Abel Tesfaye, alias the Weeknd, has always had a taste for the sinister. Even though “In the Night,” off his chart-topping Beauty Behind the Madness, has an underlying upbeat ’80s-synth-pop feel, its music video is just as malevolent as those for darker tracks like “Tell Your Friends” and “The Hills.”
The video stars model Bella Hadid (who also happens to be dating the Weeknd) as a hypnotically gorgeous stripper who “dances to relieve the pain” until she cracks, bloodies up a man who we can only assume is the club owner, and saves The Weeknd from a mob boss with her miraculously acquired assassin skills. The footage flickers in and out of focus so quickly it’s difficult to watch at times—but the narrative is so compelling that it’s also difficult to look away.
