Nine Inch Nails live personnel Charlie Clouser, Danny Lohner, and Chris Vrenna appear in the video playing string instruments at the beginning of the video. The use of live members in Nine Inch Nails non-performance, concept videos is extremely rare.
The music video references Gustav Klimt's The Kiss (1907-1908) and a "Scanning Machine" designed by Frenchman François Willème in 1860.
Trent Reznor referred the music video's production as being "overblown."
The song was written for David Lynch's 1997 film Lost Highway. It was featured as the first track on the soundtrack and was the lead single for the film, propelling its soundtrack to minor success.
The music video is inspired by the illustrations of 20th-century artist Edward Gorey with familiar Gorey elements including oversized urns and glum, pale characters in full Edwardian costume. The most obvious reference to Gorey is the boy sitting on a cushion in front of a painting.