Apocalypse Trilogy

John Carpenter's Apocalypse Trilogy is a thematic film trilogy, consisting of The Thing (1982), Prince of Darkness (1987), and In the Mouth of Madness (1994). While there are no recurring characters or official ties, the director explicitly states on DVD commentaries and in interviews that he considers them a collective body of work, referring to them as his Apocalypse Trilogy.
Influences
The Thing is a remake of The Thing from Another World, more faithful to the original novella "Who Goes There?" in its retention of the story's original shapeshifting alien. Carpenter's film is bleaker in outlook than either the story or the earlier film and refuses to offer a happy ending. Unlike the other two films in the trilogy, The Thing centers on a small group first to encounter that which might destroy all life on Earth. Though discovered in isolation, the alien remains a risk to all of civilization.
In the Mouth of Madness is heavily influenced by the works of H. P. Lovecraft, but does not directly adapt any of his stories; it focuses instead on the relationship between horror authors, like Lovecraft or Stephen King, and an audience.
Of the three films, Prince of Darkness is the only one Carpenter wrote. He used the pen name of "Martin Quatermass", in homage to Nigel Kneale and the BBC Quatermass TV series Kneale wrote.
Connections
All three films feature a force (In The Thing it is an alien, in Prince of Darkness it is Satan and in In the Mouth of Madness it is an H.P. Lovecraft influenced set of evil demi-gods) which uses human beings against each other, often through manifesting as apparently-normal humans.
The three endings to the Apocalypse Trilogy also contain many of the same elements, all of which imply that the end of the world may be imminent.
The Thing ends on a bleak note, with the last two survivors lying in the freezing cold, mutually distrustful of one another, and apparently doomed; one tells the other, "Let's just sit here awhile, see what happens." The film closes with the two sitting across from one another as their only source of warmth slowly dwindles.
The film makes it clear that, should the Thing ever reach civilization, it would only be a matter of time before it dominated the world. The film does not show if one or both survivors have been infected by the Thing, or if it remains alive somewhere nearby, leaving viewers wondering whether Earth is doomed. An alternate TV ending shows one of the station's huskies running away into the snow, suggesting the possibility that the Thing will indeed spread. In the 2002 video game The Thing, it is revealed that one of the survivors, MacReady (played by Kurt Russell), did survive, though it is possible that MacReady had been infected by the creature.
Prince of Darkness likewise ends on an uncertain note, with the hero of the film, Brian Marsh, approaching his bedroom mirror, his fingers moving toward it. Previously, at the climax of the film, Marsh's love interest, Catherine Danforth, tackles Satan through a rippling portal to the "dark side," in the form of a large mirror. Before she can escape, a priest shatters the portal, trapping Satan, his Father, and Danforth in the other realm.
Following this, Marsh returns home, and experiences the recurring dream shown progressively throughout the film as different characters fall asleep. In it, a distorted voice states that what he is seeing is "not a dream," but is rather a transmission from the future year 1999 that cannot be made more accessible. The dream appears to be a grainy video of the front of the church in which the film is set. As the voice states "a causality violation" has taken place and that something must be done in the past to prevent the revealed events from taking place, the point of view shifts toward the church front, from which a silhoutted figure emerges. While previous dreams stopped here, implying the appearance of Satan, this final dream shows the figure stepping through the threshold, revealing itself to be Danforth. Whether this truly is Danforth or Satan in disguise is left ambiguous.
After awakening, Marsh approaches his bedroom mirror, perhaps believing that he can reach across the portal and either reclaim his love, or encounter Satan and his minion. The film fades to black just before his fingers touch the mirror.
In the Mouth of Madness ends with the hero, John Trent, fully driven to madness by the events of the film, stepping into a movie theatre and watching the same film we, the audience, have watched, albeit edited into a frenzied, nonsensical mess. Alone in the theatre, he begins to laugh as images unfold on the screen, then weeps in realization as the screen fades to black.
Both The Thing and Prince of Darkness express variations of the same idea. In The Thing, MacReady claims, "Trust is a hard thing to come by these days," while Prince of Darkness has a priest claim, "Faith is a hard thing to come by these days." In the Mouth of Madness, while not conforming as well as the others, approaches this sentiment with Simon saying, "Reality isn't what it used to be."
The three films, taken in order, seem to indicate a progressive escalation of the evil force's effects, from its first discovery to the end of the world. In The Thing the dark force is encountered in the wilderness, whilst in Prince of Darkness brings it to the heart of civilization, and finally In the Mouth of Madness has the force acting within civilization on a covert basis for years, having taken complete control of the town of Hobb's End and communicating itself to the rest of the world through the novels of Sutter Cane. The conclusion of In the Mouth of Madness has the force finally overshadowing the human race entirely, bringing the thematic trilogy to a close.

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