As I write this on Halloween night, the eerie glow of my television is washing over the room while John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness plays in the background. Seeing Sam Neill’s John Trent laughing maniacally in that empty theater while crunching on popcorn remains one of the greatest closing sequences in cinematic history. This year the film hits on an entirely different level because I’m fresh off finishing the official novelization—and I can say without hesitation that it is an absolute triumph.