The surreal and esoteric world of author H P Lovecraft have long interested horror directors but the films have seldom successfully captured his nightmarish mix of madness and mythology. John Carpenter's "In The Mouth Of Madness" is not directly based on Lovecraft's work but screenwriter Michael De Luca draws his inspiration from Lovecraft's Cthulu mythos and then adds a further homage to Ngel Kneale and "Quatermass".

John Trent (Sam Neill), an insurance investigator recently "sectioned", tells his story to a psychiatrist. Hired to track down horror author Sutter Cane, by his publishers, Trent finds the trail leads him to Hobb's End. The thing is the town shouldn't exist outside of the novels. He watches the town collapse into madness, murder and monstrous transformations: the contents of Cane's novels manifesting in the material world. And it wants to spread! The dark forces working through Cane's text have designs to engulf the entire world.

Well this is a surprising return to form by Carpenter. It is thoughtful and minimalist. It has the brooding traits of a Lovecraft story along with the "science versus the ancient world" themes common in Kneale's work. There is clever imagery, twists and black humour. Overlooked at the box office, this film improves with a second viewing. It's more an eerie vignette, than a traditional horror, but for the more patient and thoughtful viewer, it's a rewarding experience.

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The original 1960 version of "Village Of The Damned" is regarded as a classic of science fiction, and it remains one of the creepiest movies of its kind. Directed with occasional flair by John Carpenter, this 1995 remake trades subtlety for more explicit chills and violence, but the basic premise remains effective, drawing on the original 1960 screenplay and John Wyndhams novel, "Midwich Cuckoos".

In the tiny, idyllic town of Midwich, a strange mist causes the entire population to fall asleep, and when everyone awakes the town physician (Christopher Reeve) discovers that 10 women, including his wife and a local teenage virgin, have mysteriously become pregnant. Their children are all born on the same day, with matching white hair and strange, glowing eyes, grow at an accelerated rate and thus raise Reeve's suspicion that they are not of earthly origin. These children can control minds and wreak havoc with the power of their thoughts, so of course they must be destroyed. Now before you shout "xenophobia", it should be noted that attempts to communicate with these aliens make clear their intentions are to dominate over man.

Only Reeve knows how to circumvent their mind control, and his performance (the actor's last big-screen role before his paralysing accident in 1995) dominates this otherwise superfluous remake with enough credibility to hold the viewer's attention. There's also a concession towards a more mainstream ending than the original.Yet despite it flaws, Carpenters version is still intriguing and he still shows the occasional flash of innovation. But for the real chills, definitely check out the original version, it's 20 minutes shorter but twice as spooky.

XoD.