Singer-songwriter, actress and director Melanie Martinez is back, after 4 years of being inactive, with an album and a feature film to go with it. 

  This film, titled the same as her sophomore album, ‘K-12’ shows her true strength as an actress, director and creator. With creativity, Martinez covers important topics like bullying, making friends and discrimination against certain groups of people. 

   Martinez created her own character that was featured in her last album, named “Cry Baby.” This character is shown again in her most recent album, as she attends school which seems to turn into a nightmare for her. 

   “K-12” is a surrealist, magical musical with dark humor and lots of twists and turns. Martinez admits lots of scenes had to be cut due to budget and the length of the movie, meaning the movie would have been much too long with the cut scenes. However, the finished product is still a work of art. 

   Martinez talks about stepping into the role of directing in an interview with KTLA 5 news, “I was really nervous about it but finally I found my voice within it,” Martinez said.

   Since directing is normally a male dominated environment, Martinez was nervous at first to speak out about what she wanted. This film took 4 years to create, an estimated amount of 7 million dollars with Atlantic Records but it was put on youtube for fans to watch for free.  

   ‘K-12’ has many themes throughout it which people experience on a day to day basis in school life. This is why Martinez focuses on such an anti-bullying message. 

   “Based off not only my own personal experiences with bullying but also finding yourself in an environment that it feels maybe a little uncomfortable to be yourself.” Martinez said in an interview with PeopleTv.

   ‘K-12’ consists of special effects and diverse characters as the audience is taken through Cry Baby’s life at school. 

   Because so many controversial and mature topics are taking place in the media today, including race, gender and sexuality, Martinez really wanted to highlight each one within this film. Each song on the album is featured and has its own scene. 

   Whether Martinez is fighting with super powers or scheming to set her school on fire, ‘K-12’ will captivate your attention for the entire 90 minutes.