Showtime anthology series Masters of Horror was full of graphic gore and rampant nudity, but one episode was too much for even premium cable. In the current age of peak TV, with every broadcast, cable, premium cable, and streaming outlet pumping out dozens of scripted shows, there seems to be a revival of the anthology format going around. For a while, it was just in the form of season-long stories that change each year, like American Horror Story, but now more and more shows are arriving that tell a new story with new characters each episode.
It doesn't seem likely that the anthology program will ever reach the glorious heights of pop culture ubiquity it enjoyed back in the 1960s, or again in the 1980s, but at least fans of the format now have some good options to watch once again. The anthology show has never entirely gone away though, even in the lean times, such as the 2000s. One of the few to emerge from that decade was Masters of Horror, in which each episode essentially functioned as a short, just under feature-length film by a horror director of good repute.
While it's true that some of the director picks were a bit questionable in their status as "masters" of the genre, Masters of Horror still tends to be fondly remembered by horror fans, despite its brief two-season length. Airing on Showtime, content restrictions were basically nonexistent allowing for lots of blood, violence, and sex. That is until the season 1 finale, Imprint, directed by Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike. Imprint's subject matter proved even Showtime has its limits.
The Masters of Horror Episode Showtime Refused to Air
On one hand, it would be fair to expect that everyone involved with Masters of Horror knew what they would get from Takashi Miike, a very prolific director whose films often feature shockingly graphic violence, and other disturbing content. Sure enough, that's exactly what Mikke delivered with Imprint, which stars the late Billy Drago as Christopher. a man seeking to find a prostitute named Komomo he had met years before and fallen in love with. Sadly, Komomo is dead, at least according to another prostitute, who proceeds to tell Christopher both about her horrifying past, and what ultimately became of Komomo.
Imprint contains perverse elements like a father sexually assaulting his daughter, aborted fetuses thrown into a bloody river, torture that makes the Hostel movies look almost pleasant, multiple brutal murders, and a late-game plot twist that makes things even darker than they already were. Upon seeing the finished episode, Masters of Horror creator Mick Garris insisted it be edited down, but even the edited cut horrified Showtime executives, who weren't willing to air it. Imprint didn't become available for fans to check out until the episode was released on DVD (and ultimately Blu-Ray) by Anchor Bay Entertainment in fall 2006. While Imprint was later shown in reruns on the Chiller cable channel, it was heavily edited, with entire scenes removed.