Cigarette Burns (2005)

Great Film overall

A Masterpiece!

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

JOHN CARPENTER'S CIGARETTE BURNS (as it's called) is an interesting mix of a dozen ideas (at least). In the movie LEGION, an angel loses his wings (the hard way). In Carpenter's classic IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS, insurance investigator Sam Neill attempts to track down a mysterious author whose books seem to have altered the reality of his readers; before long, Neill can't tell the Real World from the Fictional. In RINGU (THE RING), the mere viewing of a video tape warps the fine line between Life and Death and soon the distinction becomes no distinction at all. In CIGARETTE BURNS, Norman Reedus is sent to track down a copy of LA FIN ABSOLUE DU MONDE (THE ABSOLUTE END OF THE WORLD), a film so something or other that anyone who sees it goes nuts. En route, he meets an angel whose wings have been clipped and starts to experience some of the symptoms laid out in some of the aforementioned movies. Not Carpenter's best (although as a director he seems incapable of directing BADLY), but certainly the best episode of the MASTERS OF HORROR series.

This episode is really great. I watched it a second time not so long ago with a friend of mine and I have to admit, that what Carpenter creates here, is just amazing. The atmosphere, the sound design, the editing, the acting he can squeeze out of his cast ... Everything fits. And while quite a few episodes take detours, this is straight horror. I think, that's why many people enjoyed it that much. Carpenter gives the fans, what they yearn for.Norman Reedus and Udo Kier are the main actors of course, but what really is the main attraction is the style of the movie. From set design to cinematography, everything clicks here and creates a "fantastic" (no pun intended) atmosphere. If you allow yourself to get into it, that is. Of course, being an episode on TV it has some restraints (time-wise for example), but even so, it has movie quality written all over itself. Watch it and be scared ...

I'd first like to echo some of the other postings here by saying I found this to be John Carpenter's best work in years, it had me glued to the screen.There are so many things to like. The script and particularly the dialogue are quite sublime, building up upon the sense of foreboding established early on. All the actors put in quality performances, this is well directed work. The shocks and moments of gore work effectively, if this had been released in the UK during the 80s it would have been banned as a 'video nasty'.Is this too plagiaristic? I don't think so. While it has similarities to earlier presentations (such as The Ninth Gate), I think there's plenty of room in this genre for more horrors in this style. Rather this than more 'body count' and/or 'torture porn' movies. Like others, I'd have been quite happy to see this (expanded) as a full length movie.And excellent addition to the series, possibly the best. Highly recommended.

This is the fifth episode I've watched from the popular horror series, which gave a lease of life to many a genre exponent from the 1970s onwards; surprisingly, it was shown on a weekday on late-night Italian TV (albeit in English with subtitles). It is easily the best I've seen so far and also one of Carpenter's most satisfying efforts in a very long time.The premise is fascinating – especially for people like us, given that it basically deals in the workings of being a film-fanatic – but, needless to say, it's treated as fantasy and obviously taken to extremes for greater dramatic impact. In fact, the title is a reference to the reel-change indicators visible on celluloid – though here it's also the precursor to hallucinatory visions which afflict the various characters in search of a legendary 'lost' snuff film which, when viewed, changes the spectators into homicidal or self-mutilating maniacs! For the record, the overall style and level of gore displayed throughout is more typical of the series than the director's traditional oeuvre; incidentally, his son provides a score which is highly reminiscent of the elder Carpenter's compositions for his own earlier work! The protagonist, a young theatre owner specializing in cult horror films (including DEEP RED [1975] by Dario Argento, whose two "Masters Of Horror" entries are among those I'm familiar with and which I even own), doesn't exactly cut it – but Udo Kier (from Argento's own SUSPIRIA [1977]) generates the requisite sinister obsession in his role of the ageing millionaire after the dangerous rolls of film. He even keeps one of the surviving crew members of that particular film, "La Fin Absolue Du Monde", chained up inside a hidden room in his remote mansion – and, although the latter has shriveled to a wraithlike figure, his devotion to the cursed film itself hasn't abated with time! Incidentally, it's somewhat lame to have the elusive film traced after so many years at the place which it would have been automatic to look first i.e. in the possession of its late director's widow (nonchalantly stashed in her living room despite its 'explosive' nature!) but, I suppose, it's a flaw that can be overlooked when seen against the carnage going on around it!