Cigarette Burns

2005 Directed by John Carpenter

With a torrid past that haunts him, a movie theatre owner is hired to search for the only existing print of a film so notorious that its single screening caused the viewers to become homicidally insane.

Norman Reedus Udo Kier Christopher Redman Chris Gauthier Zara Taylor Gary Hetherington Julius Chapple Taras Kostyuk Brad Kelly Lynn Wahl Douglas Arthurs Gwynyth Walsh Brahm Taylor Rikki Gagne Crystal Mudry Christopher Britton Christian Bocher Colin Foo

Alternative Titles

John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns, Masters of Horror John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns, Masters of Horror: Cigarette Burns

thriller tv movie horror

59 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Dyrnott ★★★★½ 2

One of my favorites from Masters of Horror! Rare legendary movie is a favorite story line for horror! Directed by the legend John Carpenter with legendary odd actor Udo Kier who is always a delight and everyone’s favorite Norman Reedus! Check it out!
Review by SilentDawn ★★★★½ 3

85/100
Can't deny how awful Norman Reedus is as the central cinema manager and former heroine addict, but there's a reason why this Masters of Horror episode begins with "John Carpenter's" prefacing the title; it's the sign of a master at the controls. Its budget may be slim and the script relies too frequently on blabbling conversation, but this is fucking terrifying in its implications. As cinephiles, we may try to rationalize our connection to the movie-going experience, that flickering light which feeds our mind and our hearts. Pure sensation and feeling washes over us, but the true nature is mysterious. It's what keeps us coming back, again and again for a fix. A ticket purchased, the stroll into the…
Review by nathaxnne ★★★★★ 2

'Cigarette Burns' plays like John Carpenter's honoraria to Eurohorror, to the sheer power of the image and of film itself, to the obsessive hold that film and cinema can have over its devotees, the ritual practice of watching and rewatching, of the alchemical process of recording and transmuting the real into something more and other than the real, and of the need to make a record of having seen. 'Cigarette Burns' has no business being as immediately terrifying as it is, except that is its business. Udo Kier is saturated in decadent evil like a dog that has done nothing but roll in the filth of executed prisoners its entire life. There is no way that anyone, not even Norman…
Review by <Todd> ★ 4

"Hey so whats up with you and the cigarette burns?" -Kirby,
- John Carpenter Ranked: boxd.it/22Bdu
- Horror Hunt #31 (Jan '21): boxd.it/aya9m "John Carpenter"
Udo Kier!
Yay, now I know what the worst John Carpenter film is.
Review by Dan Abel ★★★½ 2

Master of Horror - Season 1 - Episode 8 - Director: John Carpenter
La Fin Absolue Du Monde (The Absolute End of the World). A legendary lost film that was only screened once but violence erupted in the theater. The director tried to smuggle the film out but the government destroyed it. Or so they thought. Mr. Bellinger, a collector of over 8,000 of the rarest films offers theater owner/ ex junkie / rare film hunter Kirby the deal of a lifetime. He has been informed that the sole copy of the film was not destroyed and he offers him $200,000 and a 2 week exclusive window to screen the film in his nearly bankrupt theater. Kirby, an experienced professional…
Review by Sally Jane Black 1

This one is about film, too, but also about obsession, criticism, and desperation, and it has a moment in which a man feeds his intestines through a projector, so instead of being fine, it's pretty great instead.
Review by Ian West ★★★

Since I picked up the blurays for season 1 of Masters of Horror at a great price, I've decided to pepper a few in my daily viewing each night.
John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns was my introduction to this series, in it, a young rare film dealer (Norman Reedus) is hired by a wealthy cinephile (Udo Kier) to find the only existing print of a rare 30-year-old film titled, La Fin Absolue du Monde (Translation: The Absolute End of the World). The films only screening was its 1975 premiere at the Stiges Film Featival, where it led to a frenzied homicidal riot filled with insanity and it was supposedly destroyed.
The first time I read a synopsis for this in an…
Review by Slig001 ★★★½

Essentially, it's a mash up of The Ninth Gate and In the Mouth of Madness but with a rare film instead of a rare book (actually it's a bit like 8mm). It has to be said that the short runtime gets in the way. There's some pacing issues and a few massive plot holes/illogical character decisions. However, there's definitely something about this that is captivating. I have to admit that I really want to see La Fin Absolute du Monde! There's numerous nods to classic horror films, which is always a win plus the whole meta film within a film thing is done very well. Cigarette Burns has a lot to say about the power of films and film directors…
Review by Jason Alley ★★★★ 1

It's no wonder that Carpenter loved the script for this one, as it bears such a thematic resemblance to his own IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS that I was kinda shocked to find out that he didn't write it himself. Let's just say that it's pretty safe to assume that screenwriters Drew McWeeny and Scott Swan are pretty big IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS fans.
Norman Reedus plays a recovering ex-junkie who runs a revival theatre and in his spare time hunts down rare 35mm prints for collectors. Summoned to the house of a weird, rich, film collector played by a perfectly cast Udo Kier, he is tasked with his hardest job ever: finding the only existing print of a…
Review by 💀EmperorCupcake🧁 ★★★½ 5

April Fool of Fear, Day 21, challenge #22 - I always need an excuse to watch an episode of Masters of Horror. Ah go on, watch one.
That was a really GUTSY movie! *Cryptkeeper laugh* Oops, wrong horror series. I've never seen a Masters of Horror before and I really liked it! Nice to see something so potent out of Carpenter's later career; I could have easily watched a feature-length film of this. A cursed filmstrip, hell yeah! And Norman Reedus, who I've never seen in anything but The Walking Dead, playing such a different character. I liked all the performances and thought the idea was well-executed, especially for the sub-60 minute runtime. The angel thing was creepy af, that imagery is gonna be with me for a while.
My only complaint is I would have liked more, this felt like an introduction to a world I could have spent more time in, but it was mostly satisfying.
Review by Willow Maclay ★★★★ 2

What is the nature of cinema? What is the nature of horror? John Carpenter’s Cigarette Burns asks these questions through the lens of the horror landscape of 2005, but in truth this was something that had been building for a long time. The definition of horror is revulsion, and in the context of cinema the horror film can do more than just that, but it’s primary focus is still to repel or scare. In the 70s you had The Texas Chainsaw Massacre which evolved into Cannibal Holocaust and filmmaking kept moving further and further into the world of extreme violence within horror culminating with films like Saw,Hostel and the French New Extreme movement to encapsulate this feeling that horror was…
Review by M Kitchell ★★★½ 3

This being my 6th time watching this, but my first time since 2009 I think, there are a few elements that I find fantastic every time, but before I get to that, I think I'd like to clarify what I don't like about the film, even though ultimately they are elements I end up not caring about:

1) #1 thing that fails for me in this film is that the horrible decision is made to show footage from the film, and aside from a sort of cool looking "sky made of offal" scene, the footage looks fucking stupid, and mostly looks like shit out of a late-90s NIN or Marilyn Manson video (though realistically if it were at least in…

Recent reviews

Review by <Todd> ★ 4

"Hey so whats up with you and the cigarette burns?" -Kirby,
- John Carpenter Ranked: boxd.it/22Bdu
- Horror Hunt #31 (Jan '21): boxd.it/aya9m "John Carpenter"
Udo Kier!
Yay, now I know what the worst John Carpenter film is.
Review by City Mist Productions ★★★½

For latter day John Carpenter, this is a pretty decent piece of work. The relatively low budget is obvious, and the limited visual effects are a bit janky, but the story here is genuinely compelling.
Review by Ty Clair ★★★★

We trust filmmakers. We sit in the dark, daring them to affect us, secure in the knowledge that they won’t go too far.

Well, John, I trusted you, and you betrayed me. You thoroughly startled me with that first burn.
This is meta as hell, and I love it. House of Leaves vibes all over the place.
Review by Alvaro Casanova ★★★

My first "movie" of 2021.
I think I liked it.
Norman Reedus is definitely not a good actor. The work from Greg Nicotero is fantastic.
Review by Cody Hoffman ★★★

I wanna see la fin absolue du monde
Review by Sc8lo ★★★

A John Carpenter Christmas 22/24.
Very similar to In the Mouth of Madness and surprisingly violent. Udo Kier is a gift that never disappoints.
Review by Ryan Rawlings ★★★★★

Still feel like this is slept on Carpenter and deserves more love.
Review by Jody Webster ★★★★½

I've been looking forward to this one ever since I started watching through the Masters of Horror series and it did not disappoint. Cursed media, weird religious stuff, John Carpenter, and Udo Kier... did they make this just for me? I love stories about movies, books, VHS tapes, paintings, etc. that destroy you just from watching them. Maybe there's something in horror fan that almost hopes and fears that something so scary and disturbing actually exists and this is a great look into that kind of obsession. Well acted and directed with a real sense of strangeness and dread, this is definitely one of the best movies John Carpenter has made in the later part of his career.
Review by Dan Abel ★★★½ 2

Master of Horror - Season 1 - Episode 8 - Director: John Carpenter
La Fin Absolue Du Monde (The Absolute End of the World). A legendary lost film that was only screened once but violence erupted in the theater. The director tried to smuggle the film out but the government destroyed it. Or so they thought. Mr. Bellinger, a collector of over 8,000 of the rarest films offers theater owner/ ex junkie / rare film hunter Kirby the deal of a lifetime. He has been informed that the sole copy of the film was not destroyed and he offers him $200,000 and a 2 week exclusive window to screen the film in his nearly bankrupt theater. Kirby, an experienced professional…
Review by rozatel ★★★

So basically the story of my life:
Me trying to find Dora's oeuvre.
Review by Austin ★★★½

I was surprised to find I liked this about the same on the rewatch and even a little more. It's a great slow burn lead up to a pretty nifty ending with one specific thing that will truly never leave my head. Norman Reedus is a little one note but it works for what Carpenter is going for, and although it does look a lot like a TV episode (which it obviously is), it's fairly well directed by Carpenter and definitely feels like him. Pretty solid stuff, and will probably remain my favorite episode of this show.
Review by Bernardo Ururahy

À primeira vista, pode parecer estranho (e talvez até sem sentido) que a existência de uma criatura sobrenatural não provoque o mesmo assombro e fascínio nos personagens do que as histórias que envolvem a trágica projeção de um filme supostamente perdido. Porém, é exatamente esse o ponto de Cigarette Burns: a força da imagem cinematográfica, quando capaz de oferecer uma experiência mais verdadeira que a própria realidade.
O título faz referência às marcações usadas nas películas para indicar ao projecionista o momento da troca dos rolos, usadas normalmente no fim de cenas. Daí a menção de que elas indicam que algo vai acontecer no filme, uma mudança, um corte. Fiel à uma das vocações das histórias de horror, Cigarette Burns remete as metáforas da ficção à realidade dos corpos: um corte na imagem é simultaneamente um corte na pele. Quando arte e vida se confundem, vísceras se tornam o único suporte possível para a obra derradeira.