Music Video: Duran’s Duran “Night Boat” (original version)

A few months ago, we posted the music video for “Danse Macabre,” the title song from Duran Duran’s latest album. The album also contains a new recording of “Night Boat,” from the band’s self-titled 1981 debut album. The song is an effective little mood piece in which singer Simon Le Bon contemplates dark rippling waters while waiting for the Night Boat to take him…somewhere.

It’s eerie enough to justify its presence on an album of Halloween-themed songs, but what really earns “Night Boat” its place in the horror genre is its music video, directed by Russell Mulcahey (Highlander), which feels like a deliberate homage to Zombie (a.k.a., Zombie 2). The zombie makeup and soft-focus location photography (shot on Antigua in the Caribbean Islands) perfectly capture the feel of the 1979 Italian gorefest, turning the video into its own mini-horror film.

The 1981 recording sounds considerably different from its 2023 remake, thanks to a two-minute intro that echoes the synth-sound of ’80s horror movie music. The video adds some dialogue over this instrumental, with Le Bon quoting Romeo and Juliet:

She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men’s noses as they lie asleep.

We actually prefer the re-recorded version, but the music video is definitely worth a watch.