Michael Jackson's Thriller (music video): Difference between revisions
| Line 106: | Line 106: | ||
* In the [[MMORPG]] [[RuneScape]], players can earn an emote called "Zombie Dance" from a random event. This dance uses some of the 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 the [[MMORPG]] [[RuneScape]], players can earn an emote called "Zombie Dance" from a random event. This dance uses some of the 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 the music video for "[[Dance Dance]]" by [[Fall Out Boy]], [[Pete Wentz]] can be seen doing moves from the |
* In the music video for "[[Dance Dance]]" by [[Fall Out Boy]], [[Pete Wentz]] can be seen doing moves from the Thriller music video during his dance. |
||
==External links== |
==External links== |
||
Revision as of 11:21, 2 November 2006
| Thriller | |
|---|---|
| File:Thrillertitlecard.jpg Michael Jackson's Thriller | |
| Directed by | John Landis |
| Written by | John Landis Michael Jackson |
| Produced by | George Folsey Jr. |
| Starring | Michael Jackson Ola Ray |
| Distributed by | Sony Records |
Release date | 1983 |
Running time | 14:00 |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $800,000 |
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. 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 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 (although makeup artist Rick Baker refered 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 contains a spoken word performance by Vincent Price, himself a veteran of countless horror films. Rick Baker assisted in prosthetics and makeup for the production.
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 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.[citation needed]
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; however, 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. 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 approach 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 (implying that the entire story will repeat).
After the credits, the disclaimer humourously states "Any similarity to actual events or persons living, dead, (or undead) is purely coincidental."
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 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.
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 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 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 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within 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. Also, 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.
- 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 (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 film 13 Going On 30, Garner's character Jenna Rink starts an impromtu dance to "Thriller" following the zombies movements.
- 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.
- 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."
- The movie Return of the Living Dead 2 briefly shows a zombie dressed up like Michael's character. This zombie spins around when electrocuted.
- In 2006 the Beatfreakz released a parody of the video for their re-release of the song "Somebody's watching me" by Rockwell, guest sung by Michael and Jermaine Jackson which included a Michael Jackson 'mini-me' dancing with the undead.
- 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.
- In the first episode of ReBoot season 3, Enzo rebooted into a zombie. He wore the same clothes as Michael Jackson in the thriller video. Also, he performed some of Michael Jackson's signature dance moves such as the moonwalk when the user was shooting 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.
- Right before Michael and the girl leave the theatre, the announcer on the screen utters the line, "See you next Wednesday." This line is featured in most John Landis films.
- In the videogame 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 extremely short sample from the "Thriller" song.
- Johnny and the Dead, a book by Terry Pratchett (and its television adaptation) make occasional references to the music video.
- This song was part of D-TV Monster Hits except that it ends 2 minutes and 50 seconds.
- In the video game, Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse, when the zombies stand still long enough, they do a part of the dance from Thriller.
- 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 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 the music video for "Dance Dance" by Fall Out Boy, Pete Wentz can be seen doing moves from the Thriller music video during his dance.
