Masters of Horror: ‘Cigarette Burns’ and ‘Dreams in the Witch-house’ — dvd movie review
Now this being the release week for Kong, there are quite a few films that will be overlooked by the general, vanilla-loving populace. Being fairly unimpressed with Kong myself, and understanding Dreamlogic readers have little tolerance for vanilla, I figured I’d bring your attention to the first batch of Masters of Horror releases.
I heard about Showtime’s Masters of Horror series quite a while back. I found the concept of 13 hour-long films by world renowned horror directors immediately intriguing, though since Kris and I don’t have Showtime, or expanded cable for that matter, I held no hopes of watching them in their initial run. Thankfully the Masters of Horror episodes are being released on DVD by Anchor Bay, the first two episodes of which are John Carpenter’s Cigarette Burns, and Stuart Gordon’s Dreams in the Witch House. Both are available for purchase on a Single Episode, Special Edition DVD basis, or for rent on dual episode DVDs, sans special features, at your local video store.
Excited though I may have been, I still approached these releases with caution. Carpenter hasn’t made anything worth talking about since In the Mouth of Madness, and Gordon’s last effort, King of the Ants, was far from fulfilling. To top it off, I have been burned by Anchor Bay more times than I can count (they just make everything sound so good!). I decided to opt for the two episode rental rather than the single serving purchase. So, were either of these worth the time?
Cigarette Burns
An eccentric film connoisseur (Cult icon, and Dreamlogic favorite, Udo Kier), with over 8000 rare and hard to find films in his collection, recruits a down on his luck theater owner to obtain the crown jewel for his collection. Naturally, this is no ordinary hard to find piece. This is “Le Fin de Absolue du Monde,” (The Absolute End of the World, for you non-French speakers) a (fictional) film so shocking its sole screening drove audience members to savage acts of violence. Those that were “lucky” enough to survive found themselves lost to madness. As such, the film commands quite a price. Delighted at the prospect of paying off his $200,000 debt, and being a fan of the obscure and grotesque himself, the theater owner accepts. As one can imagine, the theater owner will learn to regret this decision, as he enters a world far more dangerous than he ever imagined.
Carpenter does nothing truly innovative as far as direction is concerned. Shots are simple, ranging from decently to poorly-framed. The majority of the actors ape the same performances they’ve used time and again in other films. The real star of the show is Drew McWeeny (aka: Moriarty of Ain’t it Cool News)’s script. Though a self important and masturbatory piece it may be (one character encountered is a critic whose review of Le Fin Absolue Du Monde spans reams of paper, stacked floor to ceiling, covering most of his apartment), Moriarty’s riff on cult cineaste obsession does prove compelling — at least until the end of the second act, where the main character finds himself suddenly stuck in Andrew Kevin Walker’s 8mm, complete with snuff filming, and some oddly homo-erotic posturing. Sure, the scene is meant to serve as a statement that the filming of abhorrent acts doesn’t equate to powerful filmmaking, but given the story’s elitist trappings, this lapse into easy shocks and ham-handed moralizing is all the more disappointing. The film does recover slightly, as it draws to its In the Mouth of Madness conclusion, but even Udo Keir’s flapping reel-to-reel intestines don’t quite bring a full recovery.
Cigarette Burns is still an entertaining piece, mind you – far better than most of the horror films of late. Any film fanatic who has ever spent time tracking down a hard to find piece will find the tale easy to relate to. It may not be Carpenter’s best, but when all is said and done, it’s still an admirable first effort by McWeeny.
Dreams in the Witch House
Fist off, I love Stuart Gordon’s work. Save for King of the Ants, I think he has made some of the quirkiest cult films in recent memory. Dagon was amazing, one of the best horror films of the past five years. I prefer his Re-Animator to Raimi’s Army of Darkness, though it may be tied with Evil Dead II. Even From Beyond, his lesser Lovecraft entry, had quite a few laughs to complement the ooze.
With Dreams in the Witch House Gordon brings yet another H.P. Lovecraft tale to the screen. Many of the Lovecraft staples are here, the Necronomicon, the Miskatonic University, bedroom invaders, and alternate dimensions (this time explained with a nice bit of String theory). Our protagonist, Walter Gilman (Ezra Godden, Dagon) is a graduate student in physics who finds a room for rent in an old house just off the M.U. campus. It seems a nice enough place until Walter realizes his room lays smack dab in an intersection of two (or three) dimensions. This intersection has created a portal though which an ancient witch and her human-faced rat familiar have passed for centuries to enlist in chronic baby-sacrifice and soul-collection endeavors. This doesn’t quite sit well with Walter, but hey, it’s a frickin’ witch. Protest, scream, and fight though he might, if she wants to collect his soul and use his earthly form to extinguish the life of the neighbor lady’s baby there’s not much he can do. Or is there?
Gordon’s direction is apparent from frame one. Everything is ever so slightly, yet delightfully off; performances, pacing, special effects, cinematography, you name it. Gordon’s camera displays an almost scientific curiosity as he puts Walter through his paces. It’s quite interesting to watch the young physicist as he is confronted with the decidedly illogical, indiscrete realm of the supernatural. But somehow the film still falls flat. The main bulk of the story is completed within the first 45 minutes, leaving roughly 15 minutes of filler until the film’s actual conclusion. Though 15 minutes may not seem like much, being only an hour long film, it constitutes a full quarter of the runtime. It’s as if the production wasn’t aware they didn’t have to worry about commercials, and therefore had to perform a last minute fleshing out of the script. While certainly not un-watchable, Dreams in the Witch House definitely doesn’t rank with Gordon’s best work. But then again, even a little Gordon is better than no Gordon….so long as it isn’t King of the Ants.
So, in conclusion, neither film was truly great. They were certainly interesting, though I wouldn’t say either demands an actual purchase. When considered on an individual a la carte basis the sale price of $9.99 per DVD seems reasonable, but so far these films aren’t quite strong enough to stand on their own. As a full series it may make sense, though to collect the full 13 episodes would cost roughly $130, before tax, thus making it one of the most expensive shows to own on DVD. Let’s just hope Anchor Bay releases a standard season box set sometime further down the line.
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