Cigarette Burns

Despite 2011's THE WARD marking the official return to cinema of John Carpenter, CIGARETTE BURNS was a tv episode that Carpenter directed for a series called "Masters of Horror" in 2005. It serves, along with Carpenter's entire body of work, as a really entertaining film mired in the history of cinema. CIGARETTE BURNS, especially, concerns itself with this. In the film, Kirby Sweetman, the owner of a failing nostalgia-theater, takes a job from a rich oddball who lives in a creepy house on a hill. Kirby is requested to find an old, lost film called LA FIN ABSOLUE DE MONDE (THE ABSOLUTE END OF THE WORLD) that, upon its premiere, caused mass chaos and death. Kirby traverses among a host of creepy characters, including a lost-film hoarder who kills people, but as he becomes obsessed with discovering LA FIN ABSOLUE DE MONDE, he begins to see cigarette burns (the mark in films to signify that the reel has to be changed) filled with horrific images. Kirby has a damaged past though: a dead girlfriend, and she begins to effuse into his insane visions. With a combination of creepy imagery and historic film craziness, Carpenter accomplishes a story funnier and weirder than what it can accomplish. Carpenter's poor actors and poor production design are nevertheless overwhelmed by style and oddity, and CIGARETTE BURNS is ultimately a fun time.
Cigarette Burns: ★★★