SOYLENT GREEN (1973)

In the year 2022, the world is all kinds of fucked up.  Industrialization, overpopulation (New York City itself is over 40 million people!) and global warming has destroyed the environment and now food is extremely expensive...too bad most people don't even have a job.

One evening, homicide detective Charlton Heston is called in to investigate the murder of wealthy businessman Joseph Cotten who has been beaten to death in his apartment.  Heston thinks that everything is too convenient to be a botched robbery: the security system was down, the bodyguard and the concubine were both out shopping, plus there was nothing stolen despite the fact there was tons of food and other luxury items all over the place.  The bosses tell Heston to lay off, but he keeps investigating on his own and the further he digs the more sinister things appear.

I enjoyed SOYLENT GREEN.  Younger audiences will probably find it overly simple (and it is), but I still enjoyed it.  The set designs and special effects were that special brand of early 70's, big studio efforts that look like crap nowadays, but yet I really like them.  It's strange.

Charlton Heston is always a treat to watch and Edward G. Robinson (who died just twelve days after filming...he knew his cancer was terminal, but finished out the film all the same) is great!  I couldn't help thinking the entire movie about how much I appreciated him and his contributions to Cinema.

Anyway, the biggest shocker to me was how unshocking the ending was.  There was this big buildup and then...nothing.  I'm not going to give away the ending here, just in case you don't know, but if somebody watching this movie hasn't figured out the ending within the first 20 minutes then you have to be a moron.  It's actually comical how flat the ending is.  That said, the scenes depicting overcrowding and people not even knowing what deer or trees were are haunting.

Worth a watch.  I would love to see a hard-hitting, super depressing remake. Maybe even a limited series on HBO.

IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS (1994)

Insurance investigator Sam Neill is hired by a publishing house to find their lost horror writer, Sutter Cane.  Using clues from Cane's book covers, Neill discovers a map that leads him to the fictional town of Hobb's End, which is the setting in many of Cane's novels.  Progressively creepy stuff happens (reoccurring bicycle rider on the road, paintings moving, phantom children, evil dogs, mutants, tentacles, dogs and cats living together) and soon Neill discovers that he's in a world of shit.

Time has not been kind to IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS.  The last time I last saw it was back in 1995 when it first came out in the theaters and I thought it was pretty creepy.  Revisiting it now...not so much.  Actually, it's not even creepy at all.  Instead the whole thing looks cheap around the edges, the story isn't near as grand as it promises to be, there's barely any violence, the only female with descent screentime to the unsexy "sexy" vampire from FRIGHT NIGHT II, the story drags on without any payoff, Sam Neill's performance comes off much campier than I remembered and the intro credit song by John Carpenter is like a bizarre lovechild of "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" and "Enter Sandman".

IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS isn't a bad movie, it's just dedicates so much energy into this whole perverted reality "are we living in a book?" bullshit that it forgets to actually have any scary moments.  Worth a watch for fans of 90's horror, but it's nothing to get excited about.  If you want me I'll be in my room watching PRINCE OF DARKNESS.