Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere - The scoop and digest

Based on Warren Zanes' 2023 book Deliver Me from Nowhere and Springsteen's 2016 autobiography Born to Run (named after 1975 album of same name), Scott Cooper's biopic is scored by Jeremiah Fraites.

Oh, book and film's subtitle are taken from lyrics in State Trooper and Open All Night.

Jeremy Allen White - Bruce Springsteen

Jeremy Strong - Jon Landau

Paul Walter Hauser - Mike Batlan

Stephen Graham - Douglas Springsteen

Odessa Young - Faye Romano

Gaby Hoffmann - Adele Springsteen

Marc Maron - Chuck Plotkin

David Krumholtz - Al Teller

Harrison Gilbertson - Matt Delia

Additionally, Matthew Anthony Pellicano plays young Bruce.

Summary

Although occasionally switching to Bruce's difficult relationship with his abusive father Douglas in 1957, bulk of film is set in 1981, focusing on how Nebraska was created on a four-track recorder in the bedroom of an isolated house in Colts Neck, New Jersey.

Before end credits roll, wall of text informs:

Nebraska was released on 30 September, 1982 and reached No.3 on the charts.

The shelved Colts Necks tracks evolved into Born in the U.S.A., the album that launched Springsteen to global stardom.

He continued to struggle with depression but never again without help or hope.

No singles. No tour. No press.

The Bear is impressive, but nearly two hours was still pretty perfunctory and ticks every clichéd box.

Much like Bill Pohlad's Love & Mercy, Scott Cooper makes no attempt to tell the entire story, just a small snippet.

Musical biopics are notorious for straying from the truth, such as Elton John naming himself after John Lennon (Rocketman), Bob Dylan hooking up with Joan Baez on the night of the Cuban Missile Crisis (A Complete Unknown) and Queen breaking up before Live Aid (Bohemian Rhapsody).

But owing to Springsteen's involvement from the very beginning, events are obscenely accurate.

Well, apart from fictional love interest Faye Romano (based on former girlfriends).

Without going into everything, The Boss wrote album's title track (initially called Starkweather) after watching Terrence Malick's remarkable 1973 debut Badlands on TV, and went on to research newspaper articles about the murders film is patterned on.

The characters of Charles Starkweather and his accomplice Caril Ann Fugate were changed to Kit Carruthers (Charlie Sheen) and Holly Sargis (Sissy Spacek) respectively.

And thematically at least, True Romance (1993) ripped shit off.

Helloween - The scoop and digest

Primarily set during the 'killer clown' phenomenon of 2016 (obviously on a fictional level), the title of writer-director Phil Claydon's latest was apparently suggested by his sister in law Ruthie, so nothing to do with German power metal band of same name.

Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott - Doctor Ellen Marks

Ronan Summers - Carl Cane

Megan Marszal - Alice Marks

Caroline Wilde - Leah Marks

Michael Paré - John Parker

Summary

31st October 1996, 07:13pm.

On his birthday, a 10-year-old Carl Cane (director's son Brody), murders social worker Hannah Smith with an axe inside her house.

Exactly an hour later, he's taken into custody at Morton Downs Psychiatric Hospital.

20 years later, the daughters of Cane's doctor Ellen Marks, Alice and Leah, are approached by a clown.

Investigative journalist John Parker visits Ellen and suggests Cane is somehow connected to the spate of sinister clown sightings, even though serial killer has no ties to the outside world.

On 31st October, the sabotage of electrical substations allow Cane to escape his cell and begin a new reign of fear.

Lashes and slashes

Opening is a blatant love letter to Halloween.

Over the hospital's tannoy, a voice mentions Dr. Carpenter (as in John Carpenter).

But the adult Carl Cane behaves nothing like Michael Myers.  Similarly, Ellen Marks shouldn't be compared to Samuel Loomis.

Anyway, this was watchable, but very predictable.

Once shit becomes The Purge, Cane's first accomplice Candy takes Leah hostage.  At the end, Alice was in cahoots with Cane all along and is killed by Leah.

(Sigh).

Summers is okay, but Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) made playful gesticulation way creepier.

Antagonist's goose is cooked by Ellen plunging a syringe into his forehead.

Performances overall are amateurish and a swift 80 minutes contains modest gore.

Oh, to put everybody's mind at rest:

"No clowns were hurt in the making of this film."

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (2025) - The scoop and digest

From a screenplay by Micah Bloomberg, Michelle Garza Cervera directs the second remake of Curtis Hanson's classic 1992 original of same name.

Yeah, India got there first in 1993, calling obscure work Khal-Naaikaa (Lady Villain or The Vamp).

Maika Monroe - Polly Murphy

Mary Elizabeth Winstead - Caitlin Morales

Raúl Castillo - Miguel Morales

Mileiah Vega - Emma Morales

Nora & Lola Contreras - Josie Morales

Martin Starr - Stewart

Yvette Lu - Amelia

Riki Lindhome - Bethany

Summary

While helping Polly fight a rent increase from her landlord, a heavily pregnant Caitlin goes into labour and gives birth to her second child Josie.

Caitlin later meets Polly again at a Tenants' Rights event and to ease the burden of looking after newborn and unruly 10-year-old Emma, lawyer hires her as a nanny.

Polly quickly bonds with kids and also makes an impression on Caitlin's husband Miguel.

As time goes by, Caitlin's past is dug up, leading her to clash with Polly in more ways than one.

Pill 34

A total waste of fucking time, absolute HORSESHIT.

Apart from Winstead putting in a decent shift, bore fest bizarrely rips off Single White Female (1992), as like Jennifer Jason Leigh, Polly adopts Caitlin's appearance, even wearing her clothes.

Polly is gay, while Caitlin is bisexual.

Of course they are.

One of the main reasons why original hit so hard was because of Solomon (brilliantly played by Ernie Hudson), but as expected, there's no equivalent here.

Rebecca De Mornay was a psychopathic bitch and genuinely scary.  Unfortunately, Maika Monroe (of It Follows fame) was the polar opposite, and does little apart from battering Stewart (pseudo version of Julianne Moore's Marlene) to death with a baseball bat.

It's revealed that Polly (Rebecca) and Caitlin (Jennifer) were classmates and Caitlin set a fire that burned down Polly's house, killing her parents and baby sister.

She did this to escape Polly's father, who sexually abused her.

Regardless of the truth, Caitlin was able to start over, but Polly had a miserable time in foster care. 

Limp climax has Polly stab Caitlin in the stomach and Polly dies when thrown from the bonnet of Caitlin's car.

What will they ruin next?

I dread to think.

The Legacy of Zdzisław Beksiński

"I wish to paint in such a manner as if I were photographing dreams." - Zdzislaw Beksiński

While also dabbling in photography and sculpture, Polish surrealist's specialty was nightmarish figures, gothic architecture and dystopian decay.

On 21 February 2005, he was stabbed to death at his apartment in Warsaw by Robert Kupiec, (the 19-year-old son of his longtime caretaker), allegedly for refusing to lend him money.  Kupiec's cousin Lukasz was also involved, but details remain sketchy.

Kupiec was sentenced to 25 years in prison, while accomplice served five.

The Empty Man (2020)

In his feature debut, David Prior adapts the Boom! Studios comic series of same name.

During the opening scene in Ura Valley, Bhutan, a group of friends go hiking in a mountain.  Paul hears a strange sound and falls into a crevice.

Greg finds him in the cave staring catatonic at a huge humanoid skeletal figure embedded in the wall.

This doesn't appear in 2014 comic, or 2018-19 follow up, and created exclusively for film.

"Untitled" (1983)

Say no more.

Music

Abyss - Taste the Bitter Vengeance

Bloodbeat - Murderous Act

Bong - Stoner Rock

Anthemon - Dystopia¹

¹also an album by Megadeth.

Deofel - But We've Broken the Chains

Evoken - Antithesis of Light

Ashdautas - Where the Sun is Silent...

Astrahentium - Gateways to Abstraction

Decrepid - Endless Sea of Graves

Bloodfeast - Feasting on Dead

Barbarian - Barbarian

Homo Twist - Demonologic

RanestRane - Shining²

²also an album by Swallow the Sun.

King Buffalo - The Burden of Restlessness

Incandescence - Abstractionnisme

Blood of Kingu - Sun in the House of the Scorpion

Ice Ages - This Killing Emptiness

Wode - Wode

Pandemia - Personal Demon

Near Death Condition - Evolving Towards Extinction

Khthoniik Cerviiks - Heptaёdrone

Kampfar - Profan

Harvester of Souls - Visions of an Apocalyptic Wasteland

Decayor - Recurring Times of Grief

Antestor - Omen

Mixing it up.

Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper³

³Painting is called Essence of Freedom and artist Mariusz Lewandowski cites Beksiński as his primary inspiration.

Video games

Oh, H. R. Giger also plays a huge part.

A Plague Tale: Innocence

Inner Chains

Lust From Beyond

Mirage of Dragon

Mortal Shell

Nazralath: The Fallen World

Returnal

Tormentum

Dark Fracture

Medium

This shot of Necrophosis smacks of "Untitled" (1985).

But the prize goes to Scorn.

Game is abysmal, but looks beautiful. 

Gaping maw

1956 photograph

Mantra Surugana

Faceless (2021)

Seven in Heaven

Stopmotion

Now for some weird shit.

V/H/S/Halloween
In the unintentionally Fun Size segment, gumballs blow Haley's face off.

Silent Hill f

Steelbook edition

And.

Shackled Monster vs Necrophosis

WTF?

Rip offs

Strap yourselves in.

Cut and rape

Serpentine Path - Serpentine Path vs "Untitled" (1971)

Note how the rest of setting is 'blurred'.

Snow Patrol - Eyes Open vs "Untitled" (1984)

Now you can't unsee it, right?

Plagiarism

Prong - Cleansing vs 1956 photograph

Err, okay.

Army of the Dead⁴ (2021) - Zeus on horseback vs "Untitled" (year unknown)

Documentary Making An Army of the Dead reveals that Ace's suit was designed by special effects makeup artist Gabe Bartalos.

⁴unrelated to 2008 film of same name.

Main event deserves some important build-up.

Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) first visited Hell during their Bogus Journey (1991).

Interpretation is basically a series of floating platforms, connected by chains.

Sequel's, working title Bill & Ted Go to Hell references Go to Hell by Megadeath, which Dave Mustaine wrote specifically for film.

Presumably paying homage to the above, four-piece comic series of same name was released between February-May 2016, picking up after Bogus Journey.

Issue 1 shows Hell has been transformed into a water park by Napoleon.

Bodacious dudes just can't keep away from eternal damnation.

Why I hear you ask?

Because they don't fear the reaper of course.

Excellent!

(Strums air guitar).

For shiggles.

Go to Hell (1985) vs Alice Cooper - Alice Cooper Goes to Hell (1976)

Developer John George Jones was obviously an ardent fan.

Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020)

Dean Parisot's film could've been embarrassing for all concerned, but was a most triumphant return, with Alex Winter (coaxed out of retirement) and Keanu Reeves on top form.  However, Anthony Carrigan's emotionally insecure killer robot Dennis made me giggle the most. 

Comic series Bill and Ted Are Doomed (September-December 2020) served as a prequel.

Okay geezers and geezettes, time to spill something I've been sitting on for five years.

For doing what they did, special effects crew are going straight to cinematic hell.