Examining STURMGRUPPE – Lana Del Rey, Eli Roth and Marilyn Manson’s Rape Video

By now, you may or may not have heard about this video surfacing online yesterday that features Marilyn Manson and Lana Del Rey being raped by Eli Roth. When the video surfaced, many were outraged and the video has been pulled a few times now only to pop right back up under another YouTube account. Before you ask on why this is being covered on the site, I think it is important because of the involvement with Eli Roth – whether you like him or not. Below, I have embedded the video – which as of publishing is still online. It’s NSFW and can be very disturbing given the content. If the video that I embedded has been pulled by now, just do a search online under “Sturmgruppe” and I’m sure you’ll find it. Once you are done watching the video, let’s talk about it.

[youtube id=”eokuX3bDAyw” width=”600″ height=”350″]

Upon my first watch, I’ll admit, it was edited very well and seems to have some power behind it but, as one who watches and critiques film constantly, I noticed some things with the editing. First off, the shots don’t seem consistent with their look. Once I started digging into it, it has been stated by people out of Marilyn Manson’s camp that Manson was not involved in this video. Before we dive into the obvious, read the quote from Pitchfork:

Manson did not direct this, shoot it, nor was it for a Marilyn Manson video or outtake footage made by him or to be used by him with his music,” said Manson’s representative, Kathryn Frazier of Biz3. “It must be a fan video splicing up old Manson video footage with someone else’s Lana Del Rey footage

Pitchfork also claimed that the film was directed by Eli Roth. This could be partially true but let’s get down to the facts as the whole 2:40 piece is not under Roth’s direction. The video is indeed from different sources.

The short opens on a striking image of Manson and a young girl having a table slammed down in front of them in slow motion. Now, I could tell this was separate from some of the other footage, mainly the Roth/Del Rey footage. I haven’t kept up with Manson’s musical career – I dropped off somewhere around Holy Wood – so I wasn’t familiar with where this could be from. I thought that Manson has been making some appearances in work from Quentin Dupieux – but this isn’t his style – and other directors. However, stylistically, it looked like a music video. After some digging, I found out that the majority of the footage is from two Manson music videos. The more substantial footage – the table crashing, the girls in white dresses fucking shit up and a girl spewing blood underwater – was from a music video for his song “No Reflection”, which was directed by Lukas Ettlin. And other footage, that isn’t as prevalent is from the music video for Manson’s song “Slo-Mo-Tion”. Both tracks are off his album “Born Villain” and I have embedded the videos below.

[youtube id=”DOj3wDlr_BM” width=”600″ height=”350″]

[youtube id=”8h3QLH_91G4″ width=”600″ height=”350″]

After watching that, this almost excluded Manson from all the shots but there is still some issues I have. These issues sort of give us an idea that this could be a “fan” that edited this all together but it isn’t just someone who ripped the videos off of YouTube or other sources available to the public. There was either some effort to reverse color correction from the scenes or this mysterious editor has access to the raw footage or a different cut of the music video of “No Reflection”. Let me first show you the differences between the color grading between the “Sturmgruppe” video and the “No Reflection” video in the screenshot below.

 

As you can see, the “No Reflection” video has a warmer tone to the image. However, this could be explained by someone reversing the color grading that was done for the video by just changing the white dresses to an actual white tone. What isn’t explained is if you watched the “No Reflection” video and the “Strumgruppe” video is that there is a sequence of shots where a girl is submerged in water spewing blood.

However, the shots are different and don’t match up. There is no doubt that they are shots from the same set up and came from the “No Reflection” video but they seem to be extended, unreleased shots that look to be like they were later in the timeline of that shot. So, that begs the question on how that footage was acquired. It’s possible that there might be an extended version of the video that I’m not privy too but in my initial research, I didn’t see anything. I think it is safe to assume that whomever edited this together has access to the raw or unedited materials and may be someone who is working in the industry or is starting to work in the industry. The Eli Roth/Lana Del Rey part of this piece further strengthens my point. Before you read onward, watch the clip below where Eli Roth was on Larry King Now where he specifically talks about footage between Marilyn Manson, Lana Del Ray and him.

[youtube id=”tycZEIFQWB8″ width=”600″ height=”350″]

The most odd thing about this is the fact that this comes up after Eli is asked about sexual abuse to women adding to horror, which he avoids in a matter of it feels like a loaded question and in his defense, it sort of is. There is no public record of any collaboration with Del Ray and Roth other than this interview. The scenes with Roth and Del Rey in the “Strumgruppe” video is the first time we are publicly seeing the footage. This begs the question, if this was just a “fan” flexing his video editing muscles, how did he/she get their hands on the footage that Roth states was “locked up”? It’s obvious that the “Strumgruppe creator/editor” used this Larry King interview as fuel to create something that was an earworm to him/her.

The way I figure it is the creator/editor found this Eli Roth/Lana Del Rey footage and took a “fan” approach to give the illusion that this short was the project Roth was talking about in the interview. It has to be someone who has access to the Roth/Del Rey footage and we know Manson isn’t involved based on the fact that his camp said he wasn’t and, more importantly, the footage with him was existing footage outside of the project that Roth talks about in the Larry King interview. What is odd is that Manson hasn’t mentioned that there were plans to do something with Roth/Del Rey nor did he mention that the footage with Roth/Del Rey stemmed from the collaboration that Roth talks about. It is also possible that Roth & Del Rey did this independently from the project that Roth mentions in the interview. I’m sure once the people from Del Rey’s side or Roth’s side (Possibly Roth himself) speak about it, we may have more context to this footage. A part of me wants to doubt this is some rogue editor that is just trying to go viral but if so, congrats as I just wrote 1200 words about your action.