Proper, so PinkPantheress has dropped a Halloween video and it’s truly good, which shouldn’t be shocking however someway 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 Warner Information, however this video feels prefer it was gestating in PP’s mind since she first heard a creaky floorboard as an adolescent.
Charlotte Rutherford directs the entire thing, watching PinkPantheress prepare for an evening out in what’s clearly a haunted home earlier than JT exhibits up and mainly possesses her.
The premise is straightforward however it works as a result of the tune’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 towards the moon open the video, then we’re inside watching PinkPantheress’ shadow dance throughout the wall.
It’s this speedy sign that we’re in horror territory, however not the gory type.
That is psychological horror, the type that lives in your head while you’re 17 and your dad and mom 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 truly, as a result of on the brink of exit is its personal sort of ritual, and Rutherford turns it into one thing that sits proper subsequent to summoning demons when it comes to vibe. Lipstick and poltergeists, mainly the identical power.
Wind blows doorways open, leaves scatter all over the place, shadow arms attain down from the ceiling like one thing out of Nosferatu.
However right here’s what makes it work past simply ticking horror packing 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 individual residence feels alien while 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 power in any respect. They collide at nighttime, each scream, then realise they’re caught collectively.
It’s much less collaboration and extra hostile takeover, which is actually extra fascinating than in the event that they’d simply stood subsequent to one another trying 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 needed to hang around, you’d in all probability simply go together with it at that time.
The Metropolis Women rapper brings her Miami swagger to what’s basically a British nervousness monitor.
The unique “Noises” was at all times probably the most paranoid monitor on Fancy That. It captures that hyper-paranoid feeling of being alone and listening to sounds you may’t clarify.
The manufacturing samples Groove Armada’s “Suntoucher” from 2001, Nardo Wick’s “Who Need Smoke?,” and Z-3 MC’s “Triple Menace.”
PP takes Nardo Wick’s line about stomping rivals and flips it to imply getting caught by your dad and mom while 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 traditional from the early 2000s, a Florida drill monitor from 2021, an 80s electro lower, all mashed collectively to soundtrack the precise terror of listening to your entrance door open while 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 seems like what panic truly 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, depart earlier than they’ll ask questions.
Rutherford black-and-white aesthetic encapsulates a traditional horror mode, the type the place characters bond by shared terror as a result of what else are you going to do?
The timing’s excellent simply in time for Halloween. Nevertheless, PinkPantheress has been making spooky music about nervousness and paranoia for the reason that starting.
The home is creepy, the supernatural stuff is performed straight, however there’s at all times 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 at all times 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 all of the lazy seasonal content material everybody else is churning out.
