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Thriller (music video)
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Michael Jackson's Thriller is a 14-minute music video for the song Thriller released on 2 December 1983 that was directed by John Landis. It is often hailed as the best and most popular music video of all time, as it 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, until Michael beat his own record with sister Janet for the $7,000,000 video for Scream. It also held the record for the world's longest music video, until it was beaten by Michael again in 1996 with his 35 minute, long-form music video, Ghosts.
Thriller was less a conventional video and more a full-fledged short subject or mini-film; a horror film spoof featuring choreographed zombies performing with Jackson. The music was re-edited to match the video, with the verses are sung one after the other followed by the ending rap, then the main dance sequence (filmed on Union Pacific Avenue, Los Angeles) to an instrumental loop, and then the memorable finish: the choruses in a "big dance number" climatic scene. During the video, Jackson transforms into both a zombie and a werewolf (although makeup artist Rick Baker referred to it as a "cat monster" in the "Making of Thriller" documentary); 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 also contains incidental music by film music composer Elmer Bernstein, who had previously also worked with Landis on An American Werewolf in London. The video (like the song) contains a spoken word performance by Vincent Price, himself a veteran of many horror films. Rick Baker assisted in prosthetics and makeup for the production.
Jackson, at the time a
Jehovah's Witness, notably added a disclaimer to the start of the video, saying:
| “
| Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses a belief in the occult.
| ”
|
So it could 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 staying for the main feature.[citation needed]
Contents
- 1 Plot
- 2 Video impact
- 3 Making Michael Jackson's Thriller
- 4 References and Parodies in Pop Culture
- 4.1 Cinema
- 4.2 TV
- 4.3 Other Music Videos
- 4.4 Video Games
- 4.5 YouTube/viral video
- 4.6 Miscellaneous
- 5 Trivia
- 6 External links
- 7 See also
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Plot
Michael and his date (Ola Ray) run out of gas in a dark, wooded area. They walk off 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 is "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 movie theater (the Palace Theatre in Hollywood) where Michael and his date - along with a repulsed audience - are actually watching a movie (called Thriller) unfold. Michael smiles but his date is frightened, 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, as
Vincent Price says his lines:
"Darkness falls across the land
The midnight hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize your neighborhood
And whomsoever shall be found
Without the soul for getting down
Must stand and face the hounds of hell
And rot inside a corpse's shell
The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of forty thousand years
And grizzly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom
And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver
For no mere mortal can resist
The evil of the thriller."
Michael and his date find themselves surrounded by the zombies, and suddenly, 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 approach her. Right before they reach her, she wakes up and realizes that it was all a dream, as Michael asks "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. This cyclical foreshadowing implies that the scene where the car stalls and Michael turns into a were-cat will now occur in reality.
After the credits, when they concurrently show the zombie dance again, the disclaimer humourously states, "Any similarity to actual events or persons living, dead, (or undead) is purely coincidental." This was also a statement made in the closing credits of Landis' An American Werewolf in London.
Video impact
The "Thriller" video premiered on 2 December 1983 on MTV, exactly a year and a day after the album's 1 December 1982 release. Immensely popular, even by the standards of Jackson's prior releases, "Thriller" went into heavy rotation on MTV, playing as much as twice at hour (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 revisited the long-form video format time and time again. Although none of his subsequent productions achieved the same level of popularity, the overall production quality increased, as well as the budgets to accomplish this. Features of note include:
"Thriller" had a sequel of sorts in the featurette "Ghosts", which was an even more expansive and expensive marriage of the horror-film genre and popular music. "Ghosts" was directed by Stan Winston, ran over a half-hour long, and like its predecessor featured Jackson in dance routines with the undead. The story was credited to Jackson and horror writer Stephen King, and the short film was released in the U.S. along with select theatrical prints of the film Thinner, which was itself an adaptation of King's novel of the same name.
Jackson teamed up with director John Landis again for the video "Black or White" (1991). 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.
Making 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 Making Michael Jackson's Thriller, it, too, was shown heavily on MTV for a time and was the top-selling home-video release of all time at one point, with more than 90 million copies sold.
References and Parodies in Pop Culture
Cinema
- 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 the trademark Murphy laugh.
- The impromptu dance sequence in the director's cut of Shaolin Soccer features dance steps and similar camera angles from the Thriller music video.
- A Thriller spoof was done by the German comedian Otto Waalkes in his first motion picture Otto - Der Film. However, in place of zombies he used multiple actors resembling the German folksinger Heino, and in place of the original lines a variation of Heino's song Schwarzbraun ist die Haselnuß ("Black-Brown is the Hazel Nut").
- In the movie The Wedding Singer there is a scene where the character Sammy is dressed as Michael Jackson in "Thriller." This scene is also used in the musical adaption of the movie. During the song "Single," which appears in the same scene, Sammy makes several references to Jackson in general, such as when he says that "no chick will ever moonwalk on your heart."
- In the film 13 Going On 30, Garner's character Jenna Rink starts an impromptu dance to "Thriller" following the zombies movements.
- In the movie Back To The Future Part III, Marty avoids being shot by practicing some of Michael Jackson's most famous moves, incl. the famous Moonwalk.
TV
- There is a Halloween episode of South Park (Pink Eye) 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 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.
- In the first episode of season three of ReBoot, Enzo is rebooted into a zombie. He wears the same clothes as Michael Jackson does in the video. Also, he performs some of Michael Jackson's signature dance moves such as the moonwalk when the user shoots at him.
- In the TV cartoon series Animaniacs, the character Buttons the dog is chasing after Mindy, when he suddenly ends up in a graveyard where zombies roam. Buttons wears the outfit similar to Michael's character and even dances (almost in the same manner) to lure the zombies away from Mindy.
- In The Chappelle Show, Dave Chappelle played in a sketch which he was a prospective juror in the Michael Jackson trials and when he was asked if he believes Jackson is guilty or not, he says no, simply reasoning that Jackson is innocent because "he made Thriller."
- In the Disney Channel TV show The Replacments, Riley Daring is shown doing dance steps to Thriller, with a baseline also similar. The character named Buzz also pops up and laughs like the video at the end of the credits.
- In the WB Network now CW Television Network show Blue Collar TV in an episode where the "Fat Family" flashes back to where the Husband is in a dance-off with a man who wants his Girlfriend (Who is his Wife later in the flashback) and they use the dance from the "Thriller" video.
Other Music Videos
- 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 Alien Ant Farm's video for Smooth Criminal Men are shown parodying some dance moves from thriller as well as the man at the end turning round and having similair "wolf eyes" to Jackson's
- In 2006, Beatfreakz released a parody of the video for their re-release of the song "Somebody's Watching Me" by Rockwell (musician), guest sung by Michael and Jermaine Jackson which included a Michael Jackson 'mini-me' dancing with the undead.
- 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. The video can be seen here.
- Also in 2006, Bob Sinclar and Cutee-B's music video for the hit single Rock This Party featured a parody of Thriller danced by children. This is just one of several parodies of famous pop and rock acts featured in this music video.
- Another 2006 music video which parodied Thriller at one point was Gnarls Barkley's music video for Smiley Faces. In the video it is suggested that Gnarls Barkley was present in 1983 as two of four zombies in Jackson's Thriller music video.
- The Aquabats' video for "Fashion Zombies" parodies the zombie dances as well as the spoken poem in the middle of thriller.
Video Games
- In the video game Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti, at one point in the first level (a graveyard) there is a dance floor, on which a vampire dressed in a red outfit similar to Jackson's appears. Suddenly, some zombies pop up from the ground and begin to dance along with the vampire before attacking the player. The music in this phase sounds like an short sample from the song.
- Many of the games in THQ's WWE Smackdown! feature steps from Thriller as optional moves for created characters.
- In the MMORPG Guild Wars, Female Necromancers using the /dance command copy exact moves from Jackson from when he was a zombie.
- In the MMORPG RuneScape, players can earn an emote called "Zombie Dance" from a random event. This dance uses some of the moves from this video. Players can also earn parts of a zombie costume, if one examines the boots of this costume, the description says "Thrilling."
- In Rayman Raving Rabbids, Rayman and the Rabbids can be seen doing a dance similar to Thriller after some of the music games.
- In the Game Final Fantasy VIII during Edea's Parade the Masked dancers are doin the dance moves from Thriller
YouTube/viral video
- Thriller was recreated using Legos. The whole video was shot using Legos and Lego People.
- A music video compilation of the Harry Potter movies 1-4 has been done to the original score of Thriller. It is currently available on Youtube.
Miscellaneous
- 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.
- Former WWE Superstar Brian Christopher would often use Thriller choreography while walking to the ring as apart of his hip-hop gimmick while with the tag-team Too Cool.
- This song was part of D-TV Monster Hits except that it ends after two minutes and fifty seconds.
- In of Off Broadway Musical Evil Dead the Musical the cast does a take off of the Zombie Dance in the "Do the Necronomicon" number.
Trivia
- Right before Michael and the girl leave the theatre, the announcer on the screen utters the line "See you next Wednesday," a line featured in most John Landis films.
- When Michael sings the chorus with the zombies, his face appears completely normal as if he wasn't a zombie yet.
