Carpenter's CIGARETTE BURNS

Which episode number was this? Anyone know?

It's episode 8, assuming IMDB has it correct.

I really didn't think this had any kind of Carpenteresque feel to it at all. There was some wild gore, especially Udo Kier's relationship to the projector, but that's about the only thing in the piece that could be compared to something like THE THING.

This was the only MOH episode I watched. If it was one of the highlights, I can't imagine the quality of the lesser entries in the series.

Thanks man.

How could it not have a Carpenter feel to it? The story was somewhat similar to In The Mouth Of Madness, his son's score felt very much in the vain of Halloween and The Fog, and the gore had the sick playfulness of The Thing. It felt like Carpenter through and through.

This was definitely one of my favorites of the series, which as a whole was pretty underrated in my opinion.

If it was similar to IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS then I'm at a loss because I've never seen that one of his. But I don't think the gore was like what was done in THE THING at all. In THE THING most of the gore came at very tense moments and involved characters that you were invested in. I may have laughed a bit in "Burns" when the butler stabbed at his own eyes or when Kier decided to make a movie out of his intestines but it didn't do much more than provide me a cheap thrill.

Norman Reedus didn't exactly do a great job of bringing life to the lead, can't fault Carpenter too much for that.

You wouldn't want to.
They were all bad.

The problem is, I feel, people were automatically comparing these mini features to The Thing, Re Animator, Phantasm, AWIL etc etc...which is a little unfair. It always been promoted as "flims made by the people that bought you..." The Thing rather than "films just like" The Thing, remember.

They were never going to be like that, because the natural constaints of TV make it a much more cerebral and idea oriented beast. You have to think outside of the box (oxymoronically, in this case).

Of course it's not going to feel like Carpenter's panavision-shot, measured and personal spook stories. But it still has its own strengths.

I thought Drew and Scott's screenplay for ...Burns, though similarly constrained by the pure sped up pacing of TV, was a terrific piece of genre gruesomeness (nods to other material included, before anyone mentions them). The script was still tight and textbook.

Likewise Gordon's gim entry was a terrifically memorable and atmospheric piece of fiction. Disturbing as great gothic fiction.

Had these been episodes of any other television show they wouuld have been treated with far less skepticism, I think.

It's a little like complaining Chuck Palanhuik's latest haiku just doesn't have the depth of Survivor. Different mediums.

As far as this show goes I think the best episodes by far are this, the Landis one and Dante's episode.

Best of the series? Then I'm glad I only caught this one because the rest would have depressed me to no end. The lead character has no arc, in fact, I'm not even sure he had a character. The Udo Kier character was interesting but I think that's because he had a great look and brought that rabid intensity of his to the role.

The movie as ultimate horror and influence is so contrived but would have played much better had we actually not seen any of it. The flicker of the screen, the reaction of the people, followed by the gore. But either Carpenter didn't trust the story or McWeeny and Swan didn't and we have rapid cuts of a movie that was simply gross but not terrifying. Our imagination is much worse then anything they could have shown and having the film as a Mcguffin would have been much more interesting. (Plus there's the constant repitition of the name of the movie which drove me nuts)

There's also the script hinting around about the film's presence causing madness yet the director's wife is perfectly sane despite the film being in an editing room in her apartment.

The subplot about family and love was completely unnecesary and brought nothing to the show...same with the fat guy collecting cigarette burns. And the subplot lead us to the really awkward family reunion scene in the theatre which I suspect actually played worse on screen then it did on the script.

The gore was really the only interesting thing in the whole show and even that was gore for the sake of itself. Which of course is ironic because this is exactly the sort of thing McWeeny rails against in his film reviews.

Overall I thought it was more suited as an average episode of Tales from the Crypt but I think even they would have had the balls to leave the film to our imagination.