"Saw VI" opens today and will no doubt rule the box office this weekend. Since the first film premiered in 2004, the "Saw" series has become an annual Halloween tradition and has gone from a simple forum for Rube Goldberg-esque death devices to a complicated web of mythology and character twists surrounding the killer known as Jigsaw.

The films do a few things correctly, as some of the kills are entertaining and they all have a delightfully filthy tone to them. But let's face it: They're not scary. Sure, "Saw VI" will provide the requisite amount of gore, but will there be any tension or terror? Unlikely.

In fact, rather than plunk down your 10 bucks to shrug your way through another kill-fest, you'd be better off working your way through some of the scariest, creepiest music videos ever created. These clips — from Nine Inch Nails' terrifying "Closer" to Interpol's twitchy, unnerving "Evil" — will really re-arrange your concept of what is scary. Some of them wear the fear on the surface (like Marilyn Manson's "The Beautiful People"), while some are simply wince-inducing (Green Day's "Geek Stink Breath" isn't necessarily a scary video, but there is something unnerving about watching somebody get dental work done).

There are even a handful of directors who seem to traffic specifically in terrifying video concepts. For example, the work of Chris Cunningham deals with the weakness of the human body and the fear of technology (in that sense, he borrows a lot from David "Scanners" Cronenberg), and he has provided scares for Björk, Madonna and Aphex Twin. Floria Sigismondi has also spent much of her career creating horrifying alternate realities where nature is a great threat (check out the White Stripes' "Blue Orchid" and Christina Aguilera's "Fighter" for proof).

So dim the lights, grab some popcorn and get ready to cover your eyes repeatedly. The playlist below kicks off with a bang: The Horrors' "Sheena is a Parasite," two minutes of utterly unnerving images.

By Cara Alwill

Though he has declared that his recently-completed "Wave Goodbye" tour represented his retirement from performing live, Trent Reznor hasn't hung up his recording spurs just yet. In fact, he's about to hit the studio with a friend and hero: Gary Numan. The budding relationship between the two became evident when Numan took the stage during the gigs on the Los Angeles leg of the tour and performed multiple songs with Nine Inch Nails and was welcomed with rave reviews.

Musically speaking, a collaboration of this magnitude could result in some pretty fantastic results. Reznor and Numan are icons in their respective genres, and it is clear they make magic on stage together. That magic wasn't necessarily going to be a given — Numan admitted to the Quietus that when invited out to the Los Angeles shows, he wasn't sure what to expect. "For some reason, I don't know why, I just thought it would be a different atmosphere to what it was. And what it was was just really warm and friendly, and Nine Inch Nails and warm and friendly don't necessarily go together! I should have known better. Everyone was great, the crew, the band, everybody, they made me feel really welcome. It was a fantastic experience, I was riding on that for a bit."

So, what's the timeline for the duo? In the same interview, Numan said, "I know he wants to carry on doing music things. We went out a few days after [the L.A. gigs] with a few other people and the way he puts it is when the dust settles — I think he means his marriage — but I think he's going to be pretty busy for a while, so it'll either be later this year or early next."

If their scintillating performances in Los Angeles (including their runs through "I Die You Die" and "Down in the Park") are any indication of what we can expect, then we're in for something big.

By Cara Alwill

After rescheduling two out of the four Los Angeles dates on the "Wave Goodbye" tour, Nine Inch Nails pulled out all the stops for their California fans, wrapping up the band's live farewell with a show at the Wiltern last night, which featured a guest appearance from Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro on three tunes.

What tricks were up mastermind Trent Reznor's sleeve this week? While New York fans were treated to a performance of the entirety of The Downward Spiral and guest appearances by Bauhaus' Peter Murphy, the Los Angeles shows has secrets of their own. Gary Numan joined the band at the Echoplex on September 6 and again at the Henry Fonda Theater on September 8. The Echoplex — a dingy, overheated basement club venue which shares its name with a song on the 2008 album NIN The Slip — was the perfect setting for Reznor's rage-filled, claustrophobic songs. The encore, a chilling cover of Joy Division's "Dead Souls," had a few false starts, but Reznor and company quickly recovered to deliver a heavier, more rock-infused version of the track.

By the third night at the Fonda, the band was joined by some of Reznor's best friends and favorite icons. Mike Garson (who has played with David Bowie), Eric Avery (of Jane's Addiction), Danny Lohner (who has played with NIN and Methods of Mayhem), and Greg Puciato (of Dillinger Escape Plan) all joined Reznor on stage for more than a handful of songs.

The song lineup changed every night, but NIN classics like "Head Like A Hole," "Piggy," and "Hurt" were staples, as were covers of several songs by Gary Numan (who joined Reznor on stage for a few shows).

If this truly is the end of an era, it is safe to say that Nine Inch Nails did not just go out with a bang. Rather, they went out screaming, raging, thrashing and impressing their fans more than anyone could have imagined.

By Cara Alwill

With just two shows now left on his farewell tour, Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor has canceled tonight's concert at Los Angeles' Henry Fonda Theater. In a very brief statement on the band's official Web site, the group says, "We're very sorry to announce that Trent is ill, and on his doctor's orders we will not be able to perform tonight's show at the Henry Fonda Theater. We wish this wasn't necessary and we're very sorry for the inconvenience."

After a wave of instant-classic performances on the band's "Wave Goodbye" tour, today's news comes as quite a disappointment to fans who have no doubt been anticipating the concert based on the rave reviews of all the dates so far. Reznor blazed through four nights in New York, and made good on all the promises of beefed up setlists and a "few surprises." The Newsroom already reported some of those surprises after the first two shows, including the playing of the classic 1994 album The Downward Spiral in its entirety.

Though the New York shows finished with a series of dramatic spectacles (including Bauhaus' Peter Murphy vampire bat-esque entrance during the final show at Manhattan's Terminal 5), the next two shows in Chicago were a bit more low-key. Read more...

We like to keep it lighthearted here in the MTV Newsroom, but this week seemed to run at all sorts of extremes. Even amidst the excitement of a handful of euphoric concert experiences, tragedy repeatedly crept up to remind us that there is always balance in life. As you pour a little liquor out for DJ AM, Ted Kennedy or anybody else you may have personally lost this week, take a look at the week that was.

» Superstar record spinner DJ AM was found dead in New York, and we have his final MTV interview.

» The country lost a great statesman this week in Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy, who always championed the rights of young people and taught MTV some interesting things about government back in 2000.

» In another flashback, we revisited the tragic anniversary of the death of Aaliyah, who left behind an amazing legacy of forward-thinking pop.
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When Trent Reznor announced that he would be retiring Nine Inch Nails after a brief tour at the end of this summer, all he promised were beefed up setlists and "a few surprises." After the first two shows in New York — one each at the tiny Bowery Ballroom and the slightly less tiny Webster Hall — it's clear that Reznor wasn't kidding. After pulling out a few rarities at Saturday night's show (including the band's rarely-played cover of Joy Division's "Dead Souls"), the Nine Inch Nails frontman satisfied what appeared to be a long-held desire in front of about 1,400 diehards: He played his 1994 album The Downward Spiral in its entirety on Sunday night (August 23).

Though Reznor's debut Pretty Hate Machine had gotten him the initial attention he deserved, The Downward Spiral made him a star. That's pretty odd considering that record is an incredibly dense, harsh and at times violent descent into Reznor's warped mind. But the difficulty didn't stop it from becoming one of the best written-about and most beloved albums of the 1990s. To some people, it's simply the album that contained one of the dirtiest hit singles in history ("Closer," with its chorus of "I want to f--- you like an animal"), but to the fans who helped sell out Reznor's entire "Wave Goodbye" tour in minutes, it's a definitive statement from a brilliant artist.

Reznor and his able band plowed through the 14 tracks that make up The Downward Spiral with savagery and grace. The opener "Mr. Self Destruct" provided an initial jolt of adrenaline, but then the jazzy "Piggy" slowed things down. Following the one-two punch of "Heresy" (chorus: "God is dead and no one cares") and "March of the Pigs" and the crowd collectively realized what was happening, even the densest keyboard meandering (which makes up some of The Downward Spiral's latter half) was met with love and awe.
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In the past few days, much has been made of the size of Madonna's biceps. Are they too big? Is that healthy? How did they get like that? No matter what the solution, one thing is for certain: Madonna could probably throw a pretty good chokehold on a would-be assailant.

But Madonna is hardly the only musician walking around with VIP tickets to the gun show. In fact, a number of rockers and rappers have committed themselves to keeping themselves jacked up — some more dramatic than others. 50 Cent kept himself ripped and his shirt off for most of his early career, making his muscles a part of his persona. But some people sneak up on you — remember when Timbaland all of a sudden got into weightlifting, or when you realized that Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails had become gigantic? Seriously, that guy could use his triceps to smash open walnuts.

Sometimes it makes sense when you consider the genre (the fact that Pete Steele of Type O Negative and Glenn Danzig are all jacked up isn't surprising considering their metal roots) and D'Angelo's muscles certainly became a part of his personality once the video for "Untitled (How Does It Feel)."

But who has the biggest arms among the muscular musicians? Click below for a sampling of buff musical bods, featuring Reznor, Akon and Busta Rhymes.

(Click here for more photos of ripped rockers, from Akon to Danzig!)

It seems like just about everybody has hopped on the Twitter gravy train: Ashton Kutcher has nearly three million followers, Mariah Carey breaks news about herself on it and people like Katy Perry and Justin Timberlake have turned it into an experiment in artist/fan interaction. But not everybody is entirely sold on the greatness of Twitter. Trent Reznor, a first-adopter who initially embraced the service and updated it often, has turned his back on it, completely scrapping his account (though he had "quit" in the past only to return a few days later). Kid Rock has yet to embrace the microblogging system and has gone on the offensive about it.

"[Twitter] is gay," the "All Summer Long" and "Picture" rocker told Rolling Stone. "If one more person asks me if I have a Twitter, I'm going to tell them, 'Twitter this s---, motherf-----.'" Rock clearly questions the usefulness of the service and prefers to reserve his thoughts for his songs. "I don't have anything to say, and what I have to say is not that relevant. Anything that is relevant, I'm going to bottle it up and then squeeze it onto a record somewhere."

Of course, Kid Rock's lack of a Twitter account has kept the door open for impostors, some of whom keep hilarious Rock-based feeds. This account seems more focused on UFC fights and regularly tweets spam messages (it seems highly unlikely that the real Kid Rock would tweet, "30 Million Singles At AdultFriendFinder, Join Today"). Meanwhile, this short-lived account consists of completely benign messages about how much "Rock" doesn't want to work. The most convincing one is this fake account, which does its best to capture Rock's particular tone and plugs his tour dates and his new beer.

So will Rock's incendiary statement spark any beef — perhaps with fellow Detroit native and active Twitter user Eminem? And couldn't Rock have come up with a better diss than an off-color, juvenile taunt?

Welcome to the weekly Newsroom Poll, where we will give you a sneak peek into the lives and minds of some of the correspondents, writers, editors and producers here at MTVNews.com. Every week, they'll answer a poll question that will reveal some of what we talk about behind the scenes here in the newsroom. Enjoy!

One of the recurring themes that came up during this week's Michael Jackson memorial was the idea that the video for "Thriller" was such a huge event that it not only made people love Jackson but love music videos as an art form. Everybody who works here at MTV News had that moment at one time or another — the one where music videos suddenly became the greatest thing in the universe, even if for a short time. Which brings up this week's poll question: What music video was the one that made you love music videos? Our responses are below, but make sure you add your own stories in the comments and at Your.MTV.com!

Rick Marshall
The first music video that really stuck in my head and turned me on to music videos was a-ha's "Take On Me." Sure, it's an easy pick given that MTV was playing the video over and over when it first aired, but I was 7 years old when I first saw Steve Barron's pencil-sketched, rotoscoped take on the song, and it's still one of my favorite videos. "Take On Me" was my first exposure to music videos that were more than just taped recordings of a band only differing from one another by lighting choices and camera angles. Given my current gig as editor of MTV's comic book and movie blog Splash Page, my early fascination with the video's mix of live action and animation probably offered a great indicator of where I'd end up a few decades later. Over the years, it's become apparent that appreciation for the "Take On Me" video is pretty much a common theme among comic book and animation geeks who grew up during the '80s. Between Barron moving on to direct the awesome 1990 "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" film and more recently, a great riff on the video during an episode of "Family Guy," it doesn't seem like a coincidence that "Take On Me" was one of the first music videos I latched onto. Heck, as far as I'm concerned, it's a sign of geek cred.
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A few months ago at the Bonnaroo Festival, Trent Reznor announced that his band's show there would be the final Nine Inch Nails performance in North America, at least for the time being. Now that the band's tour dates in Europe with Jane's Addiction are winding down, the band has announced they will do a series of farewell shows in small venues in a handful of cities starting at the end of August. The final dates have not been confirmed, but Reznor says he'll take Nine Inch Nails to intimate locations like New York's Bowery Ballroom, Los Angeles' Echoplex and Chicago's Aragon Ballroom. "Upon reflection, the NIN/JA tour felt like we had to rush through sets due to a limited allotted set length and many shows were in daylight," Reznor wrote on the band's official site. "It just didn't feel right to end NIN that way."

Reznor says the shows will contain longer set lists and special guests, which is exciting. But a Nine Inch Nails concert is a slippery slope, and though Reznor and his tour band remain some of the best and most dynamic rock shows on the road, it's hard to get excited over the forays into moody instrumentals in between "Happiness in Slavery" and "March of the Pigs."

So as a service to Reznor, here's the ideal Nine Inch Nails set list for what will be their final, no-seriously-this-is-the-last-time-no-takebacks set of shows. Obviously there's plenty of room for variation, but it shouldn't deviate far from this group of songs. And seriously: Nothing from Ghosts I-IV.

"Somewhat Damaged"
"Gave Up"
"1,000,000"
"Discipline"
"The Hand That Feeds" Read more...