“Sometimes hate is not enough,” Marilyn Manson sings in “Running to the Edge of the World,” the third single off May’s The High End of Low. Unfortunately, in the one-part bloody, two-parts boring mix that concocted the music video, hate seems to be all he’s got.
This video has already started circulating among outraged viewers who don’t enjoy watching Manson beat and murder a naked woman who looks suspiciously like his ex-girlfriend Evan Rachel Wood. Fair enough. After Lily Allen kidnapping Elton John, the singer-attacking-celebrity genre does seem to be gaining steam.
But domestic violence isn't the video’s most objectionable content. Tasteless shock is this goth prince’s stock in trade after all. The true crime committed here is that he’s not even trying. The staged Wood murder is a ploy for news coverage, but filmed in jerky Blair Witch Project, it’s more irritating than it is offensive.
Directed by Manson and Nathan Cox, who previously shot Merry Maril’ in his “Personal Jesus” video, “Running to the Edge of the World” only shows the murder footage for the last two minutes of the six-and-a-half minute video. To get there you have to endure the true savagery of watching four minutes of Manson singing through a translucent curtain. For goodness sake, the man’s mascara seems to be running. Is this guy goth, or just emo?
A few years ago the Onion had a classic article, “Marilyn Manson Now Going Door-to-Door Trying to Shock People.” The Manson they portrayed showing up at Girl Scout meetings covered in sheep entrails though exhibits more creativity than the real-life version. This is just the same old Manson gore, but with a whole lot more bore.
Verdict: 0/5 stars
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