Chattanooga Film Festival 2025 Coverage
In the Mouth review
A man is locked inside his house for fear of being eaten by the giant head on his lawn. Yeah, that old story.
Festival movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
In the Mouth
Directed by Cory Santilli
Written by Cory Santilli
Starring Colin Burgess and Paul Rothery
In the Mouth Review
There is no shortage of one location films out there. In fact, I already wrote about one this week. From 12 Angry Men to Locke to Late Night with the Devil to…well you get the idea. Rear Window might be the most famous example of a single location film…but I don’t think any of them has a more interesting reason for its single set than In the Mouth. The movie takes place inside of a man’s home.
Anxiety keeps him locked up…which is a fine reason for a one location shoot…but it has been done before. What makes In the Mouth so unique is the way it represents that anxiety. Merl (Colin Burgess) can’t leave the house because a giant version of his head sits on the lawn waiting to eat him. Believe it or not…this isn’t even Merl’s biggest problem.
Behind on the rent and with no way to get fast cash…Merl is forced to find a roommate in a hurry. His ad is answered by Larry (Paul Rothery) …who seems nice enough and able to put up with Merl’s peculiarities. He’s also a manslaughterer on the run from the law. Something that Merl might know if he paid any attention to the world around him. We get reports about Larry from in world telecasts that Merl is present for…he’s just too distracted by any number of anxiety related issues to notice.
When Larry arrives you expect In the Mouth to become a story about an agoraphobic man who finds that he’s trapped inside with the real danger. But…it strangely doesn’t. Merl is simply too preoccupied with his own traps to be aware of the danger. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be a confrontation. There is. But, like everything in the world of In the Mouth…it has to be on Merl’s terms. Which is another way of saying…with Merl’s limited understanding of the situation playing out in front of him.
There’s a manhunt for Larry, of course…one that inevitably finds its way to Merl’s doorstep. Detectives aren’t the only visitors Merl receives throughout In the Mouth. Intruders break in searching for money that Larry has stashed inside the house. In both cases, whether dealing with criminals or the law, Merl couldn’t be less helpful. He’s completely unaware of what’s going on outside his front door. He barely knows anything about what’s happening inside of it either.
Burgess is great as Merl. A lovable loser who is too innocent for his own good. Even when he’s guilty. He’s trapped as much by his anxiety/the giant head as he is by his naiveté. The chaos outside begins to spill into his living room…and he’s just as powerless to stop it as he is to understand it.
The black and white film features some surrealist stuff as you’d expect in a movie where a man’s giant head keeps him locked inside of his house. The head concept is a brilliant one. It looks awesome too. But it’s the quirky oddball ways in which Merl interacts with the limited parts of the world forced upon him that make In the Mouth a winner.
There’s no way to predict where the story is going…because, like Merl, it might not be able to go anywhere. If it tries to take itself into a vaster space…it might end up just like Merl if he tries to leave his house.
Scare Value
In the Mouth is a unique film from every angle. From how it looks to how its story unfolds. Merl is a great protagonist because he’s so averse to taking an active role in the story. But it’s his story. His own life locked away…by himself. There’s a cleverness without cynicism to In the Mouth that makes it stand out. Colin Burgess’ Merl embodies that perfectly. It’s funny, unpredictable, and features a giant head that will eat the main character if he tries to escape the growing list of problems inside. What more could you want?
