This is How Movies Should Be Made

disgusting, overrated, pointless

An action-packed slog

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Feels like The Ninth Gate (1999)---very few original ideas make it to film---another derivative --the lead is lame--I found myself waiting for it to end--

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.

"Cigarette Burns" is about a financially struggling movie-theater owner who makes money by seeking out hard to find copies of films. He is approached by a man to find the only known print of a film that is notorious for causing its viewers to become homicidal. For being such a short film, the story line is really suspenseful and interesting. As an avid horror movie viewer, it is difficult for me to find things scary or creepy, but during this one I found myself cringing multiple times. In the end I was left with a "what did I just watch" feeling, which in my book is a strong win for a horror film. I definitely recommend this to any fans of the horror genre.

I have not seen all the Masters of Horror episodes(am working my way slowly through them now), but this one by John Carpenter is easily my favorite so far - and the best. Imagine if you will that there is a "lost" film out there that has the power to destroy its audience and then imagine a very wealthy man has hired a very good film finder to get him a copy. This is the basic premise behind this episode. Carpenter always is a cinephile's best friend paying a bit of homage here and there and creating an episode here that any true film-lover should find fascinating. Carpenter weaves his tale in an hour and it is fast-paced, tense, and gut-wrenching(literally and figuratively). I enjoyed the whole story of this lost, old French horror film, the tracking down of people who saw the film and managed to live, and the final installment dealing with people getting what they want. There are supernatural elements here and the gore is plentiful but not terribly too intrusive. The acting is first-rate with Norman Reedus playing the man paid to find the film and under the gun both financially and emotionally. Carpenter gives us Udo Kier, a horror "icon" to some degree, in the interesting role of the man who desperately wants the film no matter what the cost is. I loved the story but did find one problem that I just could not mesh with my logic or sense. It is the part where Reedus goes to France and meets a collector in a barn. What really happened there? It was not enough to make me lose interest or change my mind about what I thought was stunning filmmaking. Carpenter shows us he still is a force behind the camera. I know he has produced some less than stellar things in the last decade, but this is one of his best. That, for Carpenter, is quite a complement.