Sabrina Carpenter made her mark in the summer of 2024 with her hit songs “Espresso” and “Please, Please, Please.” With the release of her new album Short n’ Sweet, Carpenter also dropped the music video for her next single, “Taste.” The blood-soaked music video is full of campy horror as Carpenter attempts to kill her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend, played by Gen Z horror darling and fellow Disney Channel alumna Jenna Ortega. While Carpenter sings a warning to her ex-boyfriend’s new girl, she and Ortega play a cat-and-mouse game, killing each other in increasingly creative ways and coming back to life shortly after to continue their feud.
This isn’t the first time Carpenter’s music videos have taken inspiration from cinema. The music video for “Please Please Please” was inspired by director Quentin Tarantino and movies like Bonnie and Clyde and Natural Born Killers. Meanwhile, Taste is largely inspired by Robert Zemeckis‘ cult classic Death Becomes Her, along with visual references to some iconic horror films (and more Tarantino). So, for those who want to know more about the inspirations behind this creative video, here is every movie reference in Carpenter’s “Taste.”
1 ‘Death Becomes Her’ (1992)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
The style and narrative of the “Taste” music video largely mirrors that of Death Becomes Her, the 1991 dark comedy starring Academy Award winners Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn. Madeline (Streep) and Helen (Hawn) are longtime frenemies fighting over the same man and trying desperately to stay beautiful and youthful as they age. They drink a potion that affords them eternal life and youth and allows them to survive each other’s brutal attacks, some of which are recreated in Carpenter’s music video.
In one of the film’s most memorable scenes, Madeline shoots Helen with a shotgun, leaving a giant round hole through her torso, which is recreated in the “Taste” music video when Ortega shoots Carpenter, landing her in the hospital. The music video pulls some moments directly from the film, and there are plenty of easily identifiable fashion references as well, including the black dresses Carpenter and Ortega wear to their boyfriend’s funeral. As it happens in the movie, Carpenter and Ortega decide to bury the hatchet and laugh over their shared experience with their boyfriend. Death Becomes Her is a camp classic of the ’90s, and Carpenter did justice to it.
Death Becomes Her
- Release Date
- July 31, 1992
- Runtime
- 104 minutes
2 ‘Ginger Snaps’ (2000)
Directed by John Fawcett
After Ortega blasts Carpenter out an open window with her rifle, she looks out to see Carpenter has been impaled by the white picket fence below. Outraged, Carpenter gives Ortega the finger and throws a knife into her eye in retaliation. The gruesome scene contrasts with the song’s bubbly tone, creating the exact kind of unnerving yet alluring approach Carpenter is surely aiming for with the video.
This scene makes reference to another cult film, Ginger Snaps, about two teenage sisters who make a suicide pact until one of them is bitten by a werewolf. Obsessed with death, Brigitte (Emily Perkins) and Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) do a school project for which they stage photos of themselves brutally murdered, with Ginger posing as though she’s been impaled by a fence and giving Brigitte the finger when she says it looks too fake. Despite bombing at the box office, Ginger Snaps has become a certified horror cult classic, and it’s nice to see a modern singer like Carpenter paying homage to it.
Ginger Snaps
- Release Date
- August 1, 2000
- Cast
- Emily Perkins , Katharine Isabelle , Kris Lemche , Mimi Rogers , Jesse Moss , Danielle Hampton
- Runtime
- 108 minutes
- Writers
- Karen Walton , John Fawcett
3 ‘Kill Bill: Vol. 1’ (2003)
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
While Carpenter is in the hospital getting the wooden fence removed from her torso, Ortega reappears behind her dressed as Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), the secondary antagonist from Quentin Tarantino’s acclaimed and deeply influential duology Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2, a one-eyed, ruthless assassin. Throughout both Kill Bill films, Elle and Beatrix Kiddo (Uma Thurman) violently attack each other just as Carpenter and Ortega do in the music video and, like Elle, Ortega wants revenge after losing an eye.
In Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Elle sneaks into a hospital dressed as a nurse, complete with a white eye patch, but doesn’t actually kill Beatrix. In the “Taste” video, however, Ortega takes full advantage of her power and attacks Carpenter with defibrillators. Unfortunately, there’s no creepy whistling from Ortega, but her nurse outfit and overall demeanor would certainly make Miss Driver proud.
Kill Bill Vol. 1
- Release Date
- October 10, 2003
- Runtime
- 111 minutes
4 ‘Psycho’ (1960)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
As the music video continues, Carpenter just won’t stay dead and reappears in the bathroom while Ortega and her boyfriend are showering. She attacks them with a knife, only to lose an arm when Ortega chops it off using a hook.
The shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock‘s Psycho is undoubtedly one of the most iconic scenes in horror history, and the reference is clear when Carpenter opens the shower door with a knife raised above her head, ready to attack. All it’s missing is the film’s iconic score, but Carpenter’s song makes for a good accompaniment to the carnage. “Taste” flips the script by having the boyfriend recreate Janet Leigh‘s terrified scream, complementing the video’s feminist themes.
Psycho
- Release Date
- June 22, 1960
- Cast
- Anthony Perkins , Vera Miles , John Gavin , Martin Balsam , John McIntire , Simon Oakland
- Runtime
- 109 minutes
- Writers
- Joseph Stefano , Robert Bloch
5 ‘Halloween Ends’ (2022)
Directed by David Gordon Green
Ortega isn’t the only horror star in “Taste.” Carpenter also recruited Rohan Campbell, who rose to fame with the divisive 2022 slasher Halloween Ends, the final installment in David Gordon Green‘s modern Halloween trilogy. Campbell played Halloween Ends‘ de-facto protagonist, Corey Cunningham, a disturbed young man who slowly becomes Haddonfield’s new murderer, even wearing Michael Myers’ iconic mask briefly.
Carpenter’s “Taste” music video subverts expectations by casting Campbell as a male damsel in distress. His role is basically Bruce Willis‘s in Death Becomes Her, as he is both confused and visibly shocked at the violence around him. It’s a clever choice to cast one of modern horror’s most recognizable faces in a completely different role, and Campbell makes the most of his short but pivotal role as Carpenter and Ortega’s “beloved boyfriend.”
