If you want to understand Nine Inch Nails better, there’s one movie that Trent Reznor recommends you watch. NME reports that, during a recent interview, the industrial metal godfather revealed the 1988 horror mystery classic Dead Ringers was a “big inspiration” on NIN.
“The incredible sense of dread from the first frame to the end. You’re not sure what’s going to happen, but it’s going to be bad,” Reznor said of the film. “I love it and it’s been a big inspiration for what I try to do with Nine Inch Nails. Make you feel bad, the whole time.”
Dead Ringers was directed by David Cronenberg from a script he wrote with Norman Snider. In the film, Jeremy Irons plays the roles of identical twins Elliot and Beverly, with a Rotten Tomatoes synopsis of the film reading: “Elliot, a successful gynecologist, works at the same practice as his identical twin, Beverly. Elliot is attracted to many of his patients and has affairs with them. When he inevitably loses interest, he will give the woman over to Beverly, the meeker of the two, without the woman knowing the difference. Beverly falls hard for one of the patients, Claire (Geneviève Bujold), but when she inadvertently deceives him, he slips into a state of madness.”
Cronenberg and Snider based the film on a “highly fictionalized” version of the lives of Stewart and Cyril Marcus, as well as on the novel Twins by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland. While the film was not met with a large response upon release, over the years it has grown to be considered among Cronenberg’s best work. In 2023, Amazon Prime Video released a limited series adaptation of the film, with Rachel Weisz in the lead role.
Notably, Reznor founded Nine Inch Nails in 1988, the same year Dead Ringers was released. The band has since gone on to release more than a dozen albums and tour the globe.
The post Trent Reznor Says Nine Inch Nails Was Inspired by This Cult Classic Film appeared first on VICE.
The post Trent Reznor Says Nine Inch Nails Was Inspired by This Cult Classic Film appeared first on VICE.
