Five Things That Influenced Teenage Joans’ 'The Rot That Grows Inside My Chest: The Film'

When Teenage Joans burst onto the scene in 2020 with their raw, unapologetically catchy punk-pop, it was clear they were going places—fast. Fast forward a few years, and the Adelaide duo of Tahlia Borg and Cahli Blakers have not only conquered stages across Australia but also carved out a permanent spot in our playlists with their debut album, The Rot That Grows Inside My Chest.

But Teenage Joans aren’t just about bangers and mosh pits—they’ve now taken their creative vision into new forms to support their edgy punk sound. Enter their short film inspired by the album - a self-funded, candy-coated dive into “Rotland,” filled with Easter Bunnies, tooth fairies, and plenty of surreal chaos. Think Tim Burton vibes with a side of punk-rock mischief.

To reflect on a year of The Rot That Grows Inside My Chest and it’s adjacent film, Teenage Joans spoke to The Music, diving into the quirky, cult-favorite movies and music that inspired The Rot That Grows Inside My Chest: The Film. 

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1. Alice In Wonderland

 So number one is Alice in Wonderland, which is a very obvious reference. 

There's a character in our film called the Easter Bunny, and at some point he jumps down a hole and we follow him down the hole and end up in a magical world -so that was a, a very obvious reference to Alice in Wonderland. We just sort of took different aesthetics and like inspiration from the different aesthetics in the film as well. 

2. Melanie Martinez

The next one is K through 12 by Melanie Martinez. 

I think collectively, we've, we've both watched this film like thousands of times and we, after seeing that we wanted to create something like this to go with our body of work, which was the album. 

I think definitely all the colors influenced it a lot. 

3. Halsey 

Another one is if I can't have love, I want power by Halsey. 

I think Melanie Martinez's film and Halsey's film kind of both inspired us and made us realize that as musicians, we can create a long form visual content to go with our music. 

4. The Wizard of Oz

Another one specifically costume-wise was Wizard of Oz. We loved that the man and the lion and the scarecrow are like very human like in their costumes, so specifically costume-wise and just, like, overall colors, and it's just such an iconic film. And also the makeup as well for that film because, like, the lion man - it was like still very animalistic. 

5. Click

The last one is click with Adam Sandler. It's also an iconic movie. Adam Sandler is our favorite, but we really liked the way that it was like alternating universes. 

He goes into a furniture shop and falls asleep and has this crazy dream. We sort of took inspiration from that with, like, at the very start you see me in our film; I fall asleep and then at the end it's like I've woken up; Talia shakes me awake and stuff. 

Also, Adam Sandler's just a huge reference for anything that we do. We love Adam Sandler. 

So go check out our short film The Rock That Grows Inside My Chest on YouTube, and go listen to our debut album. It's out on all streaming platforms. And thank you to The Music for having us!