Masters of Horror/Cigarette Burns

Cigarette Burns
Season 1, Episode 8
Airdate	December 16, 2005
Production Number	108
Written by	Drew McWeeny, Scott Swan
Directed by	John Carpenter
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Masters of Horror — Season One

Cigarette Burns is the eighth episode of the first season of Masters of Horror.

Cast: Norman Reedus (Kirby), Udo Kier (Bellinger), Gary Hetherington (Walter), Zara Taylor (Annie), Chris Britton (Meyers), Julius Chapple (Henri Cotillard), Douglas H. Arthurs (Dalibor), Gwynyth Walsh (Katja Backovic), Chris Gauthier (Timpson), Christopher Redman (Willowy Being), Colin Foo (Fung), Lynn Wahl (Cab Driver), Taras (Kaspar), Brad Kelly (Horst), Brahm Taylor (Protagonist), Rikki Gagne (Woman #1), Crystal Mudry (Woman #2)

Plot Overview

A lost film rumored to cause madness is sought by a collector. Rare film discoverer Kirby is called to the stately home of a film collector named Bellinger. Kirby admires his collection, and specifically a poster for the film La Fin Absolue du Monde, The Absolute End of the World. Kirby knows the story of this film well and recounts its history. The film, directed by Hans Backovic, was shown only once at a premiere in Paris and caused an outbreak of violence in the audience. The film was confiscated and destroyed by the authorities and was the only working print of the film in existence.

Bellinger is convinced that the film still exists and tasks Kirby with finding it. As proof of its continued existence, he shows Kirby a strange chalk-white shackled figure with wounds on its back that correspond to a set of angel wings Bellinger describes as 'props' from the film. Noting that this figure is bound in some way to the films negative and that as long as he is alive, the film exists. Kirby accepts the deal on a commission of $200,000 and the right to show the film for two weeks after Bellinger has had a chance to screen it.

Kirby returns to the Vogue theater, which he owns and operates out of and is confronted by Walter Matthews, the father of his former girlfriend Annie, seeking the $200,000 he loaned Kirby to buy the theater. Annie, who indulged in a life of drugs and committed suicide, still occupies Kirby's mind.

Kirby begins his hunt by searching out film reviewer Meyers who wrote about what he saw during the premiere. The review is full of hyperbole and doesn't describe much about about the film. Meyers lives like a recluse and Kirby finds him among mounds of paper working at a typewriter. He recounts that the reports of violence during the screening were downplayed and that his attempt at a review was not sufficient. He has since dedicated his life to writing a proper review of it and the mounds of paper are his failed attempts. He gives Kirby an audio recording of an interview with Backovic but asks Kirby for a chance to view the film again if he should find it.

Kirby dozes off while listening to the interview and is struck with the image of a burning circle, reminiscent of the cigarette burns put in film to signify a reel change. He hears running water in the bathroom and sees the scene of Annie's suicide replayed as she lies in a tub of bloody water before waking up suddenly.

He follows a new trail by visiting a historical archivist Henri Cotillard who cautions him to abandon his quest. Searching through historical records, he finds that all of the crew behind the film are dead with the exception of the Cinematographer, who was rendered blind. Henri was the projectionist at the screening and suffered a deformed hand when he attempted to stop the film. He gives him the location of a collector in France, Dalibor, who has received several items from the Backovic estate.

At Rosny-sur-Seine, Kirby meets with Dalibor who talks about the power of film while Kirby looks through still photographs of the scenes from the movie. Kirby is then surprised by Dalibor's guards and is injected with a syringe that forces him to fall asleep. Waking bound and gagged in front of the female cab driver who delivered him to the doorstep, similarly bound. A masked Dalibor appears behind her and makes a production of beheading her with a large knife. Talking of how he has turned her into art, Dalibor notes that Backovic sacrificed an angel to infuse his film with power. Dalibor approaches Kirby as he begins to have another vision of the cigarette burn. Kirby blacks out and awakens unbound and holding the knife and Dalibor lies on the floor with his throat cut. Before he dies, Kirby gets the name of Katja Backovic from him.

Katja Backovic, Hans Backovic's widow, has been expecting someone to eventually reach her in source of the film and has it in her possession. She gives him the film freely, having been haunted by it herself for years. Kirby returns to the Vogue theater to find it has been locked up by Annie's father. He returns to the Bellinger estate to deliver the film with Annie's father following him. He eagerly receives his payment and leaves the film with Bellinger. Bellinger calls him asking for his help desperately and Kirby returns. The butler appears to him with several self inflicted knife wounds and brandishing the knife. Accusing him of having brought the film there, the butler then proceeds to stab both eyes out and Kirby makes his way to the private theater. He arrives just as the credits are running and notices movement in the projection booth. He finds Bellinger behind the camera busy doing something later revealed to be eviscerating himself and threading his intestines through the projector as a form of 'inspired film making'.

Kirby returns to the main screening room and is held by Annie's father at gunpoint. Driven to madness waiting to exact revenge on Kirby, the two are present as the film begins to show again. Kirby blacks out and awakens to the film in progress as it opens up and Annie's bloody body steps forth and approaches her stunned father. Covering her tenderly, she remarks that she's hungry and begins eating his neck. Kirby approaches him and wakes him from the hallucination and makes the assertion that the obsession the two had was keeping Annie's tortured soul from finding peace. He then pounds Walter's head in the ground and stuffs the $200,000 check down his throat. Kirby then ends his own suffering with a gun in the mouth. The angel, unshackled by the blinded butler, comes down the aisle bearing the reels of film and thanks Kirby.

Notes

• Deaths and Gore: The film itself has several disturbing images including the dismemberment of an angel's wings. A woman gets decapitated after several chops to the neck, and her killer gets his throat cut. A man cuts dozens of wounds into his body and then puts out both his eyes. A man eviscerates himself and has his guts pulled out mechanically.

Trivia

The Show

• The film shares concepts with the film 8mm and John Carpenter's own In The Mouth of Madness, where a book that causes changes and madness in people is eventually turned into a feature film.

Behind the Scenes

• Director John Carpenter has delivered several very influential genre entries such as Halloween, The Thing, Escape from New York, and The Fog.

• Writer Drew McWeeny is best known as a writer for the movie website AintItCool.com under the moniker Moriarty.