The new Grimes video is delightful, terrifying, and totally bonkers

By Lilian min

January 19, 2016

By Lilian min

January 19, 2016

Grimes, the Canadian weird-pop producer and performer, unleashed a kaleidoscope of sounds with her most recent album Art Angels. We got a look into the visuals for her freaky pop futurecast with her first music video, “Flesh without Blood,” and now she’s turned her gender-bending vampire opus (inspired by Al Pacino’s character in The Godfather 2), “Kill v Maim,” into a similarly bizarre and glorious audio-visual bonanza.

We know we’re in from a treat from the very beginning, when Grimes shows up in a tricked-out Barbie convertible shell. It looks like some demented, candy-colored Mad Max/Akira/Tank Girl mash-up, housing the kinds of colorful characters we’ve come to expect in Grimes videos. We’re calling shotgun:

Naturally, this leads into the Law & Order-inspired titles. Approximately 0% of the video is dedicated to “the police, who investigate crime, and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders,” but we appreciate the pop culture hat-tip regardless:

Out of the various fashion looks Grimes sports in the video — including a pin-striped bodysuit over ripped tights, all under a cherry-red, vinyl jellyfish tentacle jacket — this one actually stands out the most to us. Maybe it’s the subtle vampire fangs? The gorgeous wings? (A counterpoint to the ones she wears in “Flesh without Blood.”) The luxury sweatshirt with the ski goggles? We’re filing this under our winter fashion inspiration:

Peppered throughout the video: Little animated features and characters, like this tiny mohawked vampire bat drawn and animated by Grimes herself. Also, can we appreciate how amazing the costumes look? Especially the electrical tape-covered archer in the corner (her standing-up look is a liiitle NSFW):

Though Grimes and her brother Mac Boucher co-directed the video, all of the amazing styling decisions come from someone listed in the video credits only as Turner, whom we have to thank for this glorious two-toned perm ‘do and the ornate gold talons to match:

So… what about that gender-bent vampire inspiration? No worries, as the video caps off with a live show-turned-blood-orgy. Hey, maybe Grimes is also a big American Horror Story fan: