A Faustian bargain begins with the ancient human suspicion that the universe can be persuaded to overlook consequence. We trade tomorrow for today, permanence for appetite, conscience for advantage, imagining that the account will somehow remain unsettled. Yet nature keeps exquisite books. Every shortcut alters the road; every borrowed fire casts its own darkness. The tragedy is seldom that we receive nothing for the price. Quite often, we receive precisely what we asked for. Power, knowledge, youth, wealth: these may all arrive intact. The horror lies in discovering, only afterward, that possession and fulfillment were never the same thing.
Las Vegas has always been a fitting place for bad bargains. Money changes hands beneath artificial stars, luck is treated as a temporary religion, and every promise of sudden fortune carries an unspoken question about what somebody might surrender to obtain it. In the video for And It Was Night’s The Fever, composer and sound designer Rani Sharone turns that temptation into a compact morality play, casting himself as both gambler and Devil while an obsession gradually takes possession of the room.
Inspired by the Twilight Zone episode of the same name, The Fever takes the old Faustian bargain and filters it through addiction. Sharone’s gambler appears trapped between appetite and consequence, surrounded by projected animation, theatrical props, and backgrounds that continually push the setting away from ordinary reality. The imagery works particularly well with the song’s dark electro-pop foundation, where Depeche Mode, Danny Elfman, The Cure, and Nick Cave provide useful coordinates without swallowing Sharone’s own identity. He calls the result “Dark Noir Pop,” an apt description for music that feels equally suited to a nightclub, a crooked casino, and the closing credits of some lost supernatural thriller.
The Devil, naturally, has the easier job. Temptation requires charm before punishment enters the picture, and Sharone plays both sides of that transaction with an appropriately theatrical touch. By reducing the production to two characters embodied by one performer, the video turns its budgetary limitations into part of its psychological logic. Gambler and tempter begin to resemble two expressions of the same compulsion.
“I didn’t want to do a literal retelling of the Twilight Zone episode the song was based off of,” says Sharone. “For practical reasons and budgetary/production limitations I chose to create something that I could pull off with a very limited crew and budget. The result ended up being me playing both characters, the gambler and devil, and shooting in front of custom commissioned animated projections to set the stage with props to make it as theatrical as I could to sell the story. I used a couple iconic horror sources to direct and inspire my visual FX supervisor when creating the background designs. Namely from The Shining. which inspired the look of the hotel room the gambler is in, and a couple visual cues from Creepshow for the more surreal background designs. Those with a keen eye will recognize them.”
Watch the video for The Fever below:
That horror lineage suits Sharone, whose résumé ranges from Puscifer and Stolen Babies to orchestral work performed by Hilary Hahn and recent contributions to the music team behind K-Pop Demon Hunters. With The Fever, his return to writing his own songs feels especially pointed: desire becomes addiction, luck becomes captivity, and the Devil barely needs to cheat. The gambler has already brought his weakness to the table.
Sharone’s casino nightmare will also find an audience in Los Angeles tonight, Friday, October 2, when The Fever screens at El Cid as part of a monthly screening with a suitably spooky selection. Doors open at 7 p.m., with the screening beginning at 8 p.m.—another opportunity to watch the gambler discover exactly how much his good fortune costs.
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