 Revisiting the ‘Masters of Horror’: Cigarette Burns by Richard martinWe are living in a golden age of horror on TV. Shows like ‘The Walking Dead’, ‘Supernatural’ and ‘American Horror Story’ have effectively taken the genre mainstream, offering weekly doses of gore and mayhem to the masses. Go back a decade or two however, and genre fans had far fewer options to choose from. Anthology shows, like ‘Tales From the Crypt’, ‘Monsters’ or ‘Tales From the Darkside’ were king during the horror heyday of the 1980s, providing cheesy and cheerful tongue in cheek horror in half hour bites. It wasn’t until 2005 that the TV horror anthology show got serious, and delivered arguably the most consistent, memorable and scary anthology show to date. The brainchild of horror legend Mick Garris, the show’s title is no hyperbole. ‘Masters of Horror’ brought together the best horror talent Hollywood (and beyond) had to offer. Episodes directed by undisputed genre luminaries such as John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper, Dario Argento and Stuart Gordon were like hour long movies brought to your TV screen. High production values, A-List talent and a free reign to do whatever they pleased resulted in some truly unforgettable work from a group of horror legends let off their leash. These are stories that have stayed with me in the fifteen years since many initially aired and, in this series, I’ll be revisiting all twenty-six episodes, one at a time, to shine a light on a fondly remembered and undeniably influential moment in horror TV history. Join me as I take a look back at; Cigarette Burns Directed by: John Carpenter Starring: Norman Reedus, Udo Kier, Gwynyth Walsh, Christopher Redman Original Air Date: 16 December 2005 Synopsis: A theatre owner and rare films dealer is sent to track down an infamous movie that is said to have instigated rioting and bloodshed at its’ initial screening before seemingly being destroyed. This is it! The big one folks, the episode that is probably the best known of Masters of Horror’s twenty-six episode run, perhaps the best-regarded and probably my personal favourite. To say I was excited to get to ‘Cigarette Burns’ would be an understatement. My expectations at the time I first watched this episode, way back in 2005, were sky-high. I was already in love with movies John Carpenter movies like ‘The Thing’ and ‘Halloween’ and was only a few years away from discovering classics such as ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ and ‘Big Trouble In Little China’. Couple this with this episode’s story, of a legendary horror movie that causes anyone who views it to commit horrific acts of violence, and this episode was always going to be something that appealed to me in a big way. Re-watching it now I also appreciated the added bonus of horror icons Norman Reedus (‘The Walking Dead’) and Udo Kier (‘Suspiria’, ‘Blade’), but did it live up to the fond memories? The episode opens with a signature Carpenter soundtrack (simple yet creepy) and a voiceover by Mr Bellinger (Udo Kier) as Kirby Sweetman (Norman Reedus) drives up to a huge mansion, where he meets Kier’s wealthy cinephile. He has invited Kirby as his reputation as a man who can track down obscure, seemingly lost movies, and he has a job for him. The fictional film within a film (‘La Fin Absolue du Monde’, translated as ‘The Absolute End of the World’) is almost a character in and of itself in Cigarette Burns. Every character we meet is completely consumed by it, whether it be the people who want nothing more than to finally watch it, or those destroyed by the fact that they have, and lived. A huge part of the success of this episode is that the film is built up to such a degree, yet we don’t end up with wholly satisfactory answers, leaving your imagination to fill in the blanks, all the while suggesting that the answers are beyond the capability of our minds to fathom, and that the worst our brains can conjure doesn’t do justice to the truth. Carpenter doesn’t waste any time in setting up some bizarre possibilities in motion, as Bellinger makes Kirby an offer he can’t refuse (i.e. $200,000) and before he heads off on his journey to find ‘La Fin Absolue du Monde’, he is introduced to the film’s star; a de-winged angel, chained to a pedestal in Ballinger’s living room. We aren’t offered any further information (that comes later) and although Kirby is obviously troubled by what he sees, he is also desperate and agrees to take the job. We soon see why the $200,000 means so much to Kirby when we learn via flashbacks that the theatre he owns was bought using money borrowed from his future father-in-law. A father-in-law that is now demanding the money back following the unexpected death of his daughter, a death which it is heavily implied that Kirby is at least partially responsible for. Desperate to both keep his theatre and rid himself of the man that serves as a constant reminder of his dead girlfriend, this sub-plot serves to give Kirby some backstory but, if I were to have a minor quibble with the episode, it would be that it doesn’t really add a great deal beyond that and, at times, drags the forward momentum down a little. I would argue that $200,000 is incentive enough, and his other motivations only draw focus from the far more interesting enigma of ‘La Fin Absolue du Monde’ The episode is a fairly slow burn, more than making up for a lack of action scenes with an overbearing sense of foreboding. A lot of what follows is Kirby speaking with people close to the film, researching and digging, getting closer and closer to a fabled print that he is convinced exists. These encounters start off low-key (although no less disturbing) with a visit to a film reviewer who saw the initial screening thirty years ago. His house is filled with hoarder level stacks of paper, millions of pages that we learn is his second attempt at a review of the movie, which he speaks about in fearful reverence before sending Kirby further down the rabbit hole. Things escalate quickly from there as Kirby meets somebody physically disfigured just from being present at a private screening some years earlier, then a group of snuff filmmakers who, in a brutal scene, decapitate his taxi driver on camera whilst waxing lyrical about the power of movies. The camera doesn’t seem to flinch from the violence (although that is largely clever editing and camerawork playing a trick on us) and it is all the more jarring and effective for the fact that Carpenter has allowed the tension to build and build to this point, suggesting that something awful was going to happen when the film is screened, then having this shocking scene burst the tension before Kirby has found it. We aren’t shown how Kirby escapes his predicament, as this is one of a number of blackout moments he has throughout the episode. The suggestion is that the closer he gets to the film, the more it affects him, and he has begun to see things that aren’t really there, blacking out when they appear. After this particular blackout, he walks up to find his captors all dead or dying and he escapes, with the information on where to find the movie.  The build-up has been so effective that the third act has a lot to live up to when Kirby finally delivers ‘La Fin Absolue du Mon’ to Bellinger but it pays off, and then some. We get glimpses of the infamous film and it is suitably horrific, playing like a supernatural snuff film with art-house sensibilities. Fun fact, there is a 2-second scene in this film within a film which is the only bit in all 26 hours of Masters of Horror I just can’t watch (fingernails breaking as they’re dragged down a brick wall). I shuddered just typing that description! We are also treated to perhaps the best on-screen death in all of Masters of Horror as well, as Bellinger, after having gone mad from watching it, is inspired to create his own masterpiece, by threading his intestines through the movie projector and letting it run. Throughout the episode Norman Reedus has been dependable and watchable, playing Kirby as an introverted, troubled loner. Udo Kier, on the other hand, steals the show. He’s a grand mix of sadistic and arrogant, chewing scenery and going big, and it’s a joy to behold. His death scene is one of the series most memorable moments and his performance is a big reason why. To answer my opening question, ‘Cigarette Burns’ is every bit as gripping, tense, disturbing and grotesque as I remember. The concept, and the talent involved, pretty much guaranteed that this would be a personal highlight but everything about this episode just comes together so well. It feels very cinematic and executes some pretty big ideas and pulls off a largely downbeat, almost nihilistic tone. I often see people suggesting that ‘Cigarette Burns’ is the best thing John Carpenter has made since the mid-90s and I don’t see this as a slight to his later movies, but rather a testament to just how good this episode is. Join me next time as I’ll be looking at episode nine of the first season, William Malone’s ‘Fair-Haired Child’. See you then! If you missed any of Richard's previous Revisting The Masters of Horror articles, you can find links to them all here on our handy landing page The Masters of Horror  Richard is an avid reader and fan of all things horror. He supports Indie horror lit via Twitter (@RickReadsHorror) and reviews horror in all its forms for several websites including Horror Oasis and Sci Fi and Scary TODAY ON THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR WEBSITE CONTENTS MAY UNSETTLE BY DAVID COURT (BOOK REVIEW) THE HEART AND SOUL OF HORROR FEATURES Comments are closed.
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