As I was editing this week’s episode, I thought to myself “Hmm. Was I too hard on John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness? Was I on such a carpet sweeping high that I failed to relay the charms of the film?” I don’t think I was particularly scathing, and I don’t think I said anything about it that was untrue, at least concerning how affected I was or wasn’t during this recent watch. But it’s strange, when I’m not watching In the Mouth of Madness—whether it was during that editing session or here, now, writing this—I find myself of the mind that the movie is so mind-bendingly good, that the meta overlap of John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness and Sutter Cane’s In the Mouth of Madness puts it on its own special level. It is neat! And maybe that’s true! But I also think that the Rumplestiltskin Phenomenon is happening. If you’re a regular Final Girl reader, you might know what I mean. If you’re not a regular Final Girl reader, well, here’s what I mean:

Rumplestiltskin is terrible to sit through, but talking about it and remembering some things about it (in particular the “Fucketh me!” car chase sequence) is the best. The fun that one has while remembering the film is transmogrified in the brain to meaning that the film itself is fun to watch. So you watch it and quickly find out that your brain was confused. But later, talking about it…well, the cycle continues. It’s like you’re that old man 12-year-old in In the Mouth of Madness, only instead of being trapped in Hobb’s End you’re trapped in, uh, watching Rumplestiltskin.

Anyway, I am not saying that In the Mouth of Madness is terrible. Or even that it’s not good! I’m just saying that its tone and approach to a cosmic kind of horror is different than the tone and approach I remembered it having, and I like my imaginary tone and approach better, so I should keep In the Mouth of Madness in my brain of madness, that’s all.

In the 1990s, John Carpenter took a lot of crazy chances and took some big swings. That was simply his vision at the time. Snake Plissken rode a surfboard, you know? Joanna Cassidy flew in a hot air balloon over Mars. (Yes, Ghosts of Mars came out in 2001, but 2001 was still the 90s). Those kinds of visions don’t always work for me, when I just want Snake Plissken to be cool AF and I want The Fog vibes. But that’s on me! You gotta meet a film where it is…even if it does slander the dulcet tones of Karen Carpenter. Geez, no wonder In the Mouth of Madness was better in my memory: I’d forgotten all about that part!