The hints started to pop up on Wednesday when Taylor posted a picture of herself messy and muddy, then continued early Thursday night when another of her all floaty and underwater hit the internet. Luckily for all the Swifties out there, the wait wasn’t long for everything to get "in the clear” about just what was going on in those pics.
The video for “Out of the Woods” premiered during Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest about an hour before the big ball drop. Taylor co-wrote the song, from her album 1989, with fun.'s Jack Antonoff. The video is the latest of Swift's mini-movie collaborations with filmmaker Joseph Kahn.
Filmed on location in New Zealand, the video starts with Taylor on the beach, that then morphs to a dark and foreboding Princess Bride Fire-Swamp-type forest where the branches come alive. Wolves chase her from the woods to icy snow peaks. Then there are cliffs, and long falls into the water. There is an even an arid desert. The muddy bog from that first teaser pick lives up to its hype.
The video is a solo affair for Swift, who falls down a lot, crawls around a lot, and looks meaningfully into the camera. A lot.
Fans who were looking for controversy might be disappointed, but anyone looking for a moody, fantasy reel from the mystical land of Lord of the Rings will have lots of breathtaking scenery, seamless fantasy effects, and spot-on styling to enjoy — over and over and over again. (And many people will probably take a close look at that necklace she rips off and tosses over the cliff. Is that a paper airplane pendant?)
Swift shared some parting words of wisdom as we bid farewell to 2015. The video opens with “She lost him.” It closes with this: “She lost him but she found herself and somehow that was everything.”
You can watch the video here:
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