8. In The Mouth Of Madness
Staying with the theme of horror authors and unearthly inspiration we arrive at our first entry from the works of John Carpenter. In The Mouth of Madness is in fact the final movie in his apocalypse trilogy and, of the three, possibly the most profoundly disturbing. Though perhaps not outwardly Lovecraftian; In The Mouth of Madness absolute drips with the slime of a thousand unearthly tentacles. The initial premise is a classic Lovecraftian trope. Mundane investigator begins a case which; through progressively transgressive events and distortions of time and space warps his very mind and the actual fabric of reality itself. Carpenter cleverly interweaves these notions with tropes of other genres of horror creating an actual psychological effect in the audience far more profound and ultimately more sinister than the Wachowski brothers could ever philosophically posit, particularly in the first time viewer. Like many movies in this list experienced audiences will yield a sense of knowing humour that reinforces the mythos world-view.