Petra Collins and Selena Gomez’s creative collaboration has resulted in some otherworldy photography and music videos, as well as interesting conversations. This artistic partnership veered into 70s suburban horror vibes with Gomez’s video for “Fetish”, and now, the pair have debuted their latest joint work, a similarly creepy short horror film. 

Titled A Love Story, some teasing excerpts were released on Instagram’s new video platform IGTV by Collins. Directed by the photographer, the disturbing short film was written by Melissa Broder, author of Pisces and the @SoSadToday Twitter account.

With a muted colour palette, moments in the film show the “Bad Liar” singer take a bath with a human face, placing it on her own body and letting it float in the water. Another clip shows her eating frosting off of her legs with a long knife, and another shows her sucking on an eyeball. More behind-the-scenes shots on Collins’ Instagram show Selena lounging on a woman wearing a horrifying mask of multiple hands and flesh.

Collins and Gomez spoke to Dazed last year about their shared love of horror films. Gomez described a time when Collins “came over in the middle of the day and found me in my living room sitting on a big teddy bear watching Chucky so casually, and then you came and laid with me.”

“At that point, it was clear we are on the same wavelength,” added the photographer. 

Collins also told Vanity Fair last year: “I love The Exorcist and the things that come from inside you,” Collins said. “The things that are a little more subtle, and things that you deal with from inwards, and I feel like it's something Selena and I both love talking about... that topic is sort of dear to us.” 

Melissa Broder added some more photos from the set of A Love Story to the @SoSadToday Twitter. Broder recently released her merman fantasy novel Pisces (you can read an excerpt here) – imaginative and ambitious, there’s no doubt this film will be on the same level as inventive and far-reaching.