Vrenna departs band

After being impressed by his directorial work on one of Kid Cudi ‘s music videos, Manson employed actor Shia LaBeouf to direct a short film entitled Born Villain . Contrary to media reports that the project would be a “making-of” video documenting the album’s recording, Born Villain was a surrealist short featuring a previously unreleased track, “Overneath the Path of Misery”. Containing numerous references to Macbeth , it was inspired by Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain and Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí ‘s 1929 silent film Un Chien Andalou . To promote the project, LaBeouf and his girlfriend, photographer Karolyn Pho, graffitied areas of LA with its artwork. LaBeouf and Pho later photographed their work, and released it as a limited edition book titled Campaign , which was bundled with a DVD of the film. In November, Vrenna departed the band to focus on other production work, whilst indicating that production of their eighth studio album was “largely completed”.