A major aesthetic change has accompanied Sabrina Carpenter’s swift rise to household-name status. Some of these changes are direct influences of the movie industry and are demonstrated in her recent music videos.
Three of Sabrina Carpenter’s recent music videos have taken creative inspiration from fan-favorite features. Through her artful references, Carpenter enhances the quality of each short film she creates.
Each video that makes these allusions has plenty to say about how today’s artists draw much of their creativity from film. It displays a long-lasting influence of our favorite movies from the past, and how we view them as a society.
Sabrina’s Interest in Film
Sabrina Carpenter famously began her career as an actress, highlighting her love for the screen. After starring on Disney Channel’s Girl Meets World, she began creating music and acting in many films. Carpenter made her first non-TV movie appearance in 2018, in The Hate U Give. The film was based on the best-selling novel of the same name.
In the following years, Carpenter starred in other features. The Short History of The Long Road, Tall Girl, and Clouds are a few of the more popular films. Though Carpenter currently seems to be focusing more on her music career, she hasn’t strayed from her filmmaking history. She takes a lead role in each of her music videos, even directing her most recent release.
In fact, Carpenter’s latest appearance at the Met Gala showcases her love for classic Hollywood production. She demonstrated this through her outfit made of filmstrips and stills from the 1954 Audrey Hepburn film entitled Sabrina. After all her history in the business, it’s no wonder she blends this art form with the art she creates through her music.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show portrays the story of an extremely traditional engaged couple, Janet and Brad. They forcefully enter a group of people whose extreme self-expression frightens the pair. The duo discovers the new world they’ve been exposed to. Eventually, they learn more about their identities on the journey that takes place.
In her Tears music video, Carpenter takes the role of Janet Weiss. Weiss is played by Susan Sandron in the original musical film, although this time she discovers the new environment alone.
Alongside Carpenter, Colman Domingo stars in the video as a character who closely resembles Doctor Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Domingo’s role includes the flamboyant and charismatic attitudes of the iconic character, whom most people think about when they think about the film in the first place.
Carpenter and Domingo perfectly emulate the characters. They recreate elements of the movie, such as its retro fashion, and a specific close-up of lips singing the song that appears in the opening of the feature. Carpenter runs throughout the house she finds herself in and experiences the unusual lifestyle of those who reside there. She literally has the time of her life, before being kicked out the front door.
The two projects do differ, however. It seems that the music video essentially takes all of the good parts of the film. Tears represents the joy and fun of the story, whereas The Rocky Horror Picture Show discusses a bit more of the conflicts within the story.
Sabrina puts her own twists on each of the films she reflects on. She draws what she desires from the narratives to personalize her own interpretations for her own work.
Tears has won multiple awards, including Best Pop at the 2026 Hollywood Music Video Awards and two 2026 Webby Awards.
The Bling Ring
Sabrina Carpenter’s directorial debut for the song House Tour was largely inspired by the 2013 film The Bling Ring. The film follows the true story of teenagers in Hollywood who broke into celebrities’ houses for fancy clothes and jewelry.
House Tour follows a similar story. Sabrina Carpenter, Margaret Qualley, and Madelyn Cline break into a house using the name “Pretty Girl Cleanup Crew”. They enjoy themselves in the expensive mansion, wearing and using anything they desire. The women play a few rounds of 8-ball, dive into the swimming pool, and dance on a king-size bed.
Just like in the film, Carpenter and her group narrowly escape the setting. Of course, this is only after having a blast and making sure not to take anything too seriously. Contrarily, though, The Bling Ring follows a string of break-ins from the teenagers who are eventually caught.
In addition, the music video also emulates more themes of girlhood throughout the story. The three women in the video are just there to have fun with each other, whereas the protagonists of the movie seem to be doing everything for fame. If there were somehow a right way to rob a house, it looks like Sabrina taught us.
Death Becomes Her
Death Becomes Her is a campy dark comedy starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn. The two play frenemies fighting over the same man. After they both take a potion that guarantees them everlasting life, they attempt to harm each other in various ways. As a result, these women suffer permanent damage to the bodies they will inhabit forever. Sabrina’s Taste music video perfectly emulates the comedic supernatural feud between herself and her co-star, Jenna Ortega.
The duo takes turns repeatedly wounding each other fatally, only to cause painless but visually catastrophic damage. Carpenter even recreates a famous visual that Goldie Hawn’s Helen wears. A hole punctures each woman in the center of her body in the respective projects. Somehow, both characters appear seemingly unharmed.
At the end of each work, the two women, formerly competitors, consolidate and bond over the death of their former partner. They decide they are better off without him and with a genuine female friendship. The Taste music video went on to win three awards at the 2025 Hollywood Music Video Awards, along with two other awards in the 2025 season.
The film, respectively, has become a cult classic and is extremely loved by many cinephiles. It also allowed the production of an adored Broadway adaptation since its 1992 release. Carpenter’s use of this movie as inspiration draws on just how much of an influence a film can have on general pop culture, even thirty-two years after its premiere.
Other References from Taste
The bulk of the remaining movie references comes from Carpenter’s aforementioned Taste music video. Though Death Becomes Her seems to be the main inspiration for the concept of this video, it references other films throughout. Specifically, horror films are the stars of the show.
For example, Carpenter recreates the famous shower scene from Psycho, the 1960 horror movie, by attacking her co-stars who are trying to bathe with a knife. Even a similar shot of the shower head is used to begin the sequence, just like it’s used to begin the sequence in Psycho.
Earlier in the music video for Taste, the wardrobe creates a reference to the movie Kill Bill. Jenna Ortenga’s character wears an outfit extremely reminiscent of Daryl Hannah’s character in the film. Ortega wears the iconic nurse’s outfit, complete with an eyepatch, that Hannah’s Elle Driver dons in one of the most famous scenes from Kill Bill.
Taste also features a reference to the horror film Ginger Snaps. One scene from the video depicts Carpenter falling from the second floor of a house and becoming impaled by a fence. While this still follows the theme of Death Becomes Her since Carpenter is still living and breathing after taking that fall, the clip reflects a scene from the opening of Ginger Snaps, where sisters Ginger and Bridgette stage the faux visual for a school photography project. Carpenter even does the same hand signal to Ortega that Ginger does to her sister.
Other Film References in Sabrina Carpenter Music Videos
On top of that, Carpenter’s Manchild recreates a famous scene from Legally Blonde in which the protagonists steal back a dog from a man in a trailer. Though the scene from the music video is concise, the connection being made is clear. Carpenter runs gleefully with a dog in her hands from an unenthused trailer-inhabiting man with her friends, just as Paulette and Elle do in Legally Blonde.
Finally, Sabrina’s Please Please Please video mirrors Bonnie and Clyde’s classic couple crime story. Carpenter and Barry Keoghan play a couple that just can’t seem to get away from the world of crime, relying on their relationship to further their journey together. Carpenter’s world even demonstrates the discourse between the couple through Carpenter’s “Bonnie” in the relationship being less enthused by the spree than Keoghans’ “Clyde”.
What Does This Say About the Impact of Film?
With many more minor references being emulated throughout Sabrina Carpenter’s music videos, it is evident that film media has been a large influence on her creative process. Original features, some older and some newer, some widely known and some less popular, are getting their time in the modern spotlight, thanks to these creative decisions.
Fans of Carpenter’s music may become more interested in the films behind the production. This causes a unique method of preservation of this art form. And this isn’t just happening because of one specific person; films have become more referencable due to the increase in other media’s interest in the subject. At this point, who hasn’t watched a movie because they saw a clip of it on TikTok?
Thankfully, we can attribute the rise of this interest to cinephiles like Sabrina, who appreciate these styles and stories and want to see them continue to live on with today’s audiences.
