Introduction: ‘Maybe He’s Too Sophisticated For You?’
Introduction: ‘Maybe He’s Too Sophisticated For You?’
This introductory chapter provides an overview of John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness. When the film opened in 1995, it received a response sadly all too familiar for Carpenter: one of general indifference. Flagrantly disregarding the film's conceptual scope and narrative complexities, Roger Ebert's review was representative of a frustratingly predictable critical refusal to engage with the film on an intellectual level — much like Pauline Kael, he seemed closed off to the idea that a horror movie could offer something smart, something other than ‘dumb’ scares. While In the Mouth of Madness has collected its fair share of admirers along the way, it has not received anywhere near the critical and academic reassessment afforded to other Carpenter classics. As such, the reason for this book is to reappraise and reclaim a film still undervalued by horror fans and critics alike, and rightly position it as one of John Carpenter's most accomplished and compelling pieces of work.
Keywords: John Carpenter, In the Mouth of Madness, horror movie, horror fans, horror critics
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