"Masters of Horror" John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns (2005)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

John Carpenter

Writers:

Drew McWeeny (writer) &
Scott Swan (writer) ...

TV Series:

"Masters of Horror" (2005)

Original Air Date:

November 2005 (Season 1, Episode 8)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

With a torrid past that haunts him, a movie-theater director is hired to hunt for the only known print of a film so notorious that its single screening caused the viewers to become homicidally insane.

Plot Keywords:

Collector | Regret | Snuff Film | Shot Through The Mouth | Beaten To Death

Cast

Norman Reedus	...	Kirby
Udo Kier	...	Bellinger
Gary Hetherington	...	Walter
Christopher Britton	...	Meyers (as Chris Britton)
Zara Taylor	...	Annie
Chris Gauthier	...	Timpson (as Christopher Gauthier)
Douglas Arthurs	...	Dalibor (as Douglas H. Arthurs)
Colin Foo	...	Fung
Gwynyth Walsh	...	Katja
Christopher Redman	...	Willowy Being
Julius Chapple	...	Henri Cotillard
Taras Kostyuk	...	Kaspar (as Taras)
Brad Kelly	...	Horst
Lynn Wahl	...	Cab Driver
Brahm Taylor	...	Protagonist

Runtime:

59 min | Germany:56 min (cut)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Certification:

Germany:18 (cut) | USA:TV-MA | Argentina:18

Company:

IDT Entertainment

Trivia:

The newspaper columnist lives in a secluded house in Carthage, New York. John Carpenter, who directed the movie, was born in Carthage, New York.

Goofs:

Continuity: Kirby visits Henri Cotillard's office in Paris, France. When Henri asks Kirby for the name of the film he's looking for, he puts his right hand by his computer monitor. In the next shot, Henri's arm is by his side.

Movie Connections:

References Profondo rosso (1975)

Great... Now I want to see "La Fin Absolue Du Monde" too!

"Cigarette Burns" is the second episode of "Masters of Horror" I watched (they're getting released in random order here in my country, apparently) and I'm still very satisfied with the results, although I enjoyed this one slightly less than the short movie "Incident on and off a Mountain Road"; directed by Don Coscarelli. But actually, the only thing all these titles have in common is that they're all part of the "Masters of Horror" series, but further comparison between them is unjust as they differ in style, tone and content. For instance, Coscarelli's contribution was a rather wild but light-headed gore-ride, whereas Carpenter's movie is pretty rough and emotionally devastating. This is actually the director's best work since the mid-80's, with a fairly original storyline, a handful of genuinely creepy moments and even a couple of authentic shock-moments! Carpenter hadn't been able to frighten me since "Prince of Darkness", but here he does it again. The plot blends elements of multiple other films, including Roman Polanski's "The Ninth Gate" and Carpenter's own "In the Mouth of Madness", yet it manages to come across as original and it's already worth watching if only for the truly cool trivia bits and references towards other classic movies. Kirby Sweetman is hired by an eccentric millionaire to track down the only existing copy of "La Fin Absolue Du Monde"; a notorious horror film that caused mayhem and death when it premiered at Stilges Festival and became a legend among fans and collectors ever since. This particular film is said to literally get under your skin and once you have visions of the "cigarette burns", you're marked by its curse. Being a devoted – better make that 'obsessed' – horror film collector myself, the premise of an ultra-rare and mind-blowing forbidden movie appealed to me immensely, and I'm sure many other regular viewers felt the same. This short movie has great music, fast pacing and I was really amazed by the amount of explicit violence and disturbing images. Certain sequences in "Cigarette Burns" are surely not meant for people with a weak stomach or tangled nerves. Oh, and Udo Kier is a God!