In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
An insurance fraud investigator searches for a missing horror writer.
Genre
Characters/Groups
Jackson Harglow - Charlton Heston
Axe Maniac - Conrad Bergschneider
Receptionist - Katherine Ashby
Paper Boy - Hayden Christensen
Municipal Woman - Deborah Theaker
Simon's Son (Johnny) - Jack Moore-Wickham
Group of Kids - David Austerwell, Richard Kohler, Kieran Sells, Laura Schmidt, Kyle Sheehan, Daniel Verhoeven, Kevin Zegers, and Katie Zegers
Character thumbnails with links to profiles
Detailed Synopsis
An ambulance arrives at a mental hospital. Saperstein is on the phone when he gets word that a patient is being dropped off. He goes up to the Nurse (In the Mouth of Madness)|Nurse and tells her that John Trent is arriving. John is dragged into the building by Guard 1 (In the Mouth of Madness)|Guard 1 and Guard 2 (In the Mouth of Madness)|Guard 2 and Saperstein tells them to put John in Room 9. John is put into the room and yells that he isn't insane. Saperstein plays music on the PA system to distract the screaming patients and someone knocks on the glass of John's room. When John goes to look, no one is there and a shadow walks behind him. The shadow turns out to be Sutter Cane who tells John, it isn't the end. Dr. Wrenn arrives at the hospital and is met by Saperstein who takes him to John's room. They enter John's room and find him drawing crosses all over the walls of his room with a black crayon. Dr. Wrenn tells John that he wants to help get him released from the hospital, but John wants to stay. John asks Dr. Wrenn if the outside world is collapsing and then starts to tell him how everything started that led to where he is now.
In the past, John is at a meeting with Robinson and Mr. Paul. John is questioning Mr. Paul, who had filed a claim for items lost in a fire. John tells Mr. Paul that Robinson thinks Mr. Paul started the fire. He then tells Mr. Paul that they have photographs of Mrs. Paul wearing items that Mr. Paul says were lost in the fire. Robinson hands Mr. Paul the photos and John tells Mr. Paul that he showed Mrs. Paul photos of Mr. Paul's mistress, and Mrs. Paul then told them everything. Afterwards, John and Robinson go to a restaurant and Robinson invites John to work for his company and then tells him he wants him to investigate a new claim from Arcane Publishing. As they are talking, an Axe Maniac walks up to the glass window near them and shatters it with the axe. The Axe Maniac asks John if he reads Sutter Cane and as he is about to kill John with the axe, is shot dead by police. Later on the news, a Reporter (In the Mouth of Madness)|Reporter reports on the influence of Sutter Cane's books on his readers. John goes to Arcane Publishing and is brought by the Receptionist (In the Mouth of Madness)|Receptionist to Jackson Harglow's office. Linda Styles walks into the room and Jackson tells John that Sutter Cane disappeared two months ago. He tells him that the last person to hear from him was his agent, who also happened to be the Axe Maniac. The meeting ends and John tells Linda that he thinks the whole thing is a publicity stunt. Linda tells him that a year before his disappearance, Sutter Cane's work became more erratic and bizarre and he began to think that his writing was real and not fiction. As John is walking home he sees a poster for Sutter Cane's book, The Hobb's End Horror. He hears a noise and sees a Cop beating up on a Young Teen who spray painted I CA on the side of a building. John starts to walk away as the Cop asks if he wants a beating too. John calls Robinson and assures him that the disappearance is a scam. As John is buying some Sutter Cane books from the bookstore, he is approached by a Scrawny Teen who tells him that Sutter Cane can see John. John starts to read the Sutter Cane books and has a nightmare where he is witnessing the Cop beating the Young Teen, but this time he is surrounded by the Axe Maniac and some homeless people including Homeless Lady. The Axe Maniac is then chopped up the Homeless people and parts of him are eaten. John notices red lines on the covers of the books and cuts out the red outlines. He puts them together and has another meeting with Jackson and Linda and shows them that the cut outs form a map of New Hampshire and he believes Sutter Cane is at the town of Hobb's End in New Hampshire. John tells them that he thinks they are lying about Sutter Cane's disappearance and agrees to go searching for him with Linda. They drive to New Hampshire and they have a discussion on reality and she brings up that if the crazy took over the world, then he would be the one in the padded cell.