Sabrina Carpenter caused a stir in the summer of 2024 with her hits “Espresso” and “Please, Please, Please”. With the release of her new album Short and sweetCarpenter also released the music video for her next single, “Taste.” The blood-soaked music video is filled with cheesy horror scenes as Carpenter tries to kill her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend, played by a Gen Z horror favorite and former Disney Channel co-star. Jenna Ortega. While Carpenter sings a warning to her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend, she and Ortega play a game of cat and mouse, killing each other in increasingly creative ways and then coming back to life shortly after to continue their feud.
This is not the first time Carpenter’s music videos have been inspired by cinema. The music video for “Please Please Please” was inspired by the director Quentin Tarantino and films like Bonnie and Clyde And Natural Born Killers. In the meantime, Taste good is largely inspired by Robert Zemeckis‘ Cult classic Death suits her wellalong with visual references to some iconic horror films (and more Tarantino). For those who want to learn more about the inspirations behind this creative video, Here are all the movie references in Carpenter’s “Taste.”
1 “Death Becomes Her” (1992)
Director: Robert Zemeckis
The style and narrative of the music video “Taste” largely reflects that of Death suits her wellthe black comedy from 1991 with Oscar winners Meryl Streep And Goldie Hawn. Madeline (Streep) and Helen (Hawn), longtime friends fighting over the same man and desperate to remain beautiful and youthful as they age, drink a potion that grants them eternal life and youth, allowing them to survive each other’s brutal attacks, some of which are reenacted in Carpenter’s music video.
In one of the most memorable scenes in the film Madeline shoots Helen with a shotgun, leaving a huge round hole in her upper bodywhich is recreated in the music video for “Taste” when Ortega shoots Carpenter and puts her in the hospital. The music video takes some moments directly from the film and there are also many easily recognizable fashion references, including the black dresses Carpenter and Ortega wear to their friend’s funeral. As happens in the film, Carpenter and Ortega bury the hatchet and laugh about the shared experience with her friend. Death suits her well is a 90s camp classic and Carpenter did it justice.
Death suits her well
- Release date
- July 31, 1992
- Duration
- 104 minutes
2 “Ginger Snaps” (2000)
Director: John Fawcett
After shooting Carpenter with her rifle from an open window, Ortega sees that Carpenter has been impaled on the white picket fence below. Outraged, Carpenter gives Ortega the middle finger and throws a knife into her eye in revenge. The gruesome scene contrasts with the song’s bubbly tone, creating exactly the kind of unsettling yet tantalizing approach that Carpenter surely wants to achieve with the video.
This scene is a reference to another cult film, Ginger cookiesabout two teenage sisters who make a suicide pact until one of them is bitten by a werewolf. Brigitte (Emily Perkins) and ginger (Katharine Isabelle) are doing a school project for which they stage photos of themselves being brutally murdered. Ginger poses as if she has been impaled on a fence and gives Brigitte the middle finger when she says it looks too fake. Although the film flopped at the box office, Ginger cookies has become a recognized horror cult classic and it’s nice to see a modern singer like Carpenter paying tribute to it.
Ginger cookies
- Release date
- 1 August 2000
- Pour
- Emily Perkins, Katharine Isabelle, Kris Lemche, Mimi Rogers, Jesse Moss, Danielle Hampton
- Duration
- 108 minutes
- Authors
- Karen Walton, John Fawcett
3 “Kill Bill: Vol.1” (2003)
Director: Quentin Tarantino
While Carpenter is in the hospital and the wooden fence is removed from her upper body, Ortega reappears behind her, disguised as Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), the secondary antagonist from Quentin Tarantino’s acclaimed and profoundly influential duology Kill Bill – Volume 1 And Kill Bill – Volume 2a one-eyed, ruthless assassin. In both Kill Bill Films, Elle and Beatrix Kiddo (Uma Thurman) brutally attack each other, just like Carpenter and Ortega do in the music video, and like Elle, Ortega wants revenge after losing an eye.
In Kill Bill – Volume 1Elle sneaks into a hospital disguised as a nurse, complete with a white eye patch, but doesn’t kill Beatrix. In the “Taste” video, however, Ortega takes full advantage of her power and attacks Carpenter with defibrillators. Unfortunately, there’s no scary whistling from Ortega, but her nurse outfit and general demeanor would certainly make Miss Driver proud.
Kill Bill – Volume 1
- Release date
- October 10, 2003
- Duration
- 111 minutes
4 “Psycho” (1960)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
As the music video progresses, Carpenter refuses to stay dead and reappears in the bathroom while Ortega and her boyfriend are showering. She attacks them with a knife, but loses an arm when Ortega chops it off with a hook.
The shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock‘S Psycho is undoubtedly one of the most iconic scenes in horror historyand the allusion is clear when Carpenter opens the shower door and raises a knife above her head, ready to attack. The only thing missing is the iconic score, but Carpenter’s song is a good accompaniment to the carnage. “Taste” flips the script by having the boyfriend reenact Janet Leigh‘s horrified scream complements the video’s feminist themes.
Psycho
- Release date
- June 22, 1960
- Pour
- Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, John McIntire, Simon Oakland
- Duration
- 109 minutes
- Authors
- Joseph Stefano, Robert Bloch
5 “Halloween Ends” (2022)
Director: David Gordon Green
Ortega is not the only horror star in “Taste.” Carpenter also recruited Rohan Campbellwho became famous with the controversial 2022 slasher Halloween endsthe last episode in David Gordon Green‘s modern Halloween Trilogy. Campbell played Halloween ends‘ The de facto protagonist Corey Cunningham is a disturbed young man who slowly becomes the new killer of Haddonfield, even briefly wearing the iconic mask of Michael Myers.
Carpenter’s music video for “Taste” subverts expectations by casting Campbell as a male damsel in distress. His role is essentially Bruce Willisis in Death suits her wellas he is both confused and visibly shocked by the violence around him. It’s a smart decision to cast one of the most recognizable faces in modern horror in a completely different role, and Campbell makes the most of his brief but crucial role as Carpenter and Ortega’s “beloved friend.”
