MASTERS OF HORROR - JOHN CARPENTER'S "CIGARETTE BURNS"

MASTERS OF HORROR - JOHN CARPENTER'S "CIGARETTE BURNS"
By Ken Leicht

John Carpenter’s “Cigarette Burns” is one of the episodes of Masters of Horror that I had been looking forward to. I’m a big fan of the story line where a character searches for a rare collectible with a sinister past. Unfortunately, the problem with this plot is that when the object is finally found, things usually go downhill from there as somehow the mystery is always more interesting than the resolution.

Norman Reedus plays Jimmy Sweetman, a finder of rare films who happens to be desperately in need of cash. A sinister and wealthy collector, played by the perfectly cast Udo Kier, sends Jimmy off in search of the legendary “Le Fin Absolut du Monde” aka the Absolute End of the World. The film is allegedly so disturbing that at its one and only screening the crowd went mad and killed each other. As the trail to the film gets warmer, Jimmy starts to have disturbing visions of his dead ex-girlfriend who committed suicide. He begins to realize that the film is getting to him even though he hasn’t even seen it.

As a meditation on whether or not watching disturbing and violent images has an effect upon you, it succeeds as a question. Does it or doesn’t? The answer is elusive. Jimmy comes to believe that by viewing absolute evil you find out where you stand within yourself…or something like that. I don’t know. Like Polanski’s THE NINTH GATE, when the mysterious object is found, its secret is more interesting than its payoff.

There’s great gore and a lot of well thought out commentaries about art and cinema. A strong debut for AICN’s Moriarty and Obi-Swan. Moriarty obviously knows a lot about film and has thought a lot of deep thoughts about it. I look forward to seeing more work from him, especially in this genre. But ultimately I’d say the episode was just okay. John Carpenter performed admirably for his segment of MOH. Hopefully we can see more of a return to form from him in the near future.