History Recap / MastersOfHorrorS1E8CigaretteBurns

* SoleSurvivor: The only character present at the climax to survive is the angel.
* TroublingUnchildhoodBehavior: Part of what makes ''La Fin Absolute du Monde'' so evil - it depicts an angel being mutilated by children.

* ShoutOut: The film playing at Kirby's cinema is Creator/DarioArgento's ''Film/DeepRed''.

* AssholeVictim: Pretty much everyone who dies as a result of the film is an asshole of one shade or another, though [[spoiler:Kirby and his father-in-law]] are still somewhat sympathetic.
* AteHisGun: [[spoiler:Kirby]] eats a bullet under the spell of ''La Fin Absolue Du Monde''.
* AxCrazy: Dalibor, a murderous SnuffFilm director. He demonstrates this by gratuitously murdering the innocent [[spoiler:taxi driver that took Kirby to see him]] in front of Kirby.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Literally everyone dies... except the Angel, who retrieves the reels of ''La Fin Absolue du Monde'' and thanks Kirby before leaving the theater, finally free.]]

** [[spoiler:Annie]] is covered head to toe in blood when she emerges out of the theater screen at the end.
** Downplayed with Dalibor after he decapitates [[spoiler:the taxi driver]].

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler:Bellinger's suicide. Intestines + film projector = not a pretty combination.]]

* DecapitationPresentation: Dalibor creates a SnuffFilm by filming himself decapitating [[spoiler:Kirby's taxi driver]] right in front of Kirby, and presenting the severed head to him.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Bellinger cuts out his small intestines and inserts them into a film projector.]] We don't see him breathe out his last breath, but not much else could have come of it.
* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Bellinger's butler]] cuts out his own eyes after seeing the film.

* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler:Kirby ends up killing himself under the cursed film's influence.]]
* ImAHumanitarian: When the film is presented at the end, [[spoiler:Annie emerges out of the theater screen. Her father comforts her, but she's "hungry", and takes a bite out of his neck.]] It turns out to be another hallucination.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Annie's father. Kirby treats him like an unreasonable jerkass, but Kirby did get his daughter killed by indulging her drug habit, abysmally failed to get her on the right track despite agreeing to do so, is still massively in debt to him, and just evades him whenever the topic of repaying the loan comes up. It's only when he resolves to [[spoiler:kill Kirby]] that he crosses the line into outright villainy.

* MurderSuicide: [[spoiler:At the end Kirby kills his late girlfriend Annie's murderously unhinged father under the evil film's effects because they both keep bringing her back with their remaining love for her. Moments afterwards he eats his own gun after pleading at another vision of her that he's sorry for everything.]]
* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Initially Kirby only takes the job offer to look for ''La Fin Absolue du Monde'' to pay off his enormous debts. Subverted later on as he becomes increasingly obsessed with the film itself due to its corrupting influence. This is lampshaded by Bakovic's widow who notes that the money is just an excuse. Ultimately, he wisely decides not to see it, [[spoiler:only to accidentally watch it along with his father-in-law when the projector starts on its own accord.]]

* SoleSurvivor: The only character present at the climax to survive is [[spoiler:the angel.]]

* SlashedThroat: How [[spoiler:Dalibor]] is killed, though it takes him a while to actually die.

* KillEmAll: The only character present at the climax to survive is [[spoiler:the angel.]]

Directed by Creator/JohnCarpenter. Kirby (Creator/NormanReedus) is the owner of a run-down cinema whose girlfriend Annie (Zara Taylor) recently committed suicide. In order to pay a debt he owns to Annie's hateful father Walter (Gary Hetherington), Kirby accepts the request of eccentric millionaire Bellinger (Creator/UdoKier) to locate and bring him the only surviving copy of the late director Hans Bakovic's ''La Fin Absolue du Monde'' ("The Absolute End of the World"), a film ShroudedInMyth that is said to be the ultimate BrownNote.

[[InCaseYouForgotWhoWroteIt Directed by]] Creator/JohnCarpenter. Kirby (Creator/NormanReedus) is the owner of a run-down cinema whose girlfriend Annie (Zara Taylor) recently committed suicide. In order to pay a debt he owns to Annie's hateful father Walter (Gary Hetherington), Kirby accepts the request of eccentric millionaire Bellinger (Creator/UdoKier) to locate the only surviving copy of Hans Bakovic's ''La Fin Absolue du Monde'' (The Absolute End of the World) for him, a film ShroudedInMyth that is said to be the ultimate BrownNote. It's sort of a contemporary version of Robert W. Chambers' anthology ''Literature/TheKingInYellow''.

* AffablyEvil: Bellinger.

* ArtifactOfDoom: ''La Fin Absolue du Monde'' was turned into an evil artifact whose corrupting influence drives people to murder and suicide.
* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Pretty much everyone who dies is an asshole of one shade or another, though Kirby and his father-in-law are still somewhat sympathetic.]]
* AteHisGun: [[spoiler:Kirby eats a bullet under the effects of ''La Fin Absolue Du Monde''.]]
* AxCrazy: Dalibor.
* BaldOfEvil: Dalibor is a bald SnuffFilm director. He demonstrates this by murdering someone in front of Kirby.
* BathSuicide: Kirby's late girlfriend Annie killed herself by slicing her own wrists in the bathtub when they both lived together as heroin junkies. Kirby has to relive the event during one of his visions.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Literally everyone dies... except the angel, who retrieves the reels of ''La Fin Absolue du Monde'' and thanks Kirby before leaving the theater, finally free.]]

** [[spoiler:Annie is covered head to toe in blood when she emerges out of the theater screen at the end.]]

* BrokenAngel: The main character encounters a pale, gaunt, vaguely male figure with healed stumps at its shoulder blades kept by a deranged art collector. It is strongly implied that this was the angel that was mutilated in ''La fin absolue du monde'', the short film that the protagonist seeks. As revealed by the SnuffFilm director Dalibor, the sheer sacrilege of this act was the key to the late Bakovic's success and turned his film into a madness-inducing ArtifactOfDeath.
* BrownNote: ''La Fin Absolue du Monde'' drives people crazy just from ''thinking too much about it''.
* TheCollector: The millionaire collector Bellinger collects various films depicting extreme acts. He's also keeping a mutilated angelic creature locked up in his gallery as part of his collection of ''La Fin Absolue du Monde''.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Bellinger admits to having killed people to get his money and flat-out says he’s going to hell when he dies. He claims the reason he wants to see ''La Fin Absolue du Monde'' is to “get a glimpse of Heaven... before the ''eternity'' of Hell.”

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Bellinger cuts out his small intestines and inserts them into a film projector. We don't see him breathe out his last breath, but not much else could have come of it.]]
* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Bellinger's butler cuts out his own eyes after seeing the film.]]
* FanDisservice: In a hallucination near the end, Annie is completely naked... and completely covered in blood.
* {{Fingore}}: Henri reveals that he was the original projectionist at the bloody premiere of ''La Fin Absolue du Monde''. When he tried to stop the film all his fingers on his left hand fused together.
* TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: When ''La Fin Absolue du Monde'' is shown at the end, Kirby's dead girlfriend Annie emerges from the screen covered in blood and hungry for human flesh. [[spoiler:Subverted when it turns out to be another hallucination.]]

* ImAHumanitarian: When the film is presented at the end, [[spoiler:Annie emerges out of the theater screen. Her father comforts her, but she's "hungry", and takes a bite out of his neck. It turns out to be another hallucination.]]
* {{Jerkass}}: Kirby and Annie's father.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Annie's father. Kirby treats him like an unreasonable jerkass, but Kirby did get his daughter killed by indulging her drug habit, abysmally failed to get her on the right track despite agreeing with him to do so, is still massively in debt to him, and just evades him whenever the topic of repaying the loan comes up. [[spoiler:It's only when he resolves to kill Kirby that he [[MoralEventHorizon crosses the line into outright villainy]].]]
* KillEmAll: [[spoiler: The only character present at the climax to survive is the angel.]]
* LeFilmArtistique: The film is pretty much an exaggeration of this trope.

* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Initially Kirby only takes the job offer to look for ''La Fin Absolue du Monde'' to pay off his enormous debts. Subverted later on as he becomes increasingly obsessed with the film itself due to its corrupting influence. This is lampshaded by Bakovic's widow who notes that the money is just an excuse. [[spoiler:Ultimately, he wisely decides not to see it, only to accidentally watch it along with his father-in-law when the projector starts on its own accord.]]
* OurAngelsAreDifferent: [[spoiler:In this case, angels are corporeal creatures and can be tortured, and the one seen in the episode is quite uglier than one would expect at first (it has a bald, bulbous, pale head and looks like the Engineers from ''Film/{{Prometheus}}''). It's heavily implied that the film's evil is the result of documenting the desecration of said angel.]]

** ''La Fin Absolue du Monde'''s director Hans Bakovic has died long before Kirby set out on his search. His film was ''so'' evil it even killed its creator.

* SnuffFilm: Kirby visits a Snuff director called Dalibor while searching for the film, while ''La Fin Absolue du Monde'' features the torture and mutilation of [[spoiler:an angel]]. Dalibor explains that this was the secret to Bakovic's success -- [[BloodMagic blood spilled on film grants it supernatural power]] and Bakovic took this to the ultimate extreme by doing so to a [[spoiler:sacred being.]]

* ShroudedInMyth: ''La Fin Absolue du Monde'' has been buried years ago after the initial massacre at the premiere and is nearly untraceable. Kirby remarks that everywhere he goes to look there's a wall of silence surrounding the topic.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Film/InTheMouthOfMadness''. It also bears more than a few similarities to ''Film/TheNinthGate''.
* VancouverDoubling: Late in life, ''La Fin Absolue du Monde's'' director moved to Vancouver because he thought it would be a good place to make movies and would be cheaper than Hollywood. His widow notes that he was proven right twenty years later.

* BathSuicide: Kirby's late girlfriend Annie killed herself by slicing her own wrists in the bathtub when they both lived together as heroine junkies. Kirby has to relive the event during one of his visions.

* OurAngelsAreDifferent: [[spoiler:In this case, angels are corporeal creatures and can be tortured, and the one seen in the episode is quite uglier than one would expect at first (it has a bald, bulbous, pale head and looks like the Engineers from ''Film/{{Prometheus}}). It's heavily implied that the film's evil is the result of documenting the desecration of said angel.]]

* OurAngelsAreDifferent: [[spoiler:In this case, angels are corporeal creatures and can be tortured, and the one seen in the episode is quite uglier than one would expect at first. It's heavily implied that the film's evil is the result of documenting the desecration of said angel.]]