Maroon 5 Just Released the Most Disturbing Music Video of the Year

Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine was once crowned People's Sexiest Man Alive. Now, he's the creepiest.

The bloody animal carcasses and disconcerting style of music video auteur Samuel Bayer are creepy enough without Levine's play on very serious themes of sexual violence. Levine intends to invoke an intense love song with his lyrics: "Baby I'm preying on you tonight / Hunt you down / Eat you alive / Just like animals. Maybe you think that you can hide / I can smell your scent for miles / Just like animals." 

Instead, we get a snuff film.

"We understand a good metaphor, but there's just something about comparing a woman – one which Levine is sexually interested in, by the way – to prey just doesn't sit right," rightly notes Entertainment Tonight's Sophie Schillaci. "With feminism and human rights at the forefront of national consciousness (see: Emma Watson's passionate #HeForShe United Nations speech; also: the horrifying invasion of privacy faced by female celebrities who've had their private and personal photos stolen), the timing of this single could not have been worse."

Don't get me wrong: 'Animals' is a fantastic, catchy anthem, driven by Levine's distinct voice. But the similarities between Levine's video and recent headlines are too disturbing. His stalking too closely recalls the experiences of female undergrads at Columbia University, who are fighting an uphill battle with the administration to take sexual assault seriously; his voyeuristic photography too closely reminds us of the recent spate of celebrity nude leaks and the sexual threats suffered by women everywhere when they speak out against misogyny, online and off. 

For a former 'Sexiest Man Alive,' there is nothing sexy about this video, even if you discount the over-the-top deployment of sexual violence. Making out in the rain is attractive — blood, not so much.