If you were a fan of Zoom horror flick Host, you’d do right to tune into Sad13’s new video for “Hysterical,” off her upcoming second album, Haunted Painting — out September 25th on her Wax Nine Label.
Based on the 2014 horror movie Unfriended — in which group of friends are picked off by a vengeful ghost over Skype — the video features frontwoman Sadie Dupuis (Speedy Ortiz) chatting with a bevy of friends as… they are picked off by a vengeful spirit over a Skype-like service. Much like in Unfriended — and Host — the whole video takes place on a laptop screen as Dupuis texts friends, orders pizza and watches yet another music video in which she performs the track in a voluminous pink dress.
Directed by Kate Banford (co-founder of Philly’s Good Good Comedy) and Jamie Loftus (Robot Chicken, The Bechdel Cast), the video also stars Mitra Jouhari (Three Busy Debras, Search Party, High Maintenance) and Demi Adejuyigbe (The Good Place, Punch Up the Jam).
Kicking off with a spectral organ and ominous drums, “Hysterical” boasts Dupuis’ characteristically striking lyrics: “You’re in it for the fight (right)/A voyeur for the gore/You can’t keep on ice anymore.” Once we hit the chorus — “Hysterical/you wanna see me disappear” — we’re at the horror movie climax, all spooky synths and “run for it!” percussion.
According to Dupuis, the song is about “unfunny comedians [who] love to argue that ‘PC culture’ destroys comedy,” which adds weight to the deeply satisfying lyric: “Laugh like it’s not ammunition.”
“Hysterical” follows yet another spooky single, “Ghost (of a Good Time),” and the vampiric “Oops!”
From Rolling Stone US
