Michael Jackson's Thriller is an almost 14-minute long music video for the song of the same name released on December 2, 1983 and directed by John Landis who also co-wrote the screenplay with Jackson. The mini-film music video was broadcast on MTV three weeks before Christmas 1983. It was the most expensive video of its time, costing US$500,000[1], and Guinness World Records listed it in 2006 as the "most successful music video", selling over 9 million units.[2]

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 being sung one after the other followed by the ending rap, then the main dance sequence (filmed on the 3600 block of Union Pacific Avenue in East Los Angeles) to an instrumental loop, and finally the memorable finish: the choruses in a "big dance number" climactic scene. During the video, Jackson transforms into both a zombie and a werecat (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 Michael 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 horror film veteran Vincent Price. Rick Baker assisted in prosthetics and makeup for the production.

Jackson, at the time one of Jehovah's Witnesses, 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.
Directed by John Landis
Produced by George Folsey Jr.
Written by John Landis
Michael Jackson
Starring Michael Jackson
Ola Ray
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Epic Records Productions
Release date(s) December 2, 1983
Running time 13:43
Language English
Budget $500,000[1]
Sales:
9 million units

Plot

Michael and his date, played by 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 in agony – transforming into a horrifying werecat.[citation needed] His date shrieks and runs away, but the werecat 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 this scene unfold in a movie called Thriller (starring Vincent Price). Michael's date is scared but he has a huge grin on his face so she leaves. Michael catches up to her, exclaiming "It's only a movie!" Some debate follows over whether or not she was scared by the scene; she denies it, but Michael disagrees.

Michael and his date then walk down a foggy street, and he teases her with the opening verses of "Thriller". They pass a graveyard, where corpses suddenly begin to rise from their graves as Vincent Price performs his rap. Michael and his date then find themselves surrounded by the zombies, and suddenly, Michael becomes a zombie himself. Michael and the undead perform an elaborate song and dance number together, followed by the chorus of Thriller (in which Michael is changed back into human form), 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, but as the video ends Michael glances back at the camera, grins, and reveals his yellow cat-like eyes (accompanied by Vincent Price offering one last haunting laugh).

After the credits, when they concurrently show the zombies dancing again, the disclaimer humorously states, "Any similarity to actual events or persons living, dead, (or undead) is purely coincidental." Landis' An American Werewolf in London likewise offered this disclaimer.

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