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Dumbass, that game doesn't come out until tomorrow.
In The Mouth of Madness
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
It's weird too, cause it kicks around a bunch of stuff I really don't like.
Useless scenes where people say seemingly significant but meaningless things ("He SEES you!"), jumpscares (**** that ****), and the female lead coming on to the male lead right the royal **** out of NOWHERE (it's offhandedly excused with another version of that Who Framed Roger Rabbit line, "I'm written that way").
All fairly stupid ****. I'd include "gore" in there, but honestly it's pretty dialed back and the special effects are a lot stronger than The Thing. Needa wig people out somehow, right?
And you know, that "wig people out" bit seems to conflict an awful lot with that "I don't want to watch a movie to feel bad" thing I said, but you know what? I can appreciate some creepy ****, a moody atmosphere, and you can be damn sure I'm on board for a movie centered entirely around the concept of GOING INSANE.
God, I needa watch Higurashi again. Season 2 is boring me to death.
So, the idea is that Sam Neil plays an insurance investigator. Probably one of the grayest area jobs I've ever heard of. He looks to prevents scammers from being scammed. Alright. Kinda like those people who get paid a subscription fee to lay flowers and wreathes out to die on tombstones. Profiting off of death, but doing something superficially "nice", while altogether pointless.
Anyway, he gets dragged in to investigate the disappearance of Stephen King-esque horror author legend Sutter Kane. I'm partial to R.L. Stine myself, but in this universe Sutter Kane's books have literally reached Harry Potter levels of popularity.
****, really? Imagining a world where horror is that popular is already a sign of the end times.
I mean, really, I don't get horror, what's the ****in' appeal? The Walking Dead was best enjoyed as a drama (before Season 2 ****ed it up, gosh, what is it with Season 2s? You know how much I HATE Code Geass Season 2? Don't get me started.), why should scenes of rotting people ripping the intestines out of a horse appeal to me?
I don't know where I heard it, but someone somewhere sometime said that horror exists to supplement thrills to the lives of people who've been sheltered from such extremes besides.
I don't know if I can really accept that given how desensitized people are to that crap nowadays (which is still pretty scary when you think about it), but it certainly strikes a chord.
There's SOMETHING in these movies that appeals to people who are not me and I CANNOT figure it out.
I CAN figure out why I like In The Mouth of Madness though, and it's because as I've said before, I enjoy psychological thrillers. I like watching characters brought to the brink, and we get that in spades with Sam Neil's character who remains firmly, and understandably, skeptical that anything supernatural is going on for over half of the movie.
It's not like all the spooky reality-bending **** is falling on deaf ears though, he's joined by... some actress who doubles with Sam as our viewer surrogate. So while he remains firmly in denial, to help root us, she's the one going over the edge.
Somewhere past the halfway point though, the roller coaster crosses the peak and Sam's character, Trent, descends into total mind****ery. Everything from chronological anomalies to realities nested within themselves, it's friggen' nuts and I really liked seeing (or should I say NOT SEEING?) the Great Old Ones rise up whisk humanity away to places and for purposes we haven't the language to sufficiently describe.
If this is a "Lovecraft-type story", I'm on board. This falls into that same category shared by Titanic: flawed in some pretty big ways, but I find myself watching it over and over again so much that I gotta add it to my personal collection.
That kickin' theme song too.
Final Verdict: [Pretty Good]
REWATCH UPDATE (5/22/2022):
In the Mouth of Madness is one of those movies that I was persuaded into liking, but not quite enough to add it to my collection, despite what I wrote above. I mention the "kickin'" music which bookends the movie, but watching it again it feels out-of-place. It feels more like a signature John Carpenter thing than an appropriate complement to the movie.
And I'm certainly fond of John Carpenter movies and their B-movie flavor in general, but watching this again the "B-movie flavor" came off as a bit aggressively bland.
The whole appeal of "B-movies" is ostensibly that, while lacking the budget, production quality, or aspirations of an "A-movie" it's still very entertaining in it's own humble cheeky way. I definitely get that impression from movies like Dragon Tiger Gate, The Stuff, or Returner, but those movies despite often looking worse, being melodramatic, or even unintentionally funny are at least a good romp despite or even because of those reasons. In the Mouth of Madness feels like it's trying to occupy that space, but it takes itself way too seriously.
I still like Sam Neil's character and his acting performance, and I still appreciate the psychological themes explored, but this movie doesn't really engross me and often I find myself waiting for the next semi-memorable setpiece. It takes a third of the movie just to get going, and honestly the best part of the movie to me was just the characters trying to get to the fictional town of Hobb's End. Once they're there, it's just sporadic exposition that means nothing to us as viewers (because it's just Sutter Cane going on about end-times and believing in reality vs. fiction) or townspeople standing around looking menacing.
When Sam tries to leave town and realizes his card keeps getting teleported back to face the mob, just the look on his face, without any words spoken, communicates so much about his headspace in that moment, where's coming to accept the absurdity of the situation, and he's making light of it, as he does when he laughs at his own movie before the credits.
Those moments were interesting, but the character development in this case is very stutter-y so we don't get much opportunity to dwell on Sam's decent into insanity.
The horror elements seemed more to be shock material than anything else, and unfortunately when you're trying to emulate the sort of well-known horror tropes of an established author like Stephen King, the scary children and mob with pitchforks thing just comes off as kinda phone'd in. There's even a scene where Main Girl is stopped by a group of bleeding and mutilated kids who make vague threatening statements, but she has like no reaction. And that's kinda my reaction.
Definitely view this movie in a much less positive light than I did before, but it's still a decent watch.
Final Verdict: [Good]
Totally campin' outside Gamestop right now. The first game sold out, so I'm sure as hell catching this one.
In The Mouth of Madness
Horror / English / 1994
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
A bunch of reasons. Firstly, I wasn't actually finished with Bravely Default and I thought I was at the end, BUT THEN I discovered that you have to fight 90% of the game's bosses 5 TIMES OVER AND REMIXED TO BE INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT and that's when I went, "Oooooohhh... so this is what everyone was talking about..."
Anyway, all my characters are at Lv. 99 and everyone's unlocked most jobs, so I'm crushing through all the new encounters and then I reach THAT ONE FIGHT with Quada, Ominas, and Mephilia.
Fire Bane + Firaga + Promethean FLAME, MOTHER****ER!
Gawd, **** that fight. Virtually every other fight in the game I can cruise through with a reasonably prepared party, the right strategy, and a little bit of setup (shouldn't have needed the internet as much as I did), but THIS!? Here I have literally every possible resource available to me by this point in the game, all characters at MAX level, all jobs, all the best equipment from both this run AND a false ending, and I even have infinite money to buy 99 Phoenix Downs, but **** I need the most hyper-specifically optimized piece of **** setup to survive
THE FIRST ****ING TURN!!!
And that's why my final rating for Bravely Default is a 5 out of 5.
******* I need a break from this game. Time to watch a good movie, so why not watch something I've been deliberating on for a while?
I've been jonesing for In The Mouth of Madness, so let's watch that.
I thought it might be interesting to note that I originally learned of this movie by looking up John Carpenter's filmography and was encouraged to watch it through a combination of wanting to see Sam Neil in another movie besides Jurassic Park and the open recommendation from Spoony in his tabletop roleplaying series where he calls it "the best Call of Cthulu movie ever made".
I've never read anything from Lovecraft, but I'm vaguely familiar with the themes and general criticisms of the author's personal beliefs.
WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*Anyway, all my characters are at Lv. 99 and everyone's unlocked most jobs, so I'm crushing through all the new encounters and then I reach THAT ONE FIGHT with Quada, Ominas, and Mephilia.
Fire Bane + Firaga + Promethean FLAME, MOTHER****ER!
Gawd, **** that fight. Virtually every other fight in the game I can cruise through with a reasonably prepared party, the right strategy, and a little bit of setup (shouldn't have needed the internet as much as I did), but THIS!? Here I have literally every possible resource available to me by this point in the game, all characters at MAX level, all jobs, all the best equipment from both this run AND a false ending, and I even have infinite money to buy 99 Phoenix Downs, but **** I need the most hyper-specifically optimized piece of **** setup to survive
THE FIRST ****ING TURN!!!
And that's why my final rating for Bravely Default is a 5 out of 5.
******* I need a break from this game. Time to watch a good movie, so why not watch something I've been deliberating on for a while?
I've been jonesing for In The Mouth of Madness, so let's watch that.
I thought it might be interesting to note that I originally learned of this movie by looking up John Carpenter's filmography and was encouraged to watch it through a combination of wanting to see Sam Neil in another movie besides Jurassic Park and the open recommendation from Spoony in his tabletop roleplaying series where he calls it "the best Call of Cthulu movie ever made".
I've never read anything from Lovecraft, but I'm vaguely familiar with the themes and general criticisms of the author's personal beliefs.
In The Mouth of Madness A.K.A. that one movie that Iroquois has as his profile banner, just manages to sneak into my very short list of horror movies I actually enjoy.
It's weird too, cause it kicks around a bunch of stuff I really don't like.
Useless scenes where people say seemingly significant but meaningless things ("He SEES you!"), jumpscares (**** that ****), and the female lead coming on to the male lead right the royal **** out of NOWHERE (it's offhandedly excused with another version of that Who Framed Roger Rabbit line, "I'm written that way").
All fairly stupid ****. I'd include "gore" in there, but honestly it's pretty dialed back and the special effects are a lot stronger than The Thing. Needa wig people out somehow, right?
And you know, that "wig people out" bit seems to conflict an awful lot with that "I don't want to watch a movie to feel bad" thing I said, but you know what? I can appreciate some creepy ****, a moody atmosphere, and you can be damn sure I'm on board for a movie centered entirely around the concept of GOING INSANE.
God, I needa watch Higurashi again. Season 2 is boring me to death.
So, the idea is that Sam Neil plays an insurance investigator. Probably one of the grayest area jobs I've ever heard of. He looks to prevents scammers from being scammed. Alright. Kinda like those people who get paid a subscription fee to lay flowers and wreathes out to die on tombstones. Profiting off of death, but doing something superficially "nice", while altogether pointless.
Anyway, he gets dragged in to investigate the disappearance of Stephen King-esque horror author legend Sutter Kane. I'm partial to R.L. Stine myself, but in this universe Sutter Kane's books have literally reached Harry Potter levels of popularity.
****, really? Imagining a world where horror is that popular is already a sign of the end times.
I mean, really, I don't get horror, what's the ****in' appeal? The Walking Dead was best enjoyed as a drama (before Season 2 ****ed it up, gosh, what is it with Season 2s? You know how much I HATE Code Geass Season 2? Don't get me started.), why should scenes of rotting people ripping the intestines out of a horse appeal to me?
I don't know where I heard it, but someone somewhere sometime said that horror exists to supplement thrills to the lives of people who've been sheltered from such extremes besides.
I don't know if I can really accept that given how desensitized people are to that crap nowadays (which is still pretty scary when you think about it), but it certainly strikes a chord.
There's SOMETHING in these movies that appeals to people who are not me and I CANNOT figure it out.
I CAN figure out why I like In The Mouth of Madness though, and it's because as I've said before, I enjoy psychological thrillers. I like watching characters brought to the brink, and we get that in spades with Sam Neil's character who remains firmly, and understandably, skeptical that anything supernatural is going on for over half of the movie.
It's not like all the spooky reality-bending **** is falling on deaf ears though, he's joined by... some actress who doubles with Sam as our viewer surrogate. So while he remains firmly in denial, to help root us, she's the one going over the edge.
Somewhere past the halfway point though, the roller coaster crosses the peak and Sam's character, Trent, descends into total mind****ery. Everything from chronological anomalies to realities nested within themselves, it's friggen' nuts and I really liked seeing (or should I say NOT SEEING?) the Great Old Ones rise up whisk humanity away to places and for purposes we haven't the language to sufficiently describe.
If this is a "Lovecraft-type story", I'm on board. This falls into that same category shared by Titanic: flawed in some pretty big ways, but I find myself watching it over and over again so much that I gotta add it to my personal collection.
That kickin' theme song too.
Final Verdict: [Pretty Good]
REWATCH UPDATE (5/22/2022):
In the Mouth of Madness is one of those movies that I was persuaded into liking, but not quite enough to add it to my collection, despite what I wrote above. I mention the "kickin'" music which bookends the movie, but watching it again it feels out-of-place. It feels more like a signature John Carpenter thing than an appropriate complement to the movie.
And I'm certainly fond of John Carpenter movies and their B-movie flavor in general, but watching this again the "B-movie flavor" came off as a bit aggressively bland.
The whole appeal of "B-movies" is ostensibly that, while lacking the budget, production quality, or aspirations of an "A-movie" it's still very entertaining in it's own humble cheeky way. I definitely get that impression from movies like Dragon Tiger Gate, The Stuff, or Returner, but those movies despite often looking worse, being melodramatic, or even unintentionally funny are at least a good romp despite or even because of those reasons. In the Mouth of Madness feels like it's trying to occupy that space, but it takes itself way too seriously.
I still like Sam Neil's character and his acting performance, and I still appreciate the psychological themes explored, but this movie doesn't really engross me and often I find myself waiting for the next semi-memorable setpiece. It takes a third of the movie just to get going, and honestly the best part of the movie to me was just the characters trying to get to the fictional town of Hobb's End. Once they're there, it's just sporadic exposition that means nothing to us as viewers (because it's just Sutter Cane going on about end-times and believing in reality vs. fiction) or townspeople standing around looking menacing.
When Sam tries to leave town and realizes his card keeps getting teleported back to face the mob, just the look on his face, without any words spoken, communicates so much about his headspace in that moment, where's coming to accept the absurdity of the situation, and he's making light of it, as he does when he laughs at his own movie before the credits.
Those moments were interesting, but the character development in this case is very stutter-y so we don't get much opportunity to dwell on Sam's decent into insanity.
The horror elements seemed more to be shock material than anything else, and unfortunately when you're trying to emulate the sort of well-known horror tropes of an established author like Stephen King, the scary children and mob with pitchforks thing just comes off as kinda phone'd in. There's even a scene where Main Girl is stopped by a group of bleeding and mutilated kids who make vague threatening statements, but she has like no reaction. And that's kinda my reaction.
Definitely view this movie in a much less positive light than I did before, but it's still a decent watch.
Final Verdict: [Good]