Dream Wife’s “Lolita” Video Puts A Feminist Twist On Horror Movie Clichés

The London band are poking fun at your Halloween favorite.

September 06, 2016

London-based band Dream Wife are calling time in the horror movie tropes that drive you crazy. You know the drill, an innocent teenage girl gets chased and tormented by a scary old man until she is saved by another, more heroic man. For the video for new single "Lolita," the trio, Rakel Mjöll, Alice Go, and Bella Podpadec, decided to flip some of those well-worn ideas on their head.

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Using a found footage aesthetic directors Sam Boullier and Eleanor Hardwick create a series of shots that capture the band being both good and the bad, the villains and the victims. The video satirizes the archetype of the female horror victim throughout, while also nodding to horror classics like The Shining.

"The idea for the video came from a distaste toward the classic virginal female victim narrative, the damsel in distress scenario," the post-punk band told The FADER via email. "The intention was to make something both playful and angry, toying with many conventional horror movie moments in an unconventional, empowering, silly and scary way."

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Check out the video, premiering on The FADER, above. Dream Wife tour the U.K. throughout October alongside Black Honey.

Dream Wife’s “Lolita” Video Puts A Feminist Twist On Horror Movie Clichés