This evening, I had the pleasure of watching the video for Red Velvet’s new comeback song “Peek-a-boo.” As with all of their songs, the video included phenomenal choreography complimented by pleasing aesthetics and excellent cinematography. Unlike their previous videos which could be described as cutesy, this video has a darker vibe to it which is refreshing as it is considerably the darkest they’ve gone with their concepts, showcasing the more “velvet” side to their name: Red Velvet. Furthermore, the dark concept used in the video fights against the common stereotype that girl groups have to be either extremely cute or extremely sultry in their videos; with the video and dance being neither sexually charged nor childish.

When translated, the lyrics tell the story of a girl who suddenly falls in love, but can’t seem to put aside her rather playful nature to be in a serious relationship. Eventually, in a moment of clarity, the girl realizes that she also wants to be in a serious relationship, though this realization doesn’t halt her desire to have fun as she wishes to now include him in her games. When the video begins we see the girls on the porch of what can be assumed their home holding weapons and looking out onto the street. As the camera pans to the moon the setting shifts to a pizza delivery guy rushing towards a phone booth in a panic, then the music starts and the setting shifts back to the girls in their manor. In the beginning of the video we see the girls in what could be interpreted as their daily routine, as they seem to be more relaxed until the pizza delivery boy from the beginning of the video appears again. At this moment, the already dark video takes an even more sinister turn as the you see the girls running in the halls in a seemingly innocent game of tag, a nod to the playful nature if the video. As the video progresses and the beat picks up, we get flashes of their choreography, a witch like ritual of some sorts, and even some of the members trying to harm each other—a clever nod to their previous comeback “Russian Roulette” where all the members attempted to murder each other in a very playful and cute manner. The video ends with the delivery boy running back to his car in a desperate attempt to escape as Yeri, one of the members, shoots her crossbow at him, missing. As he escapes we find him back at the phone booth calling for help until we see what appears to be Joy getting out of his car as the screen fades to black.

Ever since the video came out fans have been speculating about the story behind the music video. Some theories suggest that the girls were actually a part of a coven that has to perform rituals, and some speculate that the girls were actually being controlled by their main vocalist Wendy and being forced to do her bidding. Personally, I agree with the former, seeing as Wendy isn’t shown in the video to have any special form of control over the other members. That being said due to the rituals shown in the video and the odd manner in which the girls act, the witch theory could actually be very possible. Clues in the video suggest that the girls are completing a ritual and towards the end we see that this is not the first time the ritual has been completed, as they collected a plethora of pizza boxes and the missing photos on the phone booth suggest show numerous delivery boys that have gone missing. Why they target pizza delivery boys is still up in the air for question, but as far as I know if this were a movie I would pay to see it and am giving it a 5 out of 5.