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• Included with the Quatermass Movies.
• Without question, there is an homage to Five Million Years to Earth in one of the very best of the John Carpenter films, In the Mouth of Madness (1994).

Martin Winfree
December 15, 2018
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Without question, there is an homage to Five Million Years to Earth in one of the very best of the John Carpenter films, In the Mouth of Madness (1994), whose title is adapted from that of an H. P. Lovecraft novella, At the Mountains of Madness (1931). (Guillermo del Toro has had a still unrealized film adaptation of this novella in the works for many years). One of the novels written by the horror writer at the heart of the story, Sutter Kane is The Hobb’s End Horror, taken from the name of the neighborhood in London where the action in Five Million Years to Earth takes place.

In turn, there is a reference to In the Mouth of Madness in perhaps the best screen adaptation of a Lovecraft story, Dagon (2001), a Spanish feature that was directed by long-time horror movie director Stuart Gordon. The title is derived from one of Lovecraft’s earliest tales, Dagon (1919) – which was written over 100 years ago – but the story is actually based primarily on his 1931 novella The Shadow over Innsmouth. In the film, the town’s name is “Imboca”, which is Spanish for “in the mouth”. It has been many years since I have seen this film; but, paraphrasing a well-known warning label, some scenes in Dagon are likely to be too intense for my 21st Century self.

In the Mouth of Madness follows the works of a highly popular horror writer whose readers are driven insane by the material – not at all unlike what happens to people who dare to read the dreaded Necronomicon written by the “mad Arab” Abdul Alhazred that was invented by H. P. Lovecraft, or the second act of the equally horrific The King in Yellow that was referenced in a series of 19th Century stories of that name by Robert W. Chambers.

At an early point in the movie, where the protagonist, an insurance investigator named John Trent is being held in an insane asylum, the inmates begin singing along to the playing of the Carpenters song (as in John Carpenter, obviously), “We’ve Only Just Begun”. Trent calls out, “No, not the Carpenters, too!!!”.

Immediately following this light-hearted moment, the recording slowly winds down, and the oddest looking arm I have ever seen gives a couple of quick knocks on the glass – the film then takes a hard right turn straight into The Pit, with a parade of wild plot twists and fantasy and horror sequences that are almost beyond belief. Eventually, Trent returns to the “real world” and finds that absolutely everything is going to hell, even seeing earlier scenes of this very film where he starts cackling at his own dialogue.

The cast of In the Mouth of Madness is one of the best ever assembled for a horror movie. Sam Neill, who has the lead role as John Trent, is a fine actor from New Zealand who has found himself being a primary or supporting player in an unbelievably long list of landmark movies besides this one, among them Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981), The Hunt for Red October (1990), The Piano (1993), Event Horizon (1997), and three of the Jurassic Park films: Jurassic Park (1993), Jurassic Park III (2001), and Jurassic World Dominion (2022).

Other actors who have been featured in one or more notable horror or science fiction films include David Warner, whose many film credits include The Omen (1976), Nightwing (1979), Time After Time (1979), Tron (1982), Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), The Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph Carter (1992), and H. P. Lovecraft’s Necronomicon (1993). Bernie Casey plays the leader of the title characters in the TV-movie Gargoyles (1972). Charlton Heston (of all people) portrays the publisher of the Sutter Cane novels; Heston is well-known for starring in the original version of Planet of the Apes (1968).

In his debut film role, Hayden Christensen has a brief appearance as a paper boy; Christensen went on portray a young Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader in two of the Star Wars movies: Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005).

The author’s name in the film is Sutter Cane (blatantly adapted from that of real-life author Stephen King), and he is played by veteran German actor Jürgen Prochnow, one of the stars of the top-drawer war movie Das Boot (1981). In the English-language version of the movie called The Boat, the German actors do all of their own dubbing of the English onto their original performances. Jürgen Prochnow also stars in the horror film The Keep (1983)

One canny bit of casting is the inclusion in the film of long-time character actor Frances Bay (pictured). I have seen her in dozens of movies and TV shows, where she always plays a sweet “little old lady” – but not this time.