Movies - Thriller

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	Movies - Thriller

The fourteen-minute Michael Jackson "Thriller" music video, directed by John Landis, 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 a conventional video and more a full-fledged short subject or mini-film; a horror film spoof featuring choreographed zombies performing with Jackson. 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: "Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses a belief in the occult."

To qualify for an Academy Award, "Thriller" was debuted at a special theatrical screening, along with the animated motion picture Fantasia. It was met enthusiastically by the audience with a standing ovation, and most patrons left without seeing the main feature.

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

"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 also 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 a 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.)

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Movies - Thriller

Video impact

"The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller"

Pop culture references

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