'She’s Fearless': Halsey’s 'Nightmare' Video, Explained By Director Hannah Lux Davis

Halsey's "Nightmare" arrived just in time.


A feminist anthem that's rooted in her emo past, the single debuted on May 17 alongside a video that capitalizes on the singer's penchant for chameleonic fashion. Originally intended as a black and white video with slivers of red while in, "Nightmare" ultimately became a full-color visual feast in which Halsey keeps redefining her womanhood: one minute, she is a punk singer plus a riot leader, then glamorous model and also a primped-up, fed-up housewife. Her looks change, however her attitude doesn't — through flame-throated sobs, she embodies a universal fury that's timelier than ever as ladies continue to battle the patriarchy, one "You Smile, Asshole" sign at a time.


"She really wanted to show how multifaceted females are," mentioned director Hannah Lux Davis, who worked with Halsey last year on "Alone" and recently helmed Ariana Grande's "thank u, next" and "7 rings." "We would be fighting in the street for sport and we may would be in lingerie, really sexy and feminine and tidy. That was the hugest thing that she wanted to mention — just showcasing all different sides of what a woman is, and why every side is just fucking awesome."


That awesomeness takes flight throughout the video's beginning scene, once Halsey launches her assault by screaming in the middle of a mosh pit. The chaos was shot on 16 millimeter film, which gave it a rough, grainy excellent that only gets more raw with a close-up of Halsey's bloody lips as she spits on the camera.


"It was just really in your face and aggressive," Davis told MTV News. "[Women] can be really raw and rough and even ugly. She some days would mention, 'I wish to do this take really ugly.' And she would squeeze herself, or make a face that was just not necessarily the cliché hot thing to do."


Take, for instance, the scenes of Halsey dressed in a black dominatrix outfit, sneering at her voyeurs from a blue-lit, mirrored room while licking the wall and thrashing her body around. The singer committed so completely to the physical shoot, that Davis mentioned she had bruises "all over" her body afterwards.


"She's incredible. She's fearless. Working with somebody like her is so insane," the director explained. "She just has zero regard for her body and just throws herself around in a way that's crazy. In one shot, she was thrashing so hard that she fell to the floor on her butt. I just remember being like, 'Oh my god, I have to use that, it's so rock and roll.' She is a really smart girl and I feel like she gets how powerful this video can be, and thus she really put it all out there.


"That was something that surprised me, I think, as the artist brings so much to it," Davis continued. "You can plan and plan and plan, although you never really know that final, secret-sauce ingredient that they bring up until you're shooting it."


After a gritty, punk-indebted starting, the second verse abruptly switches scenes to a skyscraper, where Halsey and also a gang of females are dressed in lingerie, diamonds dripping from their necks as they execute precise choreography. It's a juxtaposition that Davis admits was intended to "shock people," and yes it involves a close look from viewers, who can visualize that Halsey's reading a newspaper with the headline "IT'S OUR TURN" printed on it. (The paper is also titled Manic, which fans have theorized is the name of her next album; to that, Davis only mentioned, "I personally can't comment. Although Easter eggs are certainly a real thing.")


Speaking about the eye-grabbing headline, Davis explained, "It's categorize kind of subtly — or I guess not so subtly — saying, it's in our hands right now. We need to take over and permit the ladies take the reins at this point, because it's our bodies and our choice. I think putting them in that setting, especially coming off the punk stuff and the police lineup, just felt like a little bit of that visual shift and shock that we were going for to group kind of grab your attention."


That second verse also has some of the most biting and brash lyrics of the song, including, "I've been polite yet won't be caught dead / Letting a gentleman tell me what I should do with my bed." It's a message that feels especially prescient right now — the video was released at the end of a week in which the hugest news story in the U.S. Was the boundary of women's rights, as Alabama effectively outlawed abortion. The timing couldn't have been more brilliant for a rallying cry like "Nightmare."


"It was something that all females were probably like, 'Ah, this is what I required now Davis mentioned. "I heard that from a lot of people. It really struck a lot of chords. That's really what you hope for once you're creating something like a music video or a song — for it to hit, and to strike that chord in pop culture."


She continued, "And I think it was really smart of Halsey to have a woman direct it. In the event you preach girl power and if you're going to have songs that are about ladies, for girls, and fighting for girls, you better have a woman director. ... There really are some artists who have these girl power songs and so they have males direct them. I just think that's crazy. There really are so several female directors who are astonishing. And I'm not just talking about me. I'm just saying, in this day and age, there's no excuse."


Davis is especially cognizant the significance of hiring ladies beyond the scenes — "Nightmare," as an example, employed a lady editor, choreographer, production manager, set dresser, and stylists. Not only that, although there's not an individual man in the video itself; it boasts an all-female cast, and Davis mentioned that Halsey "was really adamant about making sure that all types [of women] are represented." That included models Cara Delevingne and Suki Waterhouse, who joined Halsey for some fierce power suit-wearing, and Blondie's Debbie Harry, who appeared onscreen as a way for Halsey to honor the iconic girls who have paved the way for her.


"She was so fucking cool," Davis gushed of Harry. "Leading up to the shoot, and all around the shoot, I had done a bunch of studying on her, and I was listening to her music and just really attempting to get into the complete spirit of the project. I was so blown away. She was so cool, and she's just a true rock star."


With "Nightmare," Halsey is proving herself one of the organic predecessors for females like Harry. It's the opening taste of an era that she's described as "loud," and one in which she usually be harnessing the "weapon in [her] mind" to its fullest potential, aided by collaborators like Davis who take her message and translate it to vital, must-see art that shines in this nightmarish moment.


"She's certainly coming into this new era really confident and secure and knowing who she is," Davis teased of what's ahead. World, you've been warned.