Sophia Costa
Staff Writer
Pop star, Sabrina Carpenter, has become a global sensation over the past couple of years. The former Disney star has worked her way to the top, from opening for Taylor Swift, to performing at Coachella. In preparation for her newest album, “Short n’ Sweet,” she released her single “Espresso” which became the third fastest song to reach one-billion streams in Spotify history. Then, “Please Please Please” became Carpenter’s first ever number one hit on Billboard Hot 100.
Along with her album, she debuted a music video for the hit song, “Taste.” In the past, Carpenter has stuck to her role as an innocent criminal where no guy who does her wrong in her universe lives. Now of course this has sparked some controversy in the past, specifically in the “Feather” music video where violent acts portrayed in a church raised some eyebrows. But, luckily, this did not dampen her creativity, and thus we have the masterpiece that is the “Taste” music video.
Throughout the music video, trained eyes deciphered a couple of different horror movie inspirations that Carpenter put her twist on with the help of fellow former Disney star Jenna Ortega. The overall theme of the video, where two girls fighting over one man, goes alongside the plot of “Death Becomes Her,” where the lead characters portrayed by Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn follow the same storyline. Aside from the storyline, we also have similar gore elements that seem to have been pulled from the film, including the shot of Carpenter with a gaping hole through her middle, similar to Hawn’s wounds in the movie.
The next horror film she takes inspiration from in the “Taste” music video is the 2000 Canadian movie “Ginger Snaps.” For this movie we have a shot of Carpenter’s character falling and being impaled by the picket fence, identical to Katherine Isabelle’s character “Ginger” in the film, all the way down to the middle finger.
In addition, there is an identical nurse dress and outfit worn by the character Elle Drive in “Kill Bill,” replicated by Jenna Ortega in the music video. Another outfit replicated was the outfit worn by Debbie Jellinsky in “Addams Family Values,” a beautiful white dress with a white feather collar. Lastly, is the replication of the iconic scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s movie “Psycho”, where we see Carpenter’s character surprise attack Ortega’s character in the shower with a knife.
Horror movie fans are surprisingly pleased with Carpenter’s rendition of these famous films.
“When I heard Sabrina used some horror movie references in her music video, I was expecting the, you know, classic ones like “Chucky” or “Nightmare on Elm Street” ones that any average movie watcher would know. She dug into the archives a little bit and found some niche films, amazing films, but niche ones in nature,” said one self-proclaimed horror movie fan.
While these references may not have been blatantly obvious to everyone, Carpenter has pleased her target audience and they are excited to see what type of movie genres she decides to take inspiration from next.
