listlessFor Kid Night, we rented John Polson's Hide and Seek and John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness. Polson's film was a disappointment, though I really can't say I had any expectations (well, then you shouldn't say you were disappointed, Kiernan). Sort of a Made-for-TVish, Shiningesque thing that managed little sense and came with five alternate and almost equally unsatisfying endings (four alternates, five endings counting the original theatrical one). I still admire Dakota Fanning, and she's still my pick for Dancy, but I do hope she gets better roles in the future; she was just about the only thing that halfway worked in this film. As for In the Mouth of Madness, a film whose charm has always eluded me, we rented it because neither of us had seen it in a while. It seemed longer and more fleshed out than I remembered, though I can no find evidence that the DVD included material omitted from the theatrical or VHS releases. Regardless, I was still soundly unimpressed. It's a film that plays more like half-assed camp, more a parody of Lovecraft than a Lovecraftian film. It's more often funny than creepy, never actually frightening, and lacks even an ounce of dread. The makeup and creature effects are shoddy and unconvincing, the story's muddled and absurd, and Sam Neil spends the whole film looking sleepy and vaguely bemused to be stuck in such a mess. So, I still don't see why anyone admires this film.
Right now, I wish someone would ask me to do a convention in Greece. Or maybe southern France. Somewhere warm and dry and Mediterranean and at least seemingly far away from American politics. And Spooky gets to come, too. I'd take them up on it, deadlines or no deadlines.
