Marilyn Manson might be best known as a musician, but he's also made his mark as a video artist, simultaneously captivating and disgusting viewers since 1994's "Get Your Gunn" clip all the way up to this year's nympho-nuns-with-guns visual "WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE." In celebration of the Antichrist Superstar's 20-year-plus of rock and shock, we've compiled our picks for the Five Most Horrifying Moments from his many horrifying music videos.
1. "The Beautiful People" (1996)
Hard to say what's the most disturbing image from this Floria Sigismondi-directed freakshow, but that mouth-stretching "dental Device" Manson wears in several scenes is unforgettably grotesque, and has certainly triggered more than a few nasty orthodontist flashbacks.
2. "Sweet Dreams" (1999)
Manson staggering into the daylight, lacerated and barely clothed, looking like the transvestite crack whore of your worse nightmares. In other words, definitely not something you'd want to run into on your way to work in the morning, much less in a dark alley.
3. "(S)aint" (2003)
Directed by Italian horror maestro Dario Argento's daughter, Asia, who also costars, the video features Manson mired in all manner of narcotic and sexual debasement, but the self-mutilation sequences are especially wince-inducing. "Asia Argento scared me, though not in a horror way," Manson recalls with a laugh. "And we won't say 'whore,' but I know that's what you thought."
4. Apple of Sodom" (2009)
The ominous track was included on the soundtrack of David Lynch's 1997 film, Lost Highway, but the troubling clip that was supposed to accompany it was shelved for over a decade due to its nudity and low-budget aesthetic. In retrospect, the video's grainy quality actually makes it powerfully effective, especially in the cinematic scene where the nude, alien-like female pulls a plug out of her torso and proceeds to bleed to death.
5. "Slo-mo-tion" (2012)
Steve "Eastbound & Down" Little guest stars, attired in what Manson describes as a "tit sweatshirt." "The part that was really upsetting and disturbing to me were the grommets on the back of the neck, where it all laced up," says Manson. Naw, dude — it's all upsetting and disturbing.
