Synopsis

The Kills' "Black Balloon" combines moody Super 8 tour footage with staged, surreal imagery. Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince appear in backstage moments, on the road, and in shadowy performance scenes, giving the clip the feel of an intimate tour diary filtered through a horror film. The loose, grainy editing mirrors the song's melancholy mood. In the closing sequence, Mosshart appears as a vampire and leaves Hince sprawled in a pool of blood, turning the duo's usual chemistry into a darkly comic act of inter-band violence.

Factoids & Trivia

• The clip was presented as an art piece built from exclusive backstage and tour footage shot on Super 8, rather than as a conventional narrative video.

• Its final vampire sequence gives the otherwise documentary-style footage a sudden horror-film twist. The scene ends with Alison Mosshart leaving Jamie Hince apparently dead in a pool of blood.

• The video surfaced online on February 3, 2009, ahead of the "Black Balloon" EP, which was released in March 2009.

• Behind the camera, the production credits list AJ Broadbent as director of photography, Mike Colao as editor, and Tom Poole for color work.

• "Black Balloon" was the fifth and final single from the Midnight Boom era. The song later appeared in the television series The Good Wife and the 2014 film Asthma.