Directed by John Carpenter. Written by Scott Swan and Drew McWeeny. Starring Norman Reedus and Udo Kier.
When a series like MOH makes the extravagant claim of being able to gather horror's leading lights into one anthology, what fans are expecting is no less than a love letter to THEM and what they love most about these guys. John Carpenter's CIGARETTE BURNS, his first effort in many years, is more about writing a love letter to his colleagues. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but it goes to extremes that are evident in this piece.
The script by Scott Swan and Drew McWeeny, hobbles Carpenter's knack for originality from the start anyway, just by pilfering the main themes he explored in the Lovecraftian salute IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS. But then he frosts his creepy cake with lead-footed references to everyone from Hitchcock and Clive Barker, to fellow MOH resident Dario Argento, (the "plinkety-plink" piano theme composed by his son Cody channels Goblin's nerve-jangling main theme from Argento's masterful SUSPIRIA, no less.)
Norman Reedus, who seems to be channeling Stephen Dorff by way of Keanu Reeves, stars as the ironically-monikered 'Jimmy Sweetman', a strange breed of celluloid detective who, for an exorbitant price, can sniff out and track down the most obscure films in the world for equally obscure, discerning and rich private patrons.
Cue everybody's favorite Scary German Guy, Udo Kier, as an extremely eccentric collector who wants to hire Jimmy to locate one for him. But this film is (dum-dum-DUMMMM!!!) "a film like no other." Called "LE ABSOLUTE FIN DU MONDE" "The Absolute End of the World" - it supposedly drove audiences who saw it at its world premiere to absolute madness, with the screening ending in unspeakable acts of murder and mayhem, followed by the fiery destruction of the venue where it was shown.
And why, pray tell, would the anything-but-sweet Mr. Sweetman want to risk his own neck and sanity to find this Rubicon of rancidness? It seems that poor Jimmy, not unlike the people he works for, is haunted by a pretty big skeleton in his closeted past, and the search for "LE ABSOLUTE" becomes kind of a strange and twisted quest of redemption for him. Or so he thinks.
Turns out that even while searching for this film, the seeker begins to experience flashes and warps in the very fabric of time and space itself, as the world around Jimmy constantly shifts and changes at intervals that are beyond his understanding or control marked by a cosmic version of the "cigarette burns" of the title the editing sworls that used to appear etched on to a film's emulsion toward the end of a reel, to signal to the projectionist that the next act was about to start, and the reels needed to be changed. A clever enough conceit all by itself, but it still smacks of the cursed novel that rewrote time and space at will in MOUTH OF MADNESS.
Though it shoots itself in the foot as far as the battle for originality goes, BURNS also showcases some of effects masters KNB's most disturbing and cringe-inducing work, (the bug effects in SICK GIRL probably run a close second.) And Kier, as always, delivers a performance that would've made his mentors Paul Morrissey and Andy Warhol proud, especially with one of the most sickeningly original death scenes EVER. I promise you, it is definitely not for the squeamish and that's not just hype talking, either.
But a tale like this needs a sympathetic hero, and though indie fave Reedus can't be faulted for giving his best interpretation of Jimmy Sweetman, he seems curiously detached from the audience...as if he could care less whether or not his search does bring the cursed film into his possession, (though there is one memorable sequence where he does come to care...VERY much!)
It's hard to accept the fact that Carpenter's best and most inventive days are probably behind him, like many of the directors involved in this series. But having said that, flashes of the old cinematic panache he could conjure up still spark through in BURNS; just like the 'burns' themselves that flare into Jimmy's newly warped perception of the world as he gets closer to his goal warning him that something extraordinary is about to happen, be it good or bad. (But most usually bad.)
When a series like MOH makes the extravagant claim of being able to gather horror's leading lights into one anthology, what fans are expecting is no less than a love letter to THEM and what they love most about these guys. John Carpenter's CIGARETTE BURNS, his first effort in many years, is more about writing a love letter to his colleagues. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but it goes to extremes that are evident in this piece.
The script by Scott Swan and Drew McWeeny, hobbles Carpenter's knack for originality from the start anyway, just by pilfering the main themes he explored in the Lovecraftian salute IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS. But then he frosts his creepy cake with lead-footed references to everyone from Hitchcock and Clive Barker, to fellow MOH resident Dario Argento, (the "plinkety-plink" piano theme composed by his son Cody channels Goblin's nerve-jangling main theme from Argento's masterful SUSPIRIA, no less.)
Norman Reedus, who seems to be channeling Stephen Dorff by way of Keanu Reeves, stars as the ironically-monikered 'Jimmy Sweetman', a strange breed of celluloid detective who, for an exorbitant price, can sniff out and track down the most obscure films in the world for equally obscure, discerning and rich private patrons.
Cue everybody's favorite Scary German Guy, Udo Kier, as an extremely eccentric collector who wants to hire Jimmy to locate one for him. But this film is (dum-dum-DUMMMM!!!) "a film like no other." Called "LE ABSOLUTE FIN DU MONDE" "The Absolute End of the World" - it supposedly drove audiences who saw it at its world premiere to absolute madness, with the screening ending in unspeakable acts of murder and mayhem, followed by the fiery destruction of the venue where it was shown.
And why, pray tell, would the anything-but-sweet Mr. Sweetman want to risk his own neck and sanity to find this Rubicon of rancidness? It seems that poor Jimmy, not unlike the people he works for, is haunted by a pretty big skeleton in his closeted past, and the search for "LE ABSOLUTE" becomes kind of a strange and twisted quest of redemption for him. Or so he thinks.
Turns out that even while searching for this film, the seeker begins to experience flashes and warps in the very fabric of time and space itself, as the world around Jimmy constantly shifts and changes at intervals that are beyond his understanding or control marked by a cosmic version of the "cigarette burns" of the title the editing sworls that used to appear etched on to a film's emulsion toward the end of a reel, to signal to the projectionist that the next act was about to start, and the reels needed to be changed. A clever enough conceit all by itself, but it still smacks of the cursed novel that rewrote time and space at will in MOUTH OF MADNESS.
Though it shoots itself in the foot as far as the battle for originality goes, BURNS also showcases some of effects masters KNB's most disturbing and cringe-inducing work, (the bug effects in SICK GIRL probably run a close second.) And Kier, as always, delivers a performance that would've made his mentors Paul Morrissey and Andy Warhol proud, especially with one of the most sickeningly original death scenes EVER. I promise you, it is definitely not for the squeamish and that's not just hype talking, either.
But a tale like this needs a sympathetic hero, and though indie fave Reedus can't be faulted for giving his best interpretation of Jimmy Sweetman, he seems curiously detached from the audience...as if he could care less whether or not his search does bring the cursed film into his possession, (though there is one memorable sequence where he does come to care...VERY much!)
It's hard to accept the fact that Carpenter's best and most inventive days are probably behind him, like many of the directors involved in this series. But having said that, flashes of the old cinematic panache he could conjure up still spark through in BURNS; just like the 'burns' themselves that flare into Jimmy's newly warped perception of the world as he gets closer to his goal warning him that something extraordinary is about to happen, be it good or bad. (But most usually bad.)