videoPiero Pirupa 'Braindead (Heroin Kills)' by YousefNeed a bit of a respite from the daily grind of going nowhere, and possibly not doing very much? Look no further than Yousef's bonkers video for Piero Pirupa - featuring the wonderful Shaun Williamson as a less-than-reliable anti-drugs spokesperson. Director and VFX expert Yousef - recently signed to Prettybird - has brilliantly gone to town with a series of increasingly surreal set-pieces, as Williamson - probably still best known as Barry from East Enders - succumbs to temptation whilst delivering the mantra constantly repeated through Pirupa's techno beast, while filming an anti-drugs PSA: 'Heroin kills, stay away from pills...' and so on.In fact, with echoes of the British Prime Minister's announcement of the UK's lockdown, Williamson 'does a Boris' in being utterly unable to follow the advice he is broadcasting to a watching TV audience. In this case, he cannot keep away from sampling the various pharmaceuticals laid on the table before him. Just cheeky pill sets him off, and he starts bouncing around, gaining remarkable elasticity, seeing tiny versions of himself dancing on the table. Once they have been snorted back up his nose, then all hell - and his brain - breaks loose...The real beauty of this video is its uninhibited freakiness, always pushing the envelope that bit further, in increasingly grotesque ways. Williamson is perfect in the part as the hapless presenter, but most of all this is a brilliant showcase for Yousef's comic imagination. And even if the anti-drugs message is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, by the end it still looks better to leave the drugs for when you're actually ill.Watch the directors’ cut here
David Knight - 30th Mar 2020