His real eyes—when they finally appear—are somehow even creepier, given that he’s staring harder than Martin O’Malley during a Democratic debate.
The video for “Lazarus,” directed by Johan Renck, who also directed the epic nine-minute video for Blackstar’s single “Blackstar,” is less formally ambitious and slightly less of a nightmare machine than its predecessor, but no less affecting. It’s tight and claustrophobic and characterized by Bowie’s otherworldly gyrations, most of which take place while he’s confined to a hospital bed (with buttons for eyes). It helps that Bowie is doing his most interesting work in two decades—while 2013’s comeback The Next Day was Bowie’s version of a nostalgia project (Bowie’s version of a nostalgia project=nihilism), Blackstar is looking backward to his most creative, avant-garde periods and forward at the same time.
Despite rumors the contrary, David Bowie was not raised from the dead and priests are not plotting to murder him because he is magic.