Marilyn Manson denies involvement in shocking Lana Del Rey rape video
Eli Roth is thought to have directed the clip which emerged online this week
Marilyn Manson has vehemently denied involvement in a controversial Eli Roth-directed video starring Lana Del Rey in a harrowing rape scene.
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The “Blue Jeans” singer, 29, is seen being pushed forcibly onto a bed by a man and sexually assaulted before he leaves her crying in a Texas Chainsaw Massacre T-Shirt.
Footage from the video leaked online earlier this week, despite Roth (Hostel, Cabin Fever) telling Larry King during a 2013 interview that it was “so sick it’s been locked in a vault for over a year”.
Initial reports suggested that the disturbing scenes were made for a Manson music video, but the singer’s representative has denounced these as false.
“Manson did not direct this, shoot it, not was it for a Marilyn Manson video or out-take footage made by him or to be used by him with his music,” Kathryn Frazier told Billboard magazine.
“It must be a fan video splicing up old Manson video footage with someone else’s Lana Del Rey footage.”
Confusingly, the two-minute clip features scenes from Manson’s earlier "No Reflection" and "Slo-Mo-Tion" videos, while some people have suggested that the shocking footage could be an outtake from Del Rey’s video for “Pretty When You Cry”.
Sexual assault is referenced further in the clip, when balloons with the word ‘rape’ scrawled onto them in black pen ominously appear at a birthday party. There is no music in the video, bar some eerie sound effects.
Production house Sturmgruppe, who released the video, has since removed it, as well as taking down their website.
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Del Rey was involved in another violence against women scandal recently, when rapper Eminem spoke of punching her “right in the face twice” in one of his misogynistic songs.
Manson, meanwhile, will release his new album The Pale Emperor on 19 January before he performs at Download Festival in June.
Representatives for Lana Del Rey and Eli Roth are yet to respond to a request for comment.