Interesting Article About 'Masters of Horror'

Neat article! I was already familiar with Carpenter's Cigarette Burns by the time I read your piece, but I never realized how much the violence inspired by The Innocence of Muslims mirrors the mayhem inspired by La Fin Absolue du Monde (... probably because I have not seen The Innocence of Muslims, and known nothing about it except that people overreacted in protesting it).

Unlike you, I do not think instalments in the Masters of Horror series feature gore, violence, and nudity to a fault. I feel that the episodes generally featured the right amount of each. Some episodes, like Homecoming and Sick Girl, were tame in that respect, but still won me over with their other qualities (You and I seem to be members of the minority that actually liked Homecoming). The problem with Imprint wasn't so much the exhibition of amount of gore as it was the film's (prolonged and explicit) depiction of torture.

By the way, have you seen Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate? The reason why I ask is because its plot is rather similar to the one found in Cigarette Burns. You may prefer it to Carpenter's work, as I do not recall it featuring much (if any) gore.