Masters of Horror: Cigarette Burns [reviewed by Lackey]

Season 1 episode 8, 2005
Directed by John Carpenter
My rating:
IMDB

An episode about a movie that drives people mad doesn’t exactly drive people mad, but it’s still worth watching.

* * *

Premise

In 1971, La fin absolue de monde (The Absolute End of the World) received its first and only screening at a small film festival in Spain; riots and violence erupted. The authorities seized the only known print and destroyed it—or at least that’s what rare films dealer Kirby Sweetman believes. However, one of Sweetman’s clients has proof of the film’s survival, and hires him to track down and retrieve the print. Soon after Kirby starts experiencing visual hallucinations, and it turns out you don’t need to actually see the film to fall under its spell…

Critique

“Cigarette Burns” (the title comes from a slang term for cue marks originally invented by Chuck Halahniuk for his novel Fight Club) starts off with one of the most intriguing openings I’ve ever seen: after a brief discussion on the particulars of La fin, Kirby’s client—a fellow by the name of Bellinger—shows him the prize of his collection of motion picture memorabilia. What is initially implied to be one of the props used in La fin turns out to be one of what we can only assume is one of the actors. It’s still alive, and it has two hideous vertical scars running down its back. It looks like this thing—whatever it is—might once have had wings.

There’s a long history in horror fiction of works of art that drive its audiences insane—before there was H.P. Lovecraft’s Necronomicon, there was The King in Yellow, a stage play that figures as a plot device in several stories by Robert Chambers. This is familiar territory for John Carpenter, who’s dealt with strong Lovecraftian themes in the past, perhaps on a purer level than fellow Master Stuart Gordon. (He’s even explored the connection between art and madness once before, in his 1995 film In the Mouth of Madness.)

“Cigarette Burns” doesn’t just have to be a horror story, it also has to be an episode of Masters of Horror. That means that there are certain expectations that need to be met. That means graphic violence—after all, we’ve got Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger on staff. That means sexual content—after all, this is a Showtime series. (Admittedly, not every episode has had nudity, but most of them have.) However, story like “Cigarette Burns” needs to work more with the implicit than the explicit. While the gore is well-executed, and it’s hard to object to Zara Taylor being naked in most of her scenes, it all seems a bit gratuitous. Or at least more gratuitous than it needs to be. Finally, a little bit too much of La fin is revealed, which hurts things a bit. The problem with the idea of movies driving people mad is that…well…movies actually don’t drive people mad. We’re given a few too many tantalizing fragments of what exactly is contained on those reels.

Otherwise we have a solid production. The screenplay—by former Ain’t It Cool News editor Drew “Moriarty” McWeeny and his writing partner, Scott Swan—is well-plotted and tense. A subplot involving Kirby’s relationship with his late wife Annie and the money he owes to his father-in-law is used fairly well; while it’s an essential commentary on Kirby’s themes, it could quite easily have become a distraction. The performances are fairly strong, especially from Norman Reedus of Boondock Saints (spit!) fame. Oh look, it’s Udo Kier. Carpenter, of course, turns in a fine directorial job (seriously, I’ll watch anything this guy does…I even liked Vampires, for cryin’ out loud), and the makeup is some of the best I’ve seen Nicotero and Berger do so far in this series.

Still, it’s hard to shake the feeling that maybe more should have been left unseen. Confirm too much and you run the risk of revealing how banal it all is. “Cigarette Burns” doesn’t quite live up to the implications of its opening sequence, but it’s fascinating to watch it try.

Season 1 Episode Ranking

1. “Deer Woman” (1.07)
2. “Cigarette Burns” (1.08)
3. “Incident On and Off a Mountain Road” (1.01)
4. “Jenifer” (1.04)
5. “Dreams in the Witch-House” (1.02)
6. “Dance of the Dead” (1.03)
7. “Chocolate” (1.05)
8. “Homecoming” (1.06)

• Scarecrow [reviewed by Jori]
  [Zero stars] Imagine a world where teenagers are in their thirties and scarecrows are ninjas.
• Masters of Horror: Right to Die [reviewed by Lackey]
  [Season 2 episode 9 · 3 stars] A potentially great episode ruined by (you guessed it) a stupid, ill-conceived twist.
• Unborn but Forgotten [reviewed by Jori]
  2 stars: Don't mess with pregnant women.