In the midst of an explosion of gore on the screens (and at the box office), with hits like ‘The Substance’, ‘Terrifier 3’ or ‘Smile 2’, the release of ‘Taste’ a couple of months ago can almost be seen as a preview of what was to come, the blade that opened the wound. It is no coincidence that behind this video clip is a fan of the horror genre like Dave Meyers, who in 2007 directed the remake of ‘Highway to Hell’ (1986).
Sabrina Carpenter’s video is a bubble of references to bloody cinema classics. Shot in a humorous way, ‘Taste’ has as its main source of inspiration the comedy ‘Death suits you so well’, a video store hit in the 90s, little appreciated at its time beyond the special effects (it was filmed by Robert Zemeckis between the saga ‘Back to the Future’ and ‘Forrest Gump’), but converted into a cult film thanks to its claim by the American LGTB+ community.
‘Taste’ is articulated through the bitch-face fight between Sabrina and actress Jenna Ortega, who has become almost an icon of the genre after the latest ‘Scream’, the series ‘Miércoles’ or the recent ‘Bitelchús Bitelchús’. A confrontation that refers to the characters of Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn in ‘Death Suits You So Good’ and that includes such explicit tributes to the film as the famous hole in the stomach or the neck in the voodoo war.
The rest of the references range from the cliché – the shower scene from ‘Psycho’ – and the trite – the one-eyed Daryl Hannah from ‘Kill Bill’ – to the geeky – the defibrillator from ‘Scream 4’ – and the vindictive – the “death” by impalement on the garden fence in ‘Ginger Snaps’, a gem of feminist teen horror with more and more followers.
