Podcasts
1976’s ‘Born For Hell’ Combines Richard Speck, Vietnam, and the Troubles [Murder Made Fiction]
For the final week of January, Jenn and I are once again discussing a fictional adaptation of spree killer Richard Speck. Last week we talked about Violated Angels, a Japanese film, and this week we’re looking at an international co-production of the Chicago story, which is set in Belfast, Ireland.
In Born for Hell (1976) – sometimes referred to as Naked Massacre – Cain Adamson (Mathieu Carrière) gets stranded in Belfast en route home to the US following his tour in Vietnam. Destitute and mentally unwell, Cain breaks into the apartment of a group of nurses live and proceeds to sexually assault and murder them over a single violence-filled night.
What could be a straightforward text, however, becomes something much more politically and historically relevant due to the inclusion of the Vietnam war and the Troubles – a fraught 30+ year conflict in Ireland. What’s fascinating is that audiences don’t need to be familiar with the specifics of these conflicts in order to understand the film (though it obviously benefits if you do).
The film’s sensational violence is extremely challenging to watch, but, as written by Clement Woods, Fred Denger, and Denis Héroux (who also directs), Born For Hell is much more than an exploitation film. It’s a surprisingly nuance consideration of how violence infiltrates society in different ways and the cost of turning a blind eye.
Next week, Jenn and I leave behind Mindhunter villains to tackle a more timely topic: athletes embroiled in crimes and murder, starting with the first of two weeks of Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan. We’ll have two episodes: one on 30 for 30: The Price of Gold (2014) and another on the NBC made-for-TV movie, Tonya and Nancy: The Inside Story (1994).
Want even more Murder Made Fiction? Be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed, where we have ~130 hours of content including episode by episode coverage of Mindhunter season 1, plus episodes on 2025’s most notable true crime documentaries.
After kicking off July with discussions of Joe Dante’s seminal werewolf film The Howling (listen) and Ken Russell’s controversial erotic thriller Crimes of Passion (listen), we’re heading to Maine to dissect one of Stephen King‘s most misguided adaptations in Lawrence Kasdan‘s 2003 misfire Dreamcatcher!
Dreamcatcher sees friends Henry (Thomas Jane), Jonesy (Damian Lewis), Pete (Timothy Olyphant) and Beaver (Jason Lee) reunite for their annual hunting trip in Maine. Their reunion is cut short when they find themselves caught in the middle of a war between a hostile race of farty-farty aliens and an elite US military unit led by Colonel Abraham Curtis (Morgan Freeman), who has been driven mad after spending decades tracking the extraterrestrials. When Jonesy is possessed by one of the aliens, the remaining friends seek out their disabled childhood friend Duddits (Donnie Wahlberg), who they believe has powers that can save Jonesy…and the world.
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Episode 396: Dreamcatcher (2003)
Watch out for “ister gay” (oof), take some Gas-X and bite our bags because we’re talking Lawrence Kasdan’s baffling 2003 adaptation of Stephen King’s equally baffling novel Dreamcatcher.
Join us as we go all in on the farty-farty aliens populating this hilarious misfire that often feels like a bad Kevin Smith script. It’s a film filled with characters who get a single defining trait (if they’re lucky), played by respectable actors who are here for the paycheck (looking at you, Morgan Freeman).
Plus: blown-out assholes, using guns as telephones, pitying poor Donnie Wahlberg, and wondering why the hell this movie is called Dreamcatcher.
Cross out Dreamcatcher!
Coming Up Next: We’re going to be lounging around a posh Greenwich Village apartment as we check in on Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954).
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