Student Name: Jack Richards

Student Number: Q12954543

Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3eAMGXFw1o

Bitch Better Have My Money

The purpose of a music video is, generally, to promote the music and increase sales.
By using palatable imagery, in keeping with the tone of the song, music videos have
traditionally been distributed by labels as a way of introducing the music to a new
audience. However, in the case of Bitch Better Have My Money (2015), the usual
‘bubblegum’ aesthetics of a pop music video have been cast off for the grimy feel of
a 70s grindhouse movie. Using obvious references to the early work of horror
auteurs Tobe Hooper and Wes Craven, directors Megaforce & Rihanna subvert the
traditional tropes of 70s exploitation cinema to reclaim the female sexuality that has
primarily only ever been viewed through the male gaze. In an interview with Peter
Robinson for NME, Rihanna stated “At the end of the day the women won. The bitch
was the man.” (2015, Online).

The mise en scene of Bitch Better Have Money calls back to the grimy, 70s aesthetic
intended on creating an uneasy feeling amongst the audience. Toward the back end
of the video, the protagonists find themselves in a motel reminiscent of the ‘Starlight
Hotel’ from Tobe Hooper’s Eaten Alive (1976). Grimy and darkly lit, it forces the all-
female cast into a claustrophobic space that, in the works of exploitation filmmakers
would spell certain doom. However, in the hands of Megaforce & Rihanna, the space
becomes an environment of hedonism and free-spirited living. The characters drink
and smoke cannabis to their heart’s content and, disobeying the traditional rules of
horror movies, come out of the situation unscathed. The room is lit by a red hue,
highlighting the violent nature of their kidnapping and violent acts towards ‘The
Bitch’s’ wife. Brigid Cherry writes about the lighting in Dario Argento’s Suspiria
(1977), stating that “The primary palette of strong blues, reds and golds heightens
the palpable horror” (2009, p82) which is an observation that also applies to Bitch
Better Have My Money. However, the lighting is not simply there to highlight the
horror, as much as it is there to highlight the dark nature of hedonism, mimicking the
styles of lighting that you may see in a nightclub.

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The usage of revealing clothes on females in exploitation cinema has traditionally
been used to highlight vulnerability or weakness within the characters; their
openness about their sexuality often shown as a negative characteristic, while still
shot in order to excite and arouse the male viewers. This trope is flipped on it’s head
by Megaforce & Rihanna, allowing the female protagonists to wear revealing outfits
and still hold the upper hand in any confrontation. The male gaze is highlighted in a
pair of sequences involving a supposedly oblivious police officer, wherein the officer
is thrown off the trail of a crime by a charming smile and a lack of clothing. Even in
scenarios where the women are dealing with figures of authority, they are still able to
maintain control at the same time they exercise their agency over their sexuality.
Luckett writes of the sexploitation genre “The breast is not handled fetishistically but,
instead, represents the dominance of the female body.” (2003, p151).

Bitch Better Have My Money implements a cyclical structure, opening on a shot that
is later revealed to be at the end of the story chronologically. The shot in question is
of a bloodied pair of unidentified, female legs hanging out of a wooden chest, left in
the centre of an empty field. The shot is constructed to mislead the audience, leading
them to believe that the legs belong to a victim, their unmoving nature only further
cementing this point. This shot harkens back, yet again, to the techniques
demonstrated in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), which opens on a series of
fleeting images of corpses. However, in the case of Bitch Better Have My Money, the
opening image is revisited at the end, subverting the audience’s beliefs over what
they initially saw. When revisiting the image, the supposed corpse is revealed to
belong to Rihanna, who is alive and well, smoking and laying in the wooden chest.
The blood on her body having been just shown to belong to another person; The
victim becomes the perpetrator. The chest, that was previously posited as a
makeshift coffin, is shown to be packed full of money. Her naked body is further
demonstrated as a symbol of power rather than a symbol of vulnerability.

Bitch Better Have My Money is a film that aims to address the issues of misogyny
and male gaze in exploitation and grindhouse cinema through the use of
recognisable tropes that have been tweaked and adapted to serve this new purpose.
Chad Brewer recognises that, within the horror genre, “men are often praised and
revered for their sexual prowess; however, women are often punished for sexual
promiscuity” (2009, p2). Directors Megaforce & Rihanna have managed to create an

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effective pastiche of the genre, creating a case for female empowerment and sexual
liberation amongst those who have previously been mistreated, while remaining
faithful to the aesthetic and tonal affectations that make exploitation and grindhouse
pictures recognisable to a mass audience. By directly confronting these issues from
a female standpoint, issues of male gaze have been diminished significantly. Nudity
is no longer there to titillate, but to empower. Danger is not a threat to the females
we follow, but a weapon they wield in their own hands to use how they see fit. They
are not, as Mulvey states, “passive material for the gaze of man.” (1999, p843).

Bibliography
• Bitch Better Have My Money, 2015 [Music Video]. Directed by Megaforce &
Rihanna. USA: Iconoclast
• Brewer, C. (2009) The stereotypic portrayal of women in slasher films: then
versus now, Louisiana: LSU Master’s Theses. 56, Available from:
https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1055&context=gra
dschool_theses
• Cherry, B. (2009) Horror, London: Routledge
• Eaten Alive, 1976 [Film]. Directed by Tobe Hooper. USA: Mars Productions
Corporation
• Luckett, M. (2003) Sexploitation as Feminine Territory. In: Jancovich, M, ed.
Defining Cult Movies, Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 142-156
• Mulvey, L. (1999) Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. In: Braudy, L.,
Cohen, M. eds. Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, New York:
Oxford University Press, pp. 833-844
• Robinson, P. (2015) Rihanna Exclusive Interview: ‘I Break The Rules Even
When I Don’t Intend To’, Online: NME, Available from:
http://www.nme.com/features/rihanna-exclusive-interview-i-break-the-rules-
even-when-i-dont-intend-to-756937
• Suspiria, 1977 [Film]. Directed by Dario Argento. Italy: Seda Spettacoli
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 1974 [Film]. Directed by Tope Hooper. USA:
Vortex