Horror Daily Double: In the Mouth of Madness, The Void

Sigh, the last great John Carpenter movie. The director closes out his “apocalypse” trifecta (preceded by The Thing and Prince of Darkness) with this page burner about the power of words, and how believing everything you read can set about the end of the world. Sam Neill stars as an institutionalized insurance agent recounting how he got tossed into the padded room: After their star author Sutter Cane goes missing, Neill is tasked with tracking him down along with the manuscript to his final novel. All roads literally lead to Hobb’s End, the supposedly fictional town where Cane’s novels are set, where the nature of reality gets thrown into question. It’s the classic H.P. Lovecraft setup — a simple quest for answers nets unfathomable horror — finally done well for the movies. And though this isn’t quite vintage Carpenter (his indifference in directing would only grow from here on), the sheer intrigue of the plot gets you to the end, and then some.

Available on FandangoNOW, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu, Amazon Video, iTunes

Yes, yes, reading books and going bananas is all gravy, but where are the monsters? The walking deformities? The unholy unions between man and…whatever that thing is? If you need more creatures in your Lovecraft feature, look no further than The Void. It’s low-budget but high-creativity, a crowdfunded movie that plays on the more visceral and disgusting aspects of ol’ H.P.’s writings. A soon-to-be abandoned hospital is the main setting for Void, where a disparate group of medical employees, cops, and citizens have holed up following an attack by white-robed cultists who’ve adopted triangles as their mascot shape. The deeper into the night they go, the more they learn about about secret experiments in the realm of immortality, human sacrifice, and dimensional travel. Honestly, with its dark lighting, suspect acting, and irritating characters, The Void should not have worked. It’s a testament to directors Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie going all-in on the monster design and execution, while keeping all the effects practical; up until its cosmic finale, the movie is done without CGI, blessing the movie with an old-school vibe that doesn’t resort to stealing from ’80s or ’90s horror.

Available on Netflix, Amazon Video, iTunes, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu, FandangoNOW