Marilyn Manson music videos

This article features all music videos by Marilyn Manson from 1994 until 2009.

Get Your Gunn

The music video, directed by Rod Chong, features Manson performing in a damp "attic-like" scene, intertwined by footage of band members and two feisty teenage girls. It did not receive much video play.

The Beautiful People

Directed by Floria Sigismondi, this music video has been described as "the creepiest of creepy videos". Filmed in the abandoned Goodenham and Worts distillery in Toronto, Canada, the clip depicts the band performing the song in a classroom-like setting adorned with medical prostheses and laboratory equipment. Intercut with performance footage are scenes of Manson on stilts, wearing a long gown-like costume, aviator goggles, and prosthetic makeup, making him appear bald and grotesquely tall. After being placed in this costume by similarly-attired attendants, he appears at a window to a cheering crowd in a scene reminiscent of a fascist rally, and later stands in the center of a circle while people march around him performing the Hitler salute. Other fast-cut scenes include extreme closeups of crawling earthworms; mannequin heads and hands; the boots of people marching; shots of the individual band members in bizarre costumes; and Manson in back and neck braces and a dental device that retracts the flesh of his mouth with hooks, exposing metallic teeth.

The video premiered on MTV on September 22, 1996 and was nominated for two 1997 Video Music Awards (Best Rock Video, Best Special Effects).

The video is available on the Lest We Forget (The Best of) bonus DVD, as well as on the VHS compilation God Is in the T.V..

Apple of Sodom

On November 24, 2009, the music video for "Apple of Sodom" was released, 11 years after it was originally created. It was directed by Joseph Cultice and shot in 1998, in New York City and Los-Angeles. The video seems to mix the gritty darkness of the Antichrist Superstar era with the glam of the upcoming Mechanical Animals era and seems to have been intended as a transition between the two albums. It was eventually shelved due to it's nudity and low budget looks in comparison to The Dope Show which would be released the same year. To quote the director, "I did it my self with Manson, never got much of a release, partly because of the tits, and it was so low budget."

The Dope Show

The music video, directed by Paul Hunter and co-directed by Manson, was filmed during the week of August 8, 1998, and premiered on August 20, 1998. In scenes reminiscent of The Man Who Fell to Earth, Manson appears — red-haired, with his entire body, including prosthetic rubber breasts, covered in white grease paint — as an androgynous extraterrestrial wandering around the Hollywood Hills. He is captured, studied in a laboratory, and eventually transported by limousine to a stage where he and the other members of the band — the fictional band Omēga and the Mechanical Animals — perform the song in concert before hysterical fans who end up rioting and crossing the security barriers. Actor Billy Zane makes a cameo appearance in the limo sequence, as a recording industry executive. This same sequence features parodies of SPIN magazine and The National Enquirer.

Further additional footage for "The Dope Show" can be found on the VHS compilation God Is in the T.V., which includes unused footage of Twiggy Ramirez, Madonna Wayne Gacy and the Goddess Bunny drunk and undressing in the back of a limousine while being observed and mocked by the same people who mocked Manson during his limo scene. There is also an extended cut of the Goddess Bunny's dance scene from the end of the video.

"The Dope Show"'s performance sequence was filmed in front of the Los Angeles Municipal Courthouse on North Hill Street. The Brutalist architecture of the Courthouse did not permit a reasonable angle or height from which to film; instead, the band was placed on top of the trailer of an 18-wheeler transport truck. Cameras situated on mechanical arms, and at a distance across the street, were used to film the dramatic concert shots. These scenes are interspersed with cuts of underground drag performer Johnnie Baima, the Goddess Bunny, dancing in a yellow, sequined dress, similar to that worn by Twiggy Ramirez in the same video. The costumes for the video, including the dresses and Marilyn Manson's red, diamond-patterned boots (which featured a 6-inch sole and heel) were designed jointly by Manson and Terri King. The Goddess Bunny's custom couture sequin gown (worn for the live MTV awards performance), was designed and hand sewn by Kris Hendrickson, aka littlemskris of San Francisco.

The video won a 1999 MTV Video Music Award for "Best Cinematography", as well as the "Maximum Vision" award. It was filmed on standard cinema-grade Kodak 35 mm film stock; the contrast, saturation, and color tinting were all altered dramatically to obtain its vintage look. The video was filmed over two weeks — extreme in comparison to the industry standard of two days. Interscope Records funded the video, while HSI Productions produced and filmed it.

The video is available on the Lest We Forget (The Best of) bonus DVD.

The Dope Show (Alternate Version)

An alternate video for "The Dope Show" found its way to the internet that consists mainly of varying angles of Manson singing along to the song in a white room. This is in fact, B-reel footage shot for the main Dope Show video. Parts of this "alternate video" can be seen in the main video on various TVs and monitors starting around the 2:00 minute mark.

Astonishing Panorama of the Endtimes

The music video was directed by Eric Fogel, showing the band performing as clay figures akin to the style of Celebrity Deathmatch. Manson is dressed in the same outfit as he wore in the "Rock Is Dead" music video. The video begins as a standard performance by the band, but a pair of conjoined monkeys watching a TV with mechanical legs is then seen. The monkeys begin to run after the TV as it runs away from them, but later the TV runs after them, and eventually the monkeys' heads are replaced by a large television screen. The music video ends with the walking TV lying broken.

The first part of the video was used in the episode "Fandemonium II" right before a fight between Manson and Ricky Martin, of which, Manson is the victor.

The Fight Song

The music video, directed by Wiz, features the band performing on stage at a football game. The teams playing are typical "jocks" facing against "goths", and, according to the scoreboard, are representative of "Holy Wood" and "Death Valley" (a reference to the album featuring the track, Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death). Though it begins as a standard football game, it takes a destructive turn when a player throws a ball at the scoreboard, causing a small explosion, leading to more havoc as a Death Valley player begins cutting down the goal post and setting it ablaze as the music video ends.

As a side note, the billboard behind the band performing reads "We're all HAPPY To live in America", and all the Death Valley players have the numbers "00" on their uniforms (including Manson, having the numbers painted to his back).

Tainted Love

The video, shot during the weekend of April 21, 2001, begins with Manson pulling up in a 1969 Lincoln, with a skull and cross design on the front and license plate reading "goth thng", to a large house where a party is taking place that fits with "Not Another Teen Movie", in which the song was first featured. As Manson enters the party he brings a "goth" crowd into it and even the party itself takes a "goth" like turn, as girls in black begin to dance with Manson and the party begins to become increasingly Manson-like rather than the sterotypical jocks and cheerleaders seen partying at the beginning of the video. The video was directed by Philip G. Atwell, who is better known for his work on videos with Eminem, Dr. Dre and 50 Cent.

Manson has said of the video's content that "I hope everyone was able to enjoy the seething sarcasm in the video and notice that it was just plain entertaining to those of us who made it. As I am between records, I really felt the music world needed something a little less serious right now. If you don't get it or like it, that's your call."

Heart-Shaped Glasses (When the Heart Guides the Hand)

The music video, directed by Marilyn Manson using James Cameron's 3D camera (wrongly believed by some to have been directed by Cameron himself) begins with clips of Manson and Evan Rachel Wood having sex (although the footage is not explicit in any way) with the song "Evidence" playing in the background. After the short sex scene is over, Manson and Evan are shown in a car driving while Manson is taking pictures of Evan posing with a butcher knife. After this, the song begins to play, and Manson is shown performing in front of a crowd in a dimly lit room; Evan stands in the midst of the dancing crowd, literally wearing heart-shaped glasses. The performance is interspliced with scenes of them driving and having sex while blood rains down upon them. At the end of the song, they are shown again driving the car as they utter the words "Together as one - against all others", right before driving off a cliff. The complete music video is over seven minutes long; however, the more common edited version of the video is barely over five minutes, and does not include the lengthy intro. Manson is quoted by the Insider regarding Evan's paycheck for the video appearance " I did insist that Evan be paid the most that any actress has ever been paid in music-video history to be in this, even though she wouldn’t have asked for it. There’s no one else that could’ve been in it, because it was inspired by her.”

Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon

On April 3, Polydor Records alluded to the previously unconfirmed music video for "Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon", saying it will be available no earlier than April 17. On April 6, behind-the-scenes video clips and photos of the song's music video, directed by Delaney Bishop between April 4 and 5, 2009, surfaced, which showed that the video may somewhat parody the visual themes of Antichrist Superstar and The Golden Age of Grotesque. In one scene, Manson stands at a podium similar to the one used during live performances of "Antichrist Superstar", however rather than the podium bearing the era's shock logo, a slightly different logo containing a dollar symbol appears instead. Several of these logos are also hung from the backdrop behind Manson. Another scene involves Manson standing on the hood of a police cruiser singing, while he is crowded by bystanders holding picket signs.

UK television station Channel 4 announced that they would premier the music video during the early hours of April 18, however this did not occur and the station later explained that "due to unforeseen circumstances, the video was not delivered to Channel 4 in time to screen it." They also reported that because other stations had been screening it, Channel 4 did not plan to air it in the future; curiously, this explanation is false. Universal Music later reported that the music video was expected to premier around May 5, however this date was not met either. On May 14 however, the music video, in which Manson and bassist Twiggy, Chris Vrenna and Ginger Fish appear, debuted on NME.com in censored form, before appearing on the band's official website in uncensored form hours later.

Manson has revealed that the music video was filmed using "30 or 40 cameras," but only two of these cameras make up the footage seen in the final video. Manson went on to tell that he is interested in releasing "the 30-camera angle version" as well. Manson also claimed that the song was inspired by an instance where he was driving to the studio and witnessed a 'ruckus' with the police, and that it has a very intentional "Adam Ant/Gary Glitter throwback vibe."

Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon (Director's Cut)

Delaney Bishop, the director for the video, later released an exerpt of the director's cut of the video through his website and can be viewed here. The exerpt the entire second verse and is comprised of footage almost entirely different from the original.

Running to the Edge of the World

On September 10th and 11th Manson posted three photos on his Myspace of stills from the video. The first two stills were uploaded to his "video stills from the future" photo album. The third was released the next day in his "My Mobile Photos" photo album.

On November 4th at 6:19PM EST, the video was uploaded to the official website. It had briefly been up under the title 'test1' two days prior, but only for a few hours.

The video was directed by Manson and Nathan "Karma" Cox, who also directed the video for "Personal Jesus". It opens with Manson, dressed in a white shirt singing the song to a camera while partially concealing himself with a curtain. As the bridge and outro of the song play, he beats a woman to death, speculated to represent Evan Rachel Wood, played by Kelly Polk.

One could also draw similarities from the video, to the movie American Psycho. In particular the scene where Marilyn Manson is signing the guestbook, with one glove on, in an identical fashion to Patrick Bateman in the American Psycho movie, featuring Christian Bale.

Other Videos

The section of the article features videos by Manson not classfied as music videos.

Autopsy

"Autopsy" is a five minute short film directed by Marilyn Manson and D. Sardy, released online on November 14, 2001 by Interscope Records. It features an instrumental loop of "GodEatGod", from Marilyn Manson's fourth studio album, Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death), which "Autopsy"'s release coincided with. The short film was hosted by Interscope's official website, and was accessed through running the "START.exe" file included on the Holy Wood album, on a personal computer. "Autopsy" is no longer hosted online and as such, this START.exe file leads to a broken link when accessed. In 2004, the film was re-released as an easter egg on the Lest We Forget (The Best of) bonus DVD, which can be viewed by highlighting Manson's crotch on the Special Features menu.

The video features Manson on an autopsy table, having his cranium opened, from which a fetus is extracted. This could be reference to the birth of the Greek goddess Athena, whom had been the result of a tryst that Zeus had with Metis. Out of fear of Metis conceiving children more powerful than he, Zeus swallowed her. His actions were too late however, as Metis had already conceived Athena from within him. Another interpretation of the short film could be the recurring theme of emotionally neglected children throughout Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death), and this could be the child theoretically hiding within himself.

Doppelherz

Doppelherz is a twenty-five minute short film directed by Marilyn Manson in 2003, using music composed a year prior, in 2002. The name Doppelherz is German for "double-heart". The DVD comes with the original pressings of Marilyn Manson's 2003 album, The Golden Age of Grotesque, released on May 13, 2003. This pressing of the album is now out of print, and the film has yet to see standalone release.