Admittedly, Sabrina Carpenter isn’t immediately where our mind goes when we make a shortlist of horror music videos. But the “Espresso” singer’s latest music video for her latest single “Taste” employs the talents of rising Scream queen (and FANGORIA cover ghoul) Jenna Ortega and Halloween Ends‘ Rohan Campbell in a myriad of horror movie references.
Carpenter gets full-on impaled on a white picket fence à la Ginger Snaps, and winds up with a gaping hole in her torso, Death Becomes Her style. In retaliation, Jenna takes a knife to the eye and ends up in a very Elle Driver Kill Bill getup.
As the duo maim and (attempt to) murder their way through various horror movie references, we go a little Psycho, lose a few limbs, and get Jenna Ortega doing a very fashionable poolside Leatherface carving. There’s even a voodoo doll moment that’s slightly reminiscent of the iconic “Day-O” dance scene from Beetlejuice (fitting for the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice star).
There’s been a recent trend in pop music videos of referencing the likes of Jennifer’s Body (Olivia Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U”) and we dedicated a whole cover of FANGORIA to the horror seeping out of The Weeknd’s music videos (Universal’s Horror Nights even dedicated a whole maze to it). We can only hope this prevalence of horror in pop culture piwues the curiosity of the youths, and they’ll be inspired to actively seek out the inspiration behind the images featured in these music videos.
Take a look at some of the highlights from Sabrina Carpenter’s “Taste” below and scroll to watch the full music video in all its gory action.