Cigarette Burns Year: 2005 Director: John Carpenter Written by: Drew McWeeny, Scott Swan Threat: Film Weapon of Choice: Dagger IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
Please see the Masters of Horror series page.

Rish's Reviews
This was the first of Anchor Bay's "Masters of Horror" series I saw, and the first film tyranist and I saw together this year. It will definitely not be the last, on both counts.
An obtainer of rare films is contracted to find the most notorious film of all time, the supposedly lost (and madness-inducing) Le Fin Absolue Du Monde. But the closer he gets to finding the film, the more the powers of darkness close in on him.
I absolutely loved the premise behind this film. True, tyranist (and Carpenter) pointed out that it was similar to stuff like The Ninth Gate and Carpenter's own In the Mouth of Madness, and I realize I once wrote a story with one major plotpoint in common, but it sure felt original to me. The characters were interesting, and the concept of a lost film so infamous that an obsessive cult rises around it is fascinating.
I've become something of a low-level Udo Kier fan over the last couple of years. The guy is just so disturbingly sick--in or out of character--that I admire him.
The level of gore in this film really shocked me. This sort of thing was typical movie fare in the Eighties, but sometimes I forget how much has changed violence-wise in the days since Re-Animator, Robocop, and Return of the Living Dead.
There's all sorts of cool little details and nice motivation in the flick. If this had been an actual, theatrical release, I doubt it would've made any money, but it sure would've been a well-reviewed flick. John Carpenter hasn't made a film this good since . . . The Thing maybe. Maybe never.
So, there's a movie so effed-up that people go insane when they watch it. Not only that, people start to lose their minds just getting close to watching it. Imagine what would happen if you made a bootleg DVD of it?
And, as I usually do, I asked myself what I'd do in the main character's situation, and if I would watch the film if given the opportunity, or if I'd just turn away, like Nancy at the end of Nightmare of Elm Street.
Oh wait, I just realised. I'd have to watch it, so I could review it for the site.
I'd Recommend It To: Carpenter fans and those people who like creepy mess-with-your-mind pictures with nary a teenager in them.
Posted: July 3, 2006

Total Skulls: 15

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?