Sabrina Carpenter leaned into camp and chaos with a Rocky Horror Picture Show, inspired music video for her new single “Tears,” released last Friday alongside her album Man’s Best Friend. The dramatic and surreal clip underscores the singer-songwriter’s bold aesthetic and emotional storytelling, as she strolls into a seductive, twisted world where nothing is as it seems.
A Surreal Welcome to Man’s Best Friend
Carpenter opens Man’s Best Friend, her seventh studio album, with a cinematic flourish. The music video for “Tears” begins in a quiet pasture where Carpenter lies alone, the aftermath of a car crash. Rising, disoriented, she stumbles upon a lone house. One wrong step inside, and the atmosphere transforms, walls pulse with energy, characters appear in drag and glamour, and Carpenter is herself “revamped” into bizarrely alluring versions of herself.
Actress and entertainer Colman Domingo co-stars, dressed in flamboyant drag as he guides Carpenter through the house’s unpredictable chambers. The direction and styling echo the cult spirit of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, mixing sexy wildness with tongue-in-cheek theatricality. One standout scene features Carpenter and Domingo breaking into a vivid dance, as if the house itself is pulsating to a shared desire.
Death, Healing, and Dramatic Flair
The video ends on a darkly comic note, Carpenter is ejected from the house. Yet outside stands the presumed-dead boyfriend, a twist that tilts the tone toward charming absurdity. Carpenter deadpans, “It’s a thing. Someone has to die every video,” before delivering the final act: she tosses her heel at him, seemingly finishing the job. This blend of macabre humor and emotional intensity is fully in line with Carpenter’s brand, when she plays with darkness, it never goes unobserved.
Album and Backstory
Man’s Best Friend offers 12 new tracks, lead by “Manchild” and charting topics like self-exploration, heartbreak, and identity. Though the album debuted amid controversy over its provocative cover art, featuring Carpenter on hands and knees, her hair pulled in a clenched fist, the singer has consistently defended the visuals. On CBS Mornings, she asserted that the cover is less about shock and more about agency:
“To me, it’s about being in control—about knowing when you’re in or out—even when you’re at your most vulnerable. This album is about accepting mistakes, figuring out where you lose control, and what that teaches you.”
Acknowledging criticisms, Carpenter emphasized that not everyone would understand her creative vision. Yet her most loyal supporters, including her parents, resonated with the cover’s narrative power and vulnerability.
Why Audiences Care
Carpenter’s Tears video doesn’t just nod to queer camp—it revels in it. The aesthetic-full artistry, queer-coded styling, and subversive humor position her as an artist aligned with camp tradition and queer expressive culture. In a musical and visual era that craves authenticity and theatrical flamboyance, Carpenter nails character-driven storytelling—while leaning into identity, style, and pop sensibility.
The casting of Domingo in drag and the house’s garish reimagining of reality deliver the kind of unfiltered fantasy queer audiences embrace. Carpenter’s embrace of theatricality and fragility together renders her work relatable across emotional spectrum—from heartbreak and healing to cathartic spectacle.
What Comes Next for Man’s Best Friend
Carpenter isn’t slowing down. After unpacking the video for “Tears” and the album’s themes of control and vulnerability, she’s extending her reach through collaboration. She will appear on the title track of Taylor Swift’s upcoming album The Life of a Showgirl, signaling her expanding footprint in pop.
For now, Man’s Best Friend stands as a vivid, emotionally layered statement. Carpenter’s escapades—crash landings and all—invite us to confront our own contradictions, to dress up our fears and fancies, and to find beauty in camp. After all, “someone has to die every video,” and with Carpenter, it’s never just a tragedy.
