The Prime Instant Video Library is huge, and it can be difficult to separate the Prime video wheat from the chaff. In the Prime Screening Room, I highlight the videos that are well worth the viewing.
In The Mouth of Madness (rated R, average Amazon review rating 4/5 stars, currently priced at $2.99 to rent and $9.99 to buy, and currently FREE for Amazon Prime members to view) is a great horror pick for fans of scary movies that aren’t extremely gory, and its plot is one that fans of Stephen King will probably enjoy.
In this movie, Jurgen Prochnow plays Sutter Cane, a horror author clearly patterned after Stephen King in the sense that his books are hugely popular. Cane’s new book is hotly anticipated by his publisher and his fans alike, but Cane has disappeared just before he was due to deliver the final manuscript. The only person who’s seen any of it is his agent, and after reading just two chapters the man turned into an axe-wielding homicidal maniac.
Cane’s publisher hires insurance investigator John Trent, played by Sam Neill, to find Cane and the missing manuscript. Trent sets off with Cane’s editor, Linda Styles, but suspects the whole thing is just a publicity stunt intended to generate even more interest in the new book.
Trent and Styles set off to find the fictional town of Hobbs End, which figured prominently in Cane’s last book. While Hobbs End doesn’t truly exist in the real world, clues hidden in the cover art of Cane’s books have led Trent to believe the fictional town was based on a real setting in New Hampshire.
As they near the spot where the real-life version of Hobbs End should be, the pair are transported out of the real world and into the world of horror Cane has authored. Suddenly the view goes from a dark, foreboding night to a bright, sunny morning, and a sign indicates they’re entering Hobbs End.
Trent and Styles find all the characters from Cane’s last book populating the seemingly idyllic town of Hobbs End, but soon enough the surface layer of normalcy begins to peel away. As paintings change before their eyes and monstrous, murderous children appear out of nowhere, skeptical Trent chalks everything up to special effects and hired actors.
But when Styles finds Cane and merely glimpses a single page from Cane’s new book, she becomes possessed of the same evil spirit that permeates the entire town and everyone in it, and just like the townsfolk, is turned into a puppet at the end of Cane’s strings. Trent finally must accept that Cane is a deranged man who has found a way to make the people and events in his stories real.
Trent desperately seeks an escape from the supernatural horrors Cane has wrought in Hobbs End, knowing that his only chance for survival is to free himself from the madman’s playground and return to the real world…but how can he escape, when he doesn’t even know how he got to Hobbs End in the first place?
My Take
While some of the special effects look dated by today’s CGI standards, the movie creates and maintains a level of creepiness that really grabs hold of you and doesn’t let go. Prochnow and Neill are very good in their roles, though Julie Carmen plays it a little over-the-top as Cane’s editor, Styles. Even so, I rate this movie 4.5/5 stars. If you enjoyed The Serpent and the Rainbow or Angel Heart, you’ll find this is similar in tone, and shares the same kind of supernatural horror and creep factors.