Have you ever read a book that changed your life? No? Well don't worry about it, as John Carpenter's film, In the Mouth of Madness shows us that that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Therein, a prolific author named Sutter Cane has vanished, and so his publisher hires private investigator John Trent (played by Sam Neill) to track him down and bring back his latest manuscript (and the author himself, if possible). Trent soon discovers thatt that the reason no one could find Cane was because he was hiding away in Hobb's End, a town he made up in his books which now suddenly exists. Trent himself believes this to all be a great publicity stunt, but the publisher (played by Charleton Heston) insists that Trent travel to Hobb's end, along with Cane's editor Linda Styles, and recover the missing author and his works.

Well they do eventually find they town. By the time Trent actually meets up with Cane, however, he's a little distressed by some of the odd happenings around town: roving bands of axe-wielding mutants, disturbing artwork, murderous old people/squids, etc. Cane has more in store for him, however, and brings us to a memorable horror moment.

Trent arrives just in time to watch Cane finish his book. He hands Trent the finished manuscript and tells him that he will leave Hobb's End and take it back to the publisher. What makes him so sure of that? Because Trent is just a character that Cane created. Trent scoffs at the idea, but at the same time, doesn't want to read the manuscript to know for sure. Cane warns him to leave immediately because, "I can't hold them back any longer." Trent is still confused by all this, but before he can ask for clarification...

Cane grabs his own face and rips it apart as though it were made of paper. He peels it back further, and soon, there's just a hole in... well, in the world. Being an investigator, Trent can't help but investigate the hole. Meanwhile, Styles whips out the manuscript, flips to this point in the story, and starts reading aloud:

"Trent stood at the edge of the rift, stared into the illimitable gulf of the unknown, the Stygian world yawning blackly beyond. Trent's eyes refused to close.

"He did not shriek, but the hideous unholy abominations shrieked for him. As in the same second, he saw them, spill and tumble upward, out of an enormous carrion black pit, choked with the gleaming white bones of countless unhallowed centuries.

"He began to back away from the rift as the army of unspeakable figures, twilit by the glow from the bottomless pit, came pouring at him toward our world."

So he runs. He tries to get Styles to run with him, but she refuses because, "I've read to the end," and so he leaves her behind.

As he runs, he can only catch glimpses of what it is that's chasing him, but that's enough to make him run all the faster. Unfortunately, like the top-heavy extra in a B-grade horror movie, Trent trips at the worst possible time, and the pursuing horrors wash over him.

When Trent uncovers his head, he realizes that he's lying in the road just outside of Hobb's End. Or at least that's where he thinks he is. He asks a passing paperboy if he's ever heard of Hobb's End, but the kid just shakes his head at him. Then again, I would too if I saw a guy wearing a sport coat with blue jeans. That's just crazy.

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Born László Loewenstein, the 5'5" Hungarian stage actor Peter Lorre had already achieved notoriety working with Bertolt Brecht when Fritz Lang cast him as a serial killer of children in "M". He fled Europe ahead of the Nazis and in 1933 played a villain for Alfred Hitchcock in "The Man Who Knew Too Much". Moving easily between comedy, Noir and Horror, Hollywood's ultimate sleazy weasel and all-purpose wily foreigner. In attendance at Bela Lugosi's open casket funeral, he said to Vincent price, "Do you think we should drive a stake through his heart just in case?"

Also noteworthy is the fact that the voice of I-Mockery's favorite monster cereal character, Boo Berry, was inspired by Peter Lorre!

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