If coincidences are just coincidences, why do they feel so contrived?

The Movie: In the Mouth of Madness, directed by John Carpenter
Recommendation: Len
Reason: "Freaky."

It's rare to find a movie that's truly immersive. I've heard good things about watching Babel without subtitles, allowing for a normally unavailable empathy with the main character. I didn't expect a horror movie to get so very under my skin. I suppose part of that is John Carpenter's fault. Village of the Damned and The Fog were both very unsettling for me and with the proviso that I haven't seen The Thing or Halloween, In the Mouth of Madness is the most disturbing film of his that I've seen so far.

It isn't the violence or the special effects (God, it's definitely not the special effects). It's the backbrain 'I know that from somewhere' bits that Carpenter's thrown into the film, from the music (stealing the riff from Enter Sandman) to the story (which borrows heavily, but often subtly from both Stephen King and H. P. Lovecraft). He's got a strange sort of style that slips the references in, allowing the viewer to catch them in their own time. I was riveted, alternately twitching and going wide-eyed as one piece after another fell into place.

Was it a good movie? Yeah. The cinematography, the casting, those worked nicely. By 1995, Carpenter was a pretty capable director. The special effects...you do what you can with what you have. They were alright, not spectacular. Not as amazing as the technical work on The Fog (or, as I've heard, The Thing). Hurray for Sam Neill for being a pretty good protagonist and managing not to sound too over-the-top in his insanity scenes. I recommend this movie for anyone with a decent familiarity with Stephen King or Lovecraft. Twitch away, horror lovers.

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