Christina Ricci is making headlines once again in a spine-tingling role that will have fans on the edge of their seats. The Emmy-nominated star of Yellowjackets has teamed up with chart-topping artist Doja Cat in the music video for her latest single, “Demons,” which was released on Friday.
In the hair-raising video — a track featured on Doja’s upcoming album, Scarlet, set to be released on Sept. 22 — Ricci takes on the role of a seemingly mild-mannered homeowner. The video, co-directed by Christian Breslauer and Doja herself, starts with a “sold” sign in front of Ricci’s new suburban house as she attempts to find some rest on a stormy night.
However, Ricci’s peaceful night takes a horrifying turn when a razor-clawed, red-eyed demon, played by Doja, begins to crawl menacingly on the bedroom ceiling. This terrifying scene pays homage to the classic suburban nightmare depicted in the movie Poltergeist. As Doja raps, “How my demons look (How your demons)/ Now that my pocket’s full?/ How my demons look/ Now that you b—hes shook? (Bi**h)/ Yeah, how my demons look/ Now that my pocket’s full?,” she crawls into bed with Ricci, intensifying the chilling atmosphere.
The video takes viewers on a surreal journey as it transitions to a bald, naked Doja in a bathtub overflowing with black water. While rapping sweetly about blocking her enemies from her V.I.P. section, two black demon hands emerge from the water, revealing milky white eyes. The demonic party escalates as two more sinister figures join Doja in the attic for a devilish dance party.
In one particularly eerie scene, Ricci reaches for an old-school shoulder-mounted video camera to capture footage of Doja typing out the song’s lyrics on a typewriter while being surrounded by baby goats — an homage to the classic horror film The Shining.
This week, Doja unveiled the cover art for her upcoming album, Scarlet, and then quickly updated the illustration.
“Updated cover,” the singer wrote on Instagram on Thursday alongside the new art, which features a hand-drawn, spider-like creature with pearls as a head and abdomen against a white background.
The original art featured a fittingly scarlet-colored spider, but Doja seemed to have deleted the post and changed the cover after fans noticed that German hardcore band Chaver also used the same spider on the artwork for their upcoming album cover.
Last month, not long after lashing out at her own fan base and telling them to “get a job,” the 27-year-old rapper-singer lost fans by the thousands on social media.
According to multiple reports, the “Attention” artist lost over 187,000 followers on Instagram alone. What’s more, some of her biggest fan accounts deactivated their Twitter pages in protest of how she’s been treating them.
Doja, who has been known for getting confrontational with her fans (on social media, anyway), went off in a since-deleted tweet in which she blasted her fans for referring to themselves as “kittenz” or “kitten.” She tweeted, “My fans don’t get to name themselves s**t. If you call yourself a ‘kitten’ or f**king ‘kittenz’ that means you need to get off your phone and get a job and help your parents with the house.”
A month after losing Instagram followers for speaking negatively about her fans, Doja addressed the situation.
“Seeing all these people unfollow me makes me feel like I’ve defeated a large beast that’s been holding me down for so long and it feels like I can reconnect with the people who really matter and love me for who I am and not for who I was,” she wrote on her Instagram Story. “I feel free.”
The same day Doja Cat released her statement, the singer was announced as one of three cover stars for Harper’s Bazaar‘s September 23 Icons issue. In the accompanying interview, which was conducted prior to all of the unfollowing drama, Doja Cat praises her fans.
“I appreciate when people speak up for someone who is getting bullied or attacked by internet trolls. … Some of the most moving moments for me have been when my fans have stood up for me or for other people,” she said. “That’s fighting for something real. I really appreciate that because people like to s**t-talk.”
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