Synopsis

Cults move through a stark black-and-white dreamscape that gradually turns nightmarish. Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion appear inside a vintage car traveling along a dark road, surrounded by disconnected images: fluttering butterflies, a mounted deer head, floating furniture, fish, a spiral staircase, and an old television filled with static. As the visual collage becomes increasingly distorted, the road, car, and surrounding world seem to burn away, transforming the song's regretful lyrics into an unsettling descent toward destruction.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video marked a deliberate move away from the narrative-driven style of several earlier Cults videos. The band wanted something more graphic, textural, and subconscious rather than another literal story.

• Its imagery was inspired in part by old Hitchcock films and their hallucination sequences. The video's visual language also draws on the eerie feel of late-1950s and early-1960s television.

• The old television filled with interference was a direct visual link to *Static*, the 2013 album from which "High Road" was taken.

• The surreal images were assembled like a collage. The production team selected objects for their clean, graphic appearance and intuitive emotional effect rather than assigning every image a fixed meaning.

• The ferris wheel sequence was filmed at the Newport Beach docks. The performers and extras reportedly remained on the ride for roughly six hours.

• The butterflies arrived frozen in an envelope and had to be thawed in a fish tank before filming. Some had not fully revived, creating an especially unsettling detail in the finished footage.

• The video progressively shifts from controlled, clean compositions toward visual deterioration. Static, distortion, fire, and the burning car make the imagery feel as though the entire world is breaking down.

• "High Road" was released in October 2013 as a single from *Static*, which was issued by Columbia Records.