Nine Inch Nails: The 'Broken' Movie (1993)

Broken (1993)

Dir. Various

NIN's Broken (1992) EP lasts approximately 32 minutes, but it's an emphatic explosion of point-blank hatred and frustration, musically exploring themes of creative and emotional bondage.

As such, it needed a suitably extreme series of images to complement it, but I don't think anyone was expecting what we actually got (or didn't get because it was never officially released, but it was 'leaked' and so bootlegs are available).

Intercut between each of the four official music videos is footage that resembles a snuff film, if such things exist. There's also some bizarre S+M nonsense that's more laughable than shocking.

The uncut video for the song 'Happiness in Slavery' features a naked and willing Bob Flanagan having his fun-bits abused in a visual style that's reminiscent of Japanese auteur Shin'ya Tsukamoto. The graphic nature of it alone will have a lot of people overreacting, but it's fairy cakes compared to what follows.

The video for 'Gave Up' is the most disturbing. It returns the visuals to the amateur home video snuff footage from earlier, but it doesn't hold back like it did before. Be warned, it's not for the squeamish, and if you're not prepared it might even put you off your dinner.