It used to be “Murder on the Dance Floor.” Then it was Confessions on a Dance Floor. Now, The Weeknd has apparently seen fit to bring us ritual sacrifice on the dance floor through his latest single called, what else, “Sacrifice.” Picking up where we left off in the video for “Take My Breath,” The Weeknd seems enter another dimension in the black abyss of the club as the ambient sound of birds chirping further iterates the importance of “the dawn” theme.
The Weeknd’s confusion naturally intensifies as the voice of Jim Carrey, his Dawn FM DJ, declares, “You are now listening to 103.5 Dawn FM. You’ve been in the dark for way too long. It’s time to walk into the light and accept your fate with open arms. Scared? Don’t worry. We’ll be there to hold your hand and guide you through this painless transition.”
But there’s nothing “painless” about aging—no matter how the process is achieved. Just remember what Bette Davis said about it. Once Carrey finishes his “assurance,” The Weeknd is revived back on the dance floor after catching his breath again. Thus, we’re made to believe that The Weeknd was perhaps caught somewhere between life and death in those moments of Jim Carrey speaking to him like the voice of God (Bruce Almighty). In other words, a form of purgatory, which is a major theme of Dawn FM, largely stemming from the past two years of humanity being trapped in its own collective pandemic purgatory.
Despite being “back,” the club is no longer quite how it was, clientele-wise. Instead of designer-clad, thin bias, it’s all hooded figures bobbing up and down to the rhythm of the song (could one of them be the god-like presence that is Carrey throughout Dawn FM?). Some of them, however, are “kind” enough to escort The Weeknd to the end of the room, where he’ll be placed on a circular rack (it’s all very Chilling Adventures of Sabrina meets Charmed).
Once mounted on it, The Weeknd’s go-to director of late, Cliqua, gives us a prime shot of “Abel” in a pose and position that’s highly reminiscent of Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. All of the sudden, a female figure also covered in “sacrifice attire” that covers her body and face “parts the Red Sea” of the crowd. Which is fitting because she’s the only one wearing red in a crowd of all-black. Making a pulling gesture at him with her hands, she seems to be initiating the process that will suck out all of his youth. Which sort of looks like Ursula sucking out Ariel’s voice. What ensues are graphics that seem to be inspired by entering an 80s-era wormhole (because everything with The Weeknd has to be 80s-inspired).
Whilst intermittently performing his song for the “council,” the process continues, complete with VHS-y colors emanating from The Weeknd as the sampled backbeat to Alicia Myers’ “I Want to Thank You” soundtracks the event. Antithetically, rather than The Weeknd aging causing everyone else to turn younger (like a Hocus Pocus sort of effect), he ends up helping the others turn old as well. Ostensibly, that’s what’s sought after in this strange, Black Mirror-esque world. Is it the afterlife (, after hours), or something even more sinister?
The Weeknd seems to want to let you be the judge as the video concludes on a note that explains nothing. But then, when you’re the type of man who says, “It’s five a.m./I’m nihilist,” nothing really means anything anyway, right?
