Synopsis

The Jacksons perform inside a surreal nightmare of elaborate traps and grotesque torture devices. They are bound, suspended, attacked by spiders, threatened by skeletons, and surrounded by bizarre living walls and creatures. The video shifts between staged performances and increasingly claustrophobic images, giving the song's troubled-romance lyrics a horror-film treatment. Its most unsettling detail comes at the end, when the group poses together with a motionless figure standing in for Michael Jackson.

Factoids & Trivia

• Michael Jackson did not appear in the video, so a wax figure borrowed from Madame Tussauds was used as his stand-in. The dummy appears in several sequences and was reportedly subjected to the production's elaborate effects.

• Jermaine Jackson is also absent from the video, despite singing lead vocals with Michael on the recording. His other obligations kept him away from the shoot.

• Paula Abdul worked as the video's choreographer while she was still known primarily as a Los Angeles Lakers cheerleader. The production helped lead to her later involvement with the Jacksons' Victory Tour.

• Filming took place at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, New York, in August 1984.

• The production became notorious for running over schedule and over budget. Accounts from the production describe the shoot as exceptionally stressful, and the cost reportedly contributed to the bankruptcy of Picture Music International.

• The video was released in September 1984 and became one of the Jacksons' most visually unusual productions, remembered more for its surreal horror imagery than for conventional performance footage.