Taylor Swift Embraces Solitude + Death in ‘Safe & Sound’ Video

When introducing her video from her swank, sunny Los Angeles pad, Taylor Swift is so cheery and bubbly that the ‘Safe & Sound’ video’s dank atmosphere is jarring.Talking to MTV, wearing a black lace A-line dress, Swift gushed about how excited she was that her video premiered on Feb. 13 — the whole world knows that 13 is Swift’s lucky number. “This is probably my favorite video I’ve ever done,” Swift said. “Absolute favorite.”

Swift wears a white nightgown in the video as she navigates barefoot through barren, leafless woods. The video’s dull, washed out colors reflect the eerie atmosphere and themes of life and death. We see Swift wander from the forest, which burns behind her, to a field. She holds dead baby’s breath, sits on a gravestone (she revealed to MTV that it was an actual gravesite from 1853) and generally embraces the sense of loss in ‘The Hunger Games.’ Swift further embodies the death theme when she lies down on dirt and walks to the edge of a stream. Her feature acts in the song, the Civil Wars, sing in a dark cabin lit only with a fireplace.

Soon, Swift enters a dark house full of broken furniture, chipped paint and a sense of destruction. She finds the film’s signature ‘Mockingjay’ pin and stares out a window.

Swift later walks to the edge of a stream before she’s shown sitting on a bed in the abandoned home. She sees a deer disappear into smoke, then walks into the horizon to continue meandering among armageddon.

“I have chills,” Swift said at the video’s conclusion. “It’s so crazy to see it finished.  I love the video,” she said. “I love what the director did with it.”

Watch the Taylor Swift ‘Safe & Sound’ Video Feat.  Civil Wars