The “House Tour” Music Video Just Made the Sabrina Carpenter Cinematic Universe Even Better
On Monday, Sabrina Carpenter released the official music video for “House Tour”, her latest single off of her 2025 album Man’s Best Friend. The video, which was first teased by Carpenter on April Fool’s Day, co-stars actresses Margaret Qualley and Madelyn Cline… and honestly, it is nothing short of delightful.
In the video, which is directed by Carpenter and Qualley, the trio drive up to a mansion in a “Pretty Girl Clean-Up Crew” van. Once they confirm that the mansion (which looks like something right out of the 70s) is empty, they start having fun: trying on closets worth of clothes, raiding the fridge of wine and snacks, and even playing with katanas on the wall. Eventually, the authorities begin to arrive on the property, and the trio makes a break for it: grabbing everything they can get their hands on, including a Grammy (a reference to the several Carpenter has earned) and even the family dog. We soon see that the mansion is completely empty, and their van drives away with a “Just Robbed a House” sign attached, hitting a random man walking down the street along the way.
“House Tour” has a lot of the staples that fans have come to expect from Carpenter’s videos, especially the ones released as she has settled into her post-Disney Channel aesthetic and sound. The cinematography is gorgeous and vibrant: something that has become so synonymous with her videos as of late, Film Twitter has joked that Carpenter is doing what most of modern movies and photography can’t. As one Reddit comment put it soon after the video dropped: “Sabrina and her team need to do a Ted Talk on how to actually color your music videos and not have it look like a Game of Thrones episode.”
The end tag of the man being killed continues an unspoken tradition across her recent videos, beginning with her 2024 video for “Feather” that led to a scandal within the Catholic Church. (A scandal that may have, indirectly, led to the election of current New York mayor Zohran Mamdani). There are even some nods to Carpenter’s other videos: she begins the video by changing out of the blood-covered high heels she wore in the album’s previous video, “Taste”. And at one point, the trio look at the Mona Lisa tucked away in a random closet: a painting that was also featured in a much earlier video of hers, “Paris.” (I’m sure I’m not the only one who also thought of Cline’s role in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, as the preservation of the Mona Lisa becomes a major plot point of that film.)
“None of This Is a Metaphor…”
But ultimately, “House Tour” has another thing in common with Carpenter’s past few years of music videos: it completely recontextualizes the meaning of the song. When Man’s Best Friend was first released last August, “House Tour” arguably stood out: not just for its composition, but for the central metaphor equating the titular “tour” with sex. Plenty of double-entendres could be found in the song, including a few (particularly about wax floors, insurance, and “pineapple air freshener”) that required a listener to stop and think. It seemed to uniquely carry the theme of much of the album: Carpenter singing towards (or about) the recent men in her life, and acknowledging the good and bad ways she allowed herself to be used by them. There’s even a bit of underlying sadness in the lyrics of “House Tour”, particularly when she sings “You don’t have to love me.”
“House Tour” is the kind of song that creates a strong mental image once you listen it — and to an extent, the music video matches that, with the ’70s aesthetic of the house and plenty of shots of the three of them dancing around in lingerie. But the music video also adds another layer of storytelling: instead of being about Carpenter trying to convince an unseen man to enjoy her body, she and her friends are now enjoying and taking the splendors of a house that’s almost certainly owned by an unseen man. It’s far beyond Carpenter just catering to the male gaze… it’s about using that gaze to reclaim a bit of agency, and have fun with her friends while she does it.
I wouldn’t have imagined that visual upon first listen, just like I wouldn’t have imagined “Tears” being a horror movie-themed romp co-starring Colman Domingo in drag. But that creativity, as well as the stunning execution, has become a lot of the fun of Carpenter’s videos. Honestly, Carpenter and her friend/collaborator Taylor Swift (who also has ambitious world building and visuals in her recent videos for “Opalite” and “The Fate of Ophelia”) are in a whole other league of the major music video space, especially when compared to the uninspired visuals and thin premises of countless other musicians around them. Now, here’s hoping we get a video for “Nobody’s Son” and/or “Go Go Juice” next.
(featured image: Sabrina Carpenter)
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