Masters of Horror: John Carpenter: Cigarette Burns

Not bad. CIGARETTE BURNS tells the story of Kirby Sweetman (Played by Norman Reedus, who is a terrible actor...), a down-on-his-luck movie theater owner who freelances as a procurer of rare film prints. He's hired by a creepy rich guy (The always awesome Udo Kier) to find a copy of "LA FIN ABSOLUE DU MONDE", a lost film that had one official showing in the early 1970's, which ended in the audience erupting into murderous violence. Sweetman tracks the film around the world, encountering various unsavory characters, getting closer and closer to finding the film and unraveling it's mysteries, but if he DOES find the film, will he be getting more than he bargained for? Is this a return to form for Carpenter, who hasn't done anything worthwhile for almost 20 years? No. Not even close. It's got a GREAT premise, but the execution could have been better. Most of the acting is pure grade-z, the effects are decent, and the direction is competent at best. The DVD comes packed with extras... Read more

'Cigarette Burns' is the 8th episode of the first season of the 'Masters of Horror' anthology that ran 2 seasons on Showtime. It was directed by John Carpenter and stars Norman Reedus, Udo Kier, and Christopher Redman. The story starts off with our protagonist, a rare films dealer Kirby Stweetman(Reedus), arriving at an escentric film collector's home for a job. The film buff, Mr. Ballinger(Kier)wants Kirby to track down the only existing print of a film said to drive its viewers crazy, 'La Fin Absolue De Monde'(the Absolute End of the World). The film's only viewing resulted in extreme violence of viewers and the theater burning down, subsequently only one print is said to be in existance. Needing money to pay off his ex-father-in-law for fronting the money to open his movie theater, he takes the job. Investingating the film, he starts experiencing increasingly bizarre and frightening hallucinations. As he gets closer to the film, He decends into madness as he learns that a true e... Read more

I am a HUGE Carpenter fan. I bought Takashi Miike's episode for "Master's of Horror, "Imprint" for my boyfriend for his birthday (he is a big Miike fan). That is when I first stumbled upon "Master's of Horror". As I began to check out who else had done episodes...I came across "Cigarette Burns" and I knew I had to watch it. This episode is really something. I did find it a little slow, but very intriguing all the same. It is very creepy, the atmosphere of it, is almost surreal, like a nightmare. We become immersed in this story, we really feel bad for the main character(Kirby), who lost his girlfriend, and is constantly harassed by her father (who obviously blames him for his daughter's death) for the payback of a loan. He is hired by a movie collecter to find a rare print, considered to be lost. The film is "Le Fin Absolue Du Monde". The story goes, at the only showing of the film, the audience was whipped into a homicidal rage. Kirby becomes obsessed with finding it...running into... Read more

[review was written for the double feature] "Cigarette Burns" and "Dreams In The Witch House" is a truly great double feature of mind-numbing horror. Warning: extremely nasty and creepy. Do not watch if you are pregnant or have a weak heart. These are not sadism or mysteries masquerading as horror, but authentic horror, that is, not only scary, but regarding things that are out of this world coming into this world in a most unfriendly way. No happy endings here, other than total gratification for the horror movie fan. As of this review, I have only seen three of the Masters Of Horror film series, these two and "the Fair-Haired Child" (also excellent). If these films are representative, then I am greatly looking forward to seeing the rest of them. I think. [I'll try "Jenifer" (Dario Argento!) next] They are not only original and well-plotted, they are brilliantly implemented as well. Masters of horror indeed. This series was a great idea. The e... Read more

Masters of Horror: Cigarette Burns (John Carpenter, 2005) While it's been twenty years (or more, depending on your perspective) since John Carpenter has made a truly great feature-length film, Showtime's Masters of Horror series gives hard evidence that he hasn't lost an ounce of greatness in the intervening years. "Cigarette Burns", Carpenter's first-season entry in the series, is one of the best episodes I've seen so far. Kirby Sweetman (The Boondock Saints' Norman Reedus) is the owner of a small revival-house movie theater, and a man who consults with others on finding hard-to-track-down movies. He is approached by a collector, Bellinger (Suspiria's Udo Kier), who wants him to track down a film called Le Fin Absolue du Monde, the only print of which was supposedly destroyed. It's an underground legend; supposedly it had only one screening, and it drove the audience to homicidal violence. To make matters worse, Sweetman has ghosts in his own past, and they're coming back to hau... Read more