Kildare native Ian Fallon has won this year's Youth Music Video Competition with an entry featuring Paddy Hanna's 'Nightmares', and deservedly so.

The track, taken from Hanna's 2022 album Imagine I'm Hoping, features an upbeat alt-pop melody as lyrics tell the heartbreaking story of a young couple struggling with a dark secret.

The video follows the pair as they try various methods to cope with her transformation into a werewolf and the attacks she unknowingly commits, while being secretly followed by law enforcement. Each solution the couple tries leads them to desperation until they are ultimately forced to confront their situation and make a difficult choice.

The video features vivid colours reminiscent of Wes Anderson and the kitschy retro aesthetic of musical theatre classics like Grease and West Side Story. The young woman wears her hair tied back with a ribbon while her boyfriend covers her in his letterman sports jacket during one of their many trips into the forest.

Fallon leans towards the surreal when it comes to depicting werewolf on screen. He contrasts vivid colours of the daytime shots with the flashbacks to each werewolf attack shot in ominous shades of dark red as though through an infrared camera. The style dovetails nicely with Hanna's passion for horror movies and lends the video a feeling that careens between picturesque and romantic to gruesome and tragic.

Still from 'Nightmares'.

“When people think of music inspired by horror they think of White Zombie or something like that,” Hanna said in a press release. “Or a music video where a shaky camera goes down a corridor and zooms in on a doll with no eyes—it’s so cheesy. Most of the best horror soundtracks are, like, Rosemary’s Baby or Ennio Morricone on The Thing; the most terrifying soundtracks are often the prettiest. It’s all about contrast.”

Aside from the more clichéd points like swapping clothes, the video tells the story of a young woman attempting to manage a difficult aspect of her life and her partner who is determined to support her. He takes care of her through heartfelt, albeit macabre gestures like burying the bodies of her victims and bringing her a warm beverage when he finds her asleep and covered in blood on the forest floor.

“There aren’t enough love songs about nightmares,” Hanna said in a statement ahead of the video release.

Director Ian Fallon previously won Best First Cut Film in 2021 for his short, Last Letter. This year, the Dublin talent received a €5,000 bursary with the award.