It may not contain the sheer horror of a movie like The Thing, but it is spooky merely because it sounds intriguing. And luckily the special effects are up to par, giving you sheer wonder in the horrific sense of the word.
For the music, John Carpenter asked the assistance of composer Jim Lang (who aided him on his movie Body Bags). But it all begins the way only John Carpenter could begin it. After all who doesn't expect a totally cool rocking attitude when we see mere books in the opening credits. This is the musical scenario of "In the Mouth of Madness".
From then on Carpenter walks all sorts of paths. A soothing guitar solo in "Robby's Office", electronic horror in "Axe Man" (notice the bells that signify Hobb's End or Sutter Cane), eerie dissonance in "Bookstore Creep" and "The Alley Nightmare", the return of the bells in "Trent Makes the Map", the hypnotizing "A Boy and his Bike" or the pure horrific "Don't Look Down". Not everything might be as interesting as the next one, but it is effective beyond words.
When they finally get to Hobb's End, the mood becomes particularly mysterious, as explained in "Hobb's End" and "Pickman Hotel". But there are moments when Carpenter is just something more than a mere composer. Throughout his career, he has always understood the musical need of a specific scene. And "The Black Church" is movie magic inside the film. On disc it creates mystery and building suspense.
The building horror in "Do you Like my Ending?" and "I'm Losing Me", the insanely catchy string work during "Main Street", the choral supported mystery in "Hobb's End Escape", the cool orchestral horror music in "The Old Ones Return" and the mysterious resolution in "Just a Bed Time Story", they are all part of John Carpenter's sound design for what's happening in Hobb's End.
Basically from the moment Carpenter starts unleashing the horror of the books, we are left with horrific music, suspenseful music, mysterious music and effective music. But is this all satisfying? At least to a degree yes. After all this is written specifically for a motion picture and music just needs to support that. But I won't call it one of Carpenter's better soundtracks that's for sure. In the Mouth of Madness is one of John Carpenter's longest regular soundtrack releases and I'm pretty sure all the music in presented here. And it is best described as a soundtrack that needs to stay in the film. It is mysterious, effective and horrific and those qualities need to remain in Hobb's End no matter what.