A little more in-depth about it, spoilers to come so if viewing somewhere that doesn't parse Lemmy spoiler tags, this is your heads up.
further thoughts
I've been bouncing between some different horror anthologies recently, so I went into this not even realizing John Carpenter was involved. Sort of a pleasant surprise in that.
Also surprised to see that Norman Reedus was in this (this was made before The Walking Dead show, didn't realize he'd been acting this long) as the protagonist. At first I almost bounced off it as it pulled this flashback to some grisly scene with his lover, so I thought it might dwell on that in some clumsy way or otherwise try to pull some jumpscare shenanigans, but thankfully it's woven into the story better than I thought it might be, and there aren't jumpscares.
Aside from that flashback and some other brief visions later on, much of the horror is handled in some unnerving, blunt ways. Early on when speaking with the film collector, you can see some wings in the background that you're led to think are just some old movie prop. However there's something off about them, and then in short order it's revealed the collector has also captured and imprisoned one of the former "actors" of the film he's after. The "actor" is thin, white as chalk, and in chains and...Has stumps on their back from where their wings were severed off.
This is your first indication of just how fucked up the film is that he's being sent after is, and how forward the horror is going to be. It's not jumpscares or shocking sounds, it's showing you something disturbing upfront, no cutting away.
There's something about that approach compared to some of the other Masters of Horror episodes and other anthology episodes I've watched lately that kind of surprised me and seemed more unsettling. Although some of it was nothing that horrifying to me, there's a sort of boldness to it I really appreciate, which I think may be attributable to John Carpenter's style from what I remember of his other work.
A solid spooky tale, albeit falling a little short at the end given all the buildup around La Fin Absolue du Monde, but it's kind of expected. Still, it ties up the lost lover story somewhat neatly and the film delivers as rumored to.