Proper, so PinkPantheress has dropped a Halloween video and it’s really good, which shouldn’t be stunning however by some means nonetheless is.
The “Noises” visible landed simply earlier than Halloween, pulled from her remix challenge Fancy Some Extra? that reimagines the Mercury Prize-shortlisted Fancy That.
The remix album got here out on 10 October by way of Warner Information, however this video feels prefer it was gestating in PP’s mind since she first heard a creaky floorboard as a youngster.
Charlotte Rutherford directs the entire thing, watching PinkPantheress prepare for an evening out in what’s clearly a haunted home earlier than JT reveals up and principally possesses her.
The premise is easy however it works as a result of the track’s already about that particular teenage paranoia of being residence alone and convincing your self each sound is a serial killer.
We’ve all been there, mendacity late in mattress after watching too many horror movies, all of a sudden hyper-aware that your own home makes sounds.
Two crows silhouetted in opposition to the moon open the video, then we’re inside watching PinkPantheress’ shadow dance throughout the wall.
It’s this instant sign that we’re in horror territory, however not the gory type.
That is psychological horror, the sort that lives in your head whenever you’re 17 and your mother and father are out.
Rutherford switches between color and black-and-white all through, which isn’t simply aesthetic wankery, it’s about reminiscence and concern blurring collectively.
Rutherford blends horror with hyper-femininity right here, noting the uncanny mixture of glamour and eeriness.
That’s the fascinating bit really, as a result of on the point of exit is its personal type of ritual, and Rutherford turns it into one thing that sits proper subsequent to summoning demons by way of vibe. Lipstick and poltergeists, principally the identical vitality.
Wind blows doorways open, leaves scatter in all places, shadow fingers attain down from the ceiling like one thing out of Nosferatu.
However right here’s what makes it work past simply ticking horror containers: the home itself seems like a personality.
Partitions rotate to disclose hidden rooms when JT seems, which is much less bounce scare and extra “oh proper, this home has been alive the entire time.”
The structure turns into unreliable, which mirrors how your personal residence feels alien whenever you’re alone and scared.
JT performs the spirit of Halloween, actually possessing PinkPantheress, and the genius transfer right here is that she doesn’t attempt to match PP’s vitality in any respect. They collide at the hours of darkness, each scream, then realise they’re caught collectively.
It’s much less collaboration and extra hostile takeover, which is truthfully extra fascinating than in the event that they’d simply stood subsequent to one another wanting spooky.
When every thing switches to black-and-white, JT’s sitting on the sofa with PinkPantheress, and all of a sudden the entire energy dynamic’s shifted.
The possessed and the possessor having a chat. It’s bizarre, however it faucets into one thing about how concern makes you settle for actually unusual conditions.
Like, if a spirit possessed you after which wished to hang around, you’d most likely simply go along with it at that time.
The Metropolis Women rapper brings her Miami swagger to what’s basically a British nervousness observe.
The unique “Noises” was all the time essentially the most paranoid observe on Fancy That. It captures that hyper-paranoid feeling of being alone and listening to sounds you possibly can’t clarify.
The manufacturing samples Groove Armada’s “Suntoucher” from 2001, Nardo Wick’s “Who Need Smoke?,” and Z-3 MC’s “Triple Risk.”
PP takes Nardo Wick’s line about stomping rivals and flips it to imply getting caught by your mother and father whenever you’ve received somebody over.
That’s the trick she’s mastered, taking aggression from one context and making it about teenage nervousness in one other.
A UK storage basic from the early 2000s, a Florida drill observe from 2021, an 80s electro reduce, all mashed collectively to soundtrack the precise terror of listening to your entrance door open whenever you thought you have been alone.
The time signatures don’t match, the genres are incompatible, the entire thing ought to collapse however as an alternative it feels like what panic really seems like.
Two minutes lengthy as a result of PinkPantheress is aware of you don’t want extra time than that to devastate somebody. Get in, make them really feel issues, go away earlier than they will ask questions.
Rutherford black-and-white aesthetic encapsulates a basic horror mode, the sort the place characters bond by way of shared terror as a result of what else are you going to do?
The timing’s good simply in time for Halloween. Nevertheless, PinkPantheress has been making spooky music about nervousness and paranoia because the starting.
The home is creepy, the supernatural stuff is performed straight, however there’s all the time this undertone of “we all know that is ridiculous; regardless it really works.
Each artists survive the haunted home on the finish, which feels proper. PinkPantheress has all the time been good at soundtracking that particular feeling of being younger and satisfied one thing horrible is about to occur.
Now she’s received the visuals to match, they usually’re sharp sufficient to chop by way of all of the lazy seasonal content material everybody else is churning out.
