“Masters of Horror” John Carpenter’s Cigarette Burns Movie Review

Article by FisterRoboto of lefthandhorror.com

Written by Mick Garris, Drew McWeeny, and Scott Swan

Directed by John Carpenter

Starring Norman Reedus, Udo Kier, and Colin Foo

With a torrid past that haunts him, a movie-theater director is hired to hunt for the only known print of a film so notorious that its single screening caused the viewers to become homicidally insane.

“Le Fin Absolue du Monde” (The Absolute End of the World) is an enigma wrapped in a mystery, wrapped in a burrito, wrapped in an “I don’t care.”

The original Halloween film is my all-time favorite movie in the world, so it’s safe to assume I had high hopes for this John Carpenter film. While it’s directed well, in a true JC fashion, and portrayed very well by The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus, this is just a lame entry.

Cheesy story + blood for the sake of blood = cliche and bland horror. The beginning of the film got my attention and I hoped it would go in the right direction. Yeah, it didn’t. I don’t expect everything I watch to be wrapped up in a tight little package in the end. I do, however, expect a slight hint at the origin of something as evil as a film that causes murderous violence for anyone who watches it. If anything, more questions were raised.

Cigarette Burns was made for television and it felt like it. Filmed in 2005 it sure feels like a cheesy 80’s horror flick…and not in the good nostalgic way. Thankfully it clocks in at just under an hour, so the mediocrity doesn’t last too long.

Carpenter’s son, Cody, wrote the music and it has a certain reminiscent quality to it. The make-up effects are surprisingly cool for a low budget made-for-tv movie. You probably won’t forget a guy disemboweling himself and feeding his guts through a movie projector. Sadly, that’s what’s you’ll probably remember as the high point of the film.

Skip it unless you’re like me and want to make sure you’ve seen all of Carpenter’s work. Yawn.