"He paints still lives -- very still lives. An aspiring artist finds success by painting people he murdered."
-- DVD description of episode
Plot[]
Painter Jack Craig gains himself a wealthy patron when he sells a morbid painting. He soon finds that in order to please his patron, he must continue to paint pictures of death - and this leads him down a murderous path.
Summary[]
Jack (Tim Roth) is an artist who is down on his luck. He joins a therapy group to help him with his violent intrusive thoughts, One of the other members of the group, Sharon (Roya Megnot), takes a liking to him.
One evening, Jack's downstairs neighbor has the music on too loud and Jack asks him to turn down the music. The neighbor only turns it up louder. In his frustration, Jack shouts at him and accidentally drops a pot on the neighbor's head. The neighbor falls off his balcony and to his death. Instead of calling for help, Jack immediately snaps photos of the dead man, to use as a reference for his next painting.
Jack's painting of his dead neighbor is purchased by a wealthy, morbid art collector Malcolm Mayflower (William Atherton) who becomes his patron. The collector pays Jack an advance commission for another painting. After a heated argument with his superintendent, Jack shoves her down the stairs onto an open pair of shears, snaps a photo, and collects her blood to use in the painting. Mayflower happily purchases this painting, too. Meanwhile his newfound success is keeping Jack from attending his therapy sessions. Sharon visits him and is initially excited by Jack's successes. However, Jack uncovers a morbid painting he has been working on, and says to her: "you don't really know me". Not understanding the connection between the piece and the superintendent's death, and seeing Jack as a typical artist with a tortured soul, Sharon gets turned on by this and advances towards him saying: "Yes I do" and kisses him. They start to passionately make love in Jack's apartment. During their lovemaking, Sharon tells Jack not to "hold back" in his passion. This triggers a mental episode in which Jack envisions Sharon as Mayflower and tries to choke her and bash her head in. He immediately returns to his senses, but their lovemaking immediately stops. Realizing that Jack loves Sharon and wanting to cut ties with the wealthy patron, Jack dresses and tells Sharon not to go anywhere. Sharon is left naked under the sheets at Jack's apartment.
Mayflower wants one more painting from Jack, but he declines to make more, despite the large sum he intends to pay. Satisfied, he goes back to his apartment for Sharon. By now, Sharon found the super's blood paint, and Jack's photos, connecting the dots that Jack murdered the two people. When Jack arrives, she runs away from him out into the road, getting hit by a taxi. At the hospital, Jack is told Sharon needs a specialized surgeon to save her life, and that the surgery is far too expensive for the uninsured Sharon to afford. For his final painting, Jack kills a random stranger in the hospital parking lot, drags him to an alley, and uses his blood and gore to finger-paint onto a piece of discarded cardboard. He sells the bloody cardboard to Mayflower, who gives Jack the money to pay for the surgery. He then runs back to the hospital, only to find out that the random stranger he killed was the very surgeon who was going to operate on her. Sharon dies.
As Jack watches the nurses take away Sharon's corpse, a police officer interrogates him, saying that he found Jack's paintbrush at the scene of the crime.
Opening Segment[]
"Greetings, art lovers. Vincent Van Ghoul here with another morbid masterpiece sure to paint you into a coroner. Hmm. Something's not quite right. Ah, yes."
[Crypt Keeper stabs still beating heart]
"Now that's a still life. Tonight's tale concerns a painter who's tired of people giving his work the brush. I call this pestilent portrait of the artist as a young mangler Easel Kill Ya."
Closing Segment[]
"Well, Sharon's croaking is sure to leave a very bad taste on Jack's palate. What a shame she turned into such a 'Moan-a Lisa'. You know, kiddies, some artists prefer watercolors...others prefer oils...but me, I prefer finger painting!"
Trivia[]
Gallery[]
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