It comes as no surprise that on the 20th anniversary of Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain’s body being discovered today that a new film, Soaked In Bleach, has had its trailer released to capitalize on the milestone. The trailer for the documentary suggests a number of alternative causes of death for Cobain and it seems to be armed with arguments to stir up controversy. The film focuses on Tom Grant, the investigator that Courtney Love hired to find Cobain after his disappearance from rehab. As he did 20 years ago, Grant accuses Love of her husband’s murder. In the preview, we are shown a reenactment of the crime scene, and there are a number of dramatizations in the film with the two being portrayed by actor Tyler Bryan (Cobain) and actress Sarah Scott (Love). The main accusation in the film is that Courtney Love murdered Cobain so that she could inherit his estate. The trailer even plays a clip of Courtney Love’s statement that “all publicity is good publicity, how’s that for a spin?” and shows Grant looking quite angry. In another part of the trailer, a graphologist talks about finding Love’s notes in her bag and how they seem to have combinations that match with the suicide note..
This film probably won’t lead to the crime being reopened. Police are not exactly rattled by the discovery of new photos from the scene of the crime and currently see no reason to further investigate Cobain’s death. The preview for the film does not seem to offer any new evidence from the crime, either. The release of this documentary seems engineered to rally Cobain’s fan base, and that is exactly what it is looking for. It is evident that some people will never be satisfied with an answer to what happened to Cobain, but with good reason. There were no video cameras, no one around, and therefore no exact explanation to put to rest all of the controversy. Cobain didn’t want to be famous in life and it seems he can’t exactly escape it in death.
