From The Pit...
Following the completion of the ‘Broken" album in 1991, Trent Reznor decided to make a concept film to accompany the album. In accordance with all Nine Inch Nails work, it had to be extreme and push the limits, and be real moody and have guys in tight black leather running around. The rumor (which has been denied) was that this was an actual "snuff" film and that the violence was real.
Reznor hired director Peter Christopherson to make the film and the two worked on it for a period of about 2-3 months. The end result was so graphic and disturbing that Reznor decided not to release it commercially. The film is widely available on bootleg video, in underground distribution. Perhaps this is what Reznor hoped for in the first place. Maybe the whole project was some clever marketing ploy.
Where the album screamed "Fuck You" on an aural level, the film grabs the viewer and shoves shit, murder, blood, and violence in his face and smears it around. The film more or less is a presentation of NIN videos tied together by scenes of graphic torture. These scenes are lent a tragic realism with the use of a hand held camera, filmed with shaky movements, in and out of focus, static and distortion. The videos included in the film are those for "Pinion", "Wish", "Last", "Happiness in Slavery", and "Gave Up".
The film begins with our kidnapper driving around looking for his next victim. He finds a suitable young man, calls him over to the car and snatches him. They return to the kidnapper’s hideout and the torturous fun begins. The young man is tied and gagged.
The "Pinion" video is a charming little travel down a toilet’s plumbing into the throat of a bound and gagged bondage slave. During this, our victim is bound and gagged, smothered in gas which he is forced to eat with a shit chaser shoved down his throat for good measure.
The "Wish" video features Trent and the NIN boys playing the song in a huge cage that barely keeps the rabid crowd trying to get in at bay. People climb up and down the bars with clubs and sticks, screaming and yelling and throwing things. Just like a typical NIN concert, to tell the truth. It all has a "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" feel, just without Tina Turner and Mel Gibson. At the end of the song, the
crowd breaks through and begins to beat and strangle the band members. Just like a typical NIN show. During this our kidnapper is running around wearing a human skin mask and pulling the teeth of our victim friend with a pair of dirty pliers. No! Not dirty pliers!
The next video, "Happiness In Slavery" was banned by MTV. "Happiness" is truly a joy feast for the whole family. I can’t imagine why MTV would ban it. They play Hootie and the Blowfish don’t they?
Anyway, "Happiness" is an industrial nightmare blending man and machine in a technological fuck feast. The victim here is performance artist Bob Flanagan, apparently chosen for his stretchy skin and the high threshold for pain contained in his penis. This guy slowly strips for us, washes himself and then gets into this chair that slowly tortures and dismembers him. It’s the new Lazy Boy recliner for the Nineties kids!
Little arms and probes and saws and pokers and pins and needles emerge from all parts of the chair to poke, tear, rip, pierce, and drill poor Bob. A claw reaches up and grabs his penis, yanking it around like a red headed stepchild in a grocery store who eats one too many cookies. Finally the chair collapses around Bob, grinding him into ground chuck (or ground Bob). It then reopens, ready for the next victim who we see is our friend Trent, coming in to strip, wash, and ride that bull baby!
Finally we have "Gave Up". Here we return to our charming little kidnap scenario, and the Police Department’s discovery of the hideout, a little too late. We see a freezer and then a fridge full of dismembered bodies (the Jeffrey Dahmer model), and body parts and bones hanging all around like little decorative party treats.
Mr. Kidnapper hangs our friend from the ceiling by his wrists, proceeds to flail him, cut him with a razor and bleed him like a stuck pig. Then the kidnapper lights up a blow torch and scorches our hero.
Then the poor boy is castrated and dismembered with a chainsaw. The whole affair ends with a little necrophiliac night cap and a bit of cannibalism on the side, thank you.
This is all very interesting but not very mainstream, Mr. Reznor. I think that this was the idea though. Make something so shocking that many people wouldn’t be able to even sit through it. Then talk about it in interviews, start a buzz and accidentally let a few copies leak out so bootleggers can distribute copies. Interesting little plan.
The "Broken" film is not for the light hearted. It is extremely graphic and realistic. I can’t figure out what artistic value this has, but I guess that’s part of what makes it art and Reznor an artist. See it with the
kids--bring Mom (just kidding)!
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