(Short film essay originally posted on my substack here feedback much appreciated)
During the mid 2000s John Carpenter was in a creative slump. After directing multiple flops, both critically and with fans - including Escape from L.A and Ghosts of Mars, Carpenter retreated and went into semi-retirement, exiting only to direct 3 things. One was 2009’s The Ward, the other two were his contributions to the Masters of Horror series; a 2000s Horror tv show created by Mick Garris. The concept of the show is that each episode is a, roughly, hour long short horror film created by the eponymous masters of horror. Alongside Carpenter was Dario Argento, Tobe Hooper, Stuart Gordon and many other great names, and of course, a few bad ones.
Episode 8 of the first series, titled Cigarette Burns, is without a doubt one of the finest horror films put to celluloid in the 2000s. Revolving around a cult film curator, played by Norman Reedus, as he searches for a lost cult film that, when screened, sent the audience into a frenzy and caused them to violently kill each other. Films made about Hollywood or the filmmaking process are not uncommon. From the straight forward - Contempt; to the highly experimental - Inland Empire; to the downright nihilistic - Dangerous Game. Directors often self-reflect on both their career and the movie industry around them but it isn’t common that somebody makes a film quite like the one Carpenter made with Cigarette Burns. For this isn’t about going through the motions of filmmaking. It is more about the end result. A film for the cult obsessives, the voyeurs and the cinephiles who scour the internet looking for a copy of a rare film; or search far and wide for a blu-ray of the film they so desperately seek. Something that I can certainly relate too, at least in part.
However, there is more to the subtext of the film than what appears on the surface. At surface value it feels like this is a film for horror fans, for people who love to explore the underground world of cult cinema. But ultimately the film is also Carpenters own reflection on his body of work and on genre film making in general. One of the characters in the film, a film critic, says “We trust filmmakers. We sit in the dark, daring them to affect us, secure in the knowledge they won’t go too far” Is this Carpenter thinking about the potentially impact his films have on his audience; the multiple ways people can interpret (or misinterpret) a film; or is it about the ever shifting film world around him where violence is becoming more and more accepted and widely consumed. At this stage in his life Carpenter is one of the most associated names with horror. Is he internally feeling the repercussions of putting to screen many disturbing images or is he exploring the impact of other cult films - such as Cannibal Holocaust? The infamous film that Reedus seeks, La Fin Absolue du Monde, caused a violent bloodbath when it aired. Not entirely sure if it is intentional but this really made me feel like it was both highlighting and poking fun at the often exaggerated reactions film festivals have to gory films (ie - here)
Most importantly it feels like Carpenter is reflecting on the inherent power of images. Especially the ones found in horror films. Directors have incredible amounts of control of shaping images to imbue people with fear; showcase a political theory or point; or to simply entertain the viewer. Carpenter is toying around with the influence that cinema can have on people and the obsessiveness that comes out of it, but also the semiotic interpretation of an individual film and how films can become something else to each individual viewer.
Also there is an under current throughout the film of independent filmmaking vs Hollywood filmmaking; the director in the film, and various other characters, refuse to give their creative freedom to the Hollywood apparatus. Which is interesting as Carpenter himself has worked on both small films and large budget films, usually with some degree of problems - most noticeably Ghosts of Mars which was only released a few years before this one. There is a scene where a character disembowels themselves to put their intestines onto a film reel claiming they just made a film. Maybe this is just a quirky way to show a graphic death but it also symbolises literally having to, figuratively, sacrifice yourself to make the art you want to produce and the often tormenting process of making a film - especially in the Hollywood system.
Not only is the plot incredibly intriguing but the film itself is genuinely down right disturbing. Cigarette Burns is a film that pulls you in. Like the characters in the film you cannot look away even when the film gets under your skin with its creepy atmosphere or when the short bursts of intense gore appear. Large parts of the story are so ambiguous and open to interpretation that the film lingers in your mind long after viewing it. Udo Kier is absolutely fantastic as the creepy film collector and Norman Reedus does a great job of playing an emotionless wreck of a man; however, I am not too sure if the emotionless bit is intentional or just bad acting. Special effects in this film are superb and like the rest of the series the effects team get the gore absolutely on point.
After the gluttonous excess of his films before this (not that there is anything wrong with that) this feels much different. It is stripped back all the way to the bone. Such budget and time constraints only help it become more realistic and far creepier than if it was a studio production. Like many of the masters of horror episodes, Cigarette Burns has fallen to the wayside and has sort of been forgotten about. However, it is top tier Carpenter and also one of the best horror films of the 21st century.
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