Thriller (music video)
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"Michael Jackson's Thriller" is a fourteen-minute music video, released in December 1983 to support Michael Jackson's single "Thriller" Directed by John Landis, "Thriller" is often hailed as the best and most popular music video of all time. "Thriller", in essence, redefined the concept of music videos. It was the most expensive video of its time, costing $800,000 — the equivalent of $1.4 million today.
"Thriller" was less of a conventional video and more of a full-fledged short subject or mini-film; a horror film spoof featuring choreographed zombies performing with Jackson. The best evidence of this being the way that the music was re-edited to match the video, in a way never released otherwise. Firstly, all the verses are sung one after the other, followed by the ending rap, then the main dance sequence to an instrumental loop, and finally all of the choruses in one big climatic scene. During the video, Jackson transforms into both a zombie and a werewolf; familiar territory for Landis, who had directed An American Werewolf in London two years earlier. Co-starring with Jackson was former Playboy Centerfold Ola Ray. The video was choreographed by Michael Peters (who had worked with the singer on his prior hit "Beat It"), with significant contributions by Jackson. The video contains a spoken word performance by Vincent Price, himself a veteran of countless horror films.
The singer, at the time a devout Jehovah's Witness, added a disclaimer to the start of the video, saying:
To qualify for an Academy Award, "Thriller" was debuted at a special theatrical screening, along with the 1940 animated motion picture Fantasia. It was met enthusiastically by the audience with a standing ovation, and most patrons left without seeing the main feature.
Plot
Michael and his date (Ola Ray), wearing 1950s-style clothing, run out of gas in a dark, wooded area. They walk off further into the forest, and Michael asks her if she would like to go steady - she accepts and he gives her a ring. He warns her, however, that "he's not like other guys". A full moon appears, and Michael begins convulsing - transforming into a horrifying were-cat monster. His date shrieks and runs away, but the cat monster catches up, knocking her down and begins lunging at her with its claws.
The scene cuts away to a repulsed movie theater where Michael and his date are watching this unfold. Michael smiles amused, devouring movie popcorn; however, his date is freaked out, and tells him she's leaving. Michael catches up to her, exclaiming "it's only a movie!" She defends herself, "I wasn't that scared." He rebuts, "Yeah - you were scared!"
Michael and his date then walk down a foggy street, and teases her with verses of "Thriller". They pass a possessed graveyard, where corpses suddenly begin to rise from their graves. Michael and his date find themselves surrounded by the zombies, all of a sudden, Michael appears as a zombie himself. Michael and the undead perform an elaborate song and dance number together, frightening his girlfriend to the point where she runs for cover.
The girl is chased into an abandoned house, where the zombies and Michael slowly lord over her. Right before they reach her, she's awoken by real-life Michael: "what's the problem?" He offers to take her home, and as the video ends, he glances back at the camera, revealing his were-cat monster yellow eyes to the audience.
Video impact
The "Thriller" video premiered on MTV exactly a year and a day after the album's release: December 2, 1983. Immensely popular, even by the standards of Jackson's prior releases, "Thriller" went into heavy rotation on MTV, playing twice-hourly at some points. (This is especially notable considering the piece's fourteen-minute run time.) The video won the inaugural MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography in 1984.
Jackson himself revisited the long-form video format time and time again. Although none of his subsequent productions achieved the same level of notoriety or popularity, the overall production quality increased, as well as the budgets to accomplish this. Features of note include:
- "Captain Eo" (1986), directed by Francis Ford Coppola
- "Bad" (1987), directed by Martin Scorsese
- The "Smooth Criminal" segment of the home video Moonwalker (1989), directed by Colin Chilvers
- "Remember the Time" (1992), directed by John Singleton
Jackson eventually teamed up with director John Landis again for the video "Black or White" (1992). Although similar in length and budget to their previous collaboration, the video featured a far less linear (debatably nonexistent) storyline, and was greeted with a much less favorable public reaction due to questionable content.
The Making of 'Michael Jackson's Thriller'
Released in tandem with the video was an hour-long documentary providing candid glimpses behind the scenes of the production. Called The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller, it was the top-selling home-video release of all time at one point, with over 90 million copies sold.Pop culture references
- Shortly after the release of the video, View Master released a custom boxed three-disc set chronicling the narrative of the video in 3D. (Attentive viewers can see 3D photographers being instructed by director Landis during the Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller documentary.)
- In a brief scene from the 1984 film Beverly Hills Cop, Eddie Murphy's character Axel Foley is seen walking past two grown men, each dressed in imitation versions of Jackson's "Thriller" video outfit. His response, used in trailers for the film, was a trademark Murphy laugh.
- An issue of the Marvel comic book Dazzler was devoted to an homage/parody of the making of Jackson's video. The plot centered on the title character (a dancer by trade) winning an audition to work on a horror-themed music video starring an entertainer obviously patterned on the singer.
- In the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), performers in the Von Steuben Day Parade scene can be seen re-enacting steps from Thriller.
- The final shot of Weird Al Yankovic's video "Eat It" (a parody of Jackson's prior hit, "Beat It") has the comedian turning his head around to reveal he has "wolf eyes". A similar shot also appears in the video for Alien Ant Farm's 2001 cover of Smooth Criminal.
- The DVD release for the 2001 animated film features a hidden easter egg in which the film's computer generated cast recreate the dance choreography of the music video. Aki Ross takes the place of Jackson.
- Many of the games in THQ's WWE Smackdown! feature steps from Thriller as optional moves for created characters.
- The impromptu dance sequence in the director's cut of Shaolin Soccer features dance steps and similar camera angles from the Thriller music video.
- In the music video for the Gorillaz song "Clint Eastwood", when the zombie gorillas rise up and chase Murdoc, they can be seen performing moves from the Thriller video.
- In The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror III" Bart and Lisa try to resurrect their dead cat Snowball, but by mistake resurrect hundreds of corpses who crawl out of their graves. Bart uses a magic spell to raise these zombies and wears Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album on his head.
- There's also a Halloween episode of South Park in which Chef turns into a zombie while wearing Jackson's "Thriller" outfit and singing a parody of the song while other zombies dance like in the clip.
- In the film 13 Going On 30, Garner's character Jenna Rink starts an impromtu dance to "Thriller" following the zombies movements.
- In the video game Guild Wars, the /dance "emote" of the female necromancer character resembles the "Thriller" zombie dance.
- In Telemundo, a music video called Informal's Raro Malo, was a Spanish parody of the Thriller video, but ends 6 minutes and 31 seconds sooner. They used white Spanish actors instead of the original cast.
- In the movie The Wedding Singer there is a scene where the character Sammy is dressed as Michael Jackson in "Thriller".
- The movie Return of the Living Dead 2 briefly shows a zombie dressed up like Michael's character. This zombie spins around when electrocuted.
See also
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