Landis' production partner George Folsey and Jackson's lawyer John Branca hatched a plan: raise money by pre-selling the rights to a behind-the-scenes documentary shot during "Thriller" production. It references numerous horror films and sees Jackson dancing with a horde of zombies. This weekend, HBO and HBO Max will premiere the first episode of "The Last of Us," a post-apocalyptic thriller based on the popular video game. From "Leave it to Beaver" to Marilyn Manson to Bill Clinton to "The Brady Bunch," Eminem doesn't hold back on pop culture references or the barbs he makes in his lyrics. "I won't say that I have seen him in his birthday suit but close enough.". The legendary video has been honored countless times. [12] The documentary, Making Michael Jackson's Thriller, was directed by Jerry Kramer. It's directed by John Strickland (Bodyguard, Line Of Duty) and follows the crew on the fictional Kinloch Bravo oil rig stationed off the Scottish coast on the dangerous waters of the North Sea.When the group of workers is due to return to the mainland, an eerie fog descends, and a mysterious force begins to take . 1983 - Channel 4 premiere of Michael Jackson's Thriller video - YouTube 0:00 / 0:30 1983 - Channel 4 premiere of Michael Jackson's Thriller video Blocks Videos 11.2K subscribers 65 7.4K. And then for some reason, she is naked on a cotton candy cloud for certain parts. The Thriller video sent album sales into orbit, with Jackson's label Epic reportedly shipping a million copies a week in its immediate aftermath. It was the first music video to be selected. Jackson died about six months later, and his estate settled with Landis in 2012. One exception was the story "Nurse Will Make It Better"; however, this too exists in PAL/original format on the later 1" videotape format as a dub from the original master tape (this version was broadcast on the satellite channel Bravo in 1996). Fall Out Boy's video for "Sugar, We're Goin Down" alternates between the band jamming and a love story between a boy with antlers and a normal girl. In 2018 it was further remastered by IMAX and preceded screenings of. The black-and-white "Rhythm Nation" video is known for its military-style outfits, warehouse setting, and choreography, which has inspired numerous dance routines since the video was released. "It was really groundbreaking to have such a long video, and it helped to shape the future of music videos, which previously had been more performance-based," she says. [8] According to Ray, the chemistry between them was real and they shared "intimate moments" during the shoot. The clips promoting "Thriller" helped turn MTV into a vital cultural force, solidified Jackson's stature as the "King of Pop," and significantly raised both the quality and expectations of music videos. [13], Other memorable episodes include: "Someone at the Top of the Stairs", one of a handful of forays into the supernatural, in which two female students move into a boarding house and begin to notice that none of the other residents ever go out or receive any mail; and "I'm The Girl He Wants to Kill", in which a witness to a murder finds herself trapped in a deserted office block overnight with the killer, and is forced to play a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with him to survive (there is barely any dialogue throughout its second half). Today everybody is still doing the same thing in music video with dancing and film-based story-lines which he innovated. "[8] Jackson's manager Frank DiLeo suggested making a music video for it, and recalled telling Jackson: "It's simpleall you've got to do is dance, sing, and make it scary. The comic book character later attempts to join her in the real world and eventually does. He took both "Beat It" and "Billie Jean" to #1, debuted his signature "Moonwalk"dance move to stunned and delighted fans, sold millions of copies of his album Thriller, and then starred in one of the most popular, famous, and well-produced music videos of all time. Jackson becomes a zombie himself and dances with the horde to the song. However, after the new channel Showtime agreed to pay half the budget, MTV agreed to pay the rest, justifying the expenditure as financing for a motion picture and not a music video. It was (as others have said) billed as a "The Tube" special. Six Girls Aloud videos later and Thriller is still part of Bellinger's life. [8] Entertainment figures including Marlon Brando, Fred Astaire, Rock Hudson and Jackie Kennedy Onassis visited the set. In 2009, it became the first music video inducted into the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". Directed by Foo Fighters front man Dave Grohl, the video follows a man, whose face is never shown, as he rescues a baby, a dog, and grabs a photo from a burning building. It was filmed at various locations in Los Angeles, including the Palace Theater. "Romain Gavras he did M.I.A. [33] It was also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival,[34] followed by a US premiere at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson had a hit with "Uptown Funk," and the vibrant, simple video was the perfect fit. It's also one Jackson felt personally compelled to include. [20] In 2009, Jackson sold the Thriller rights to the Nederlander Organization to stage a Broadway musical based on the video. On Sunday, January 15, it will debut on HBO at 9 . Dendle wrote that the video captures the feelings of claustrophobia and helplessness essential to zombie films. They talk through their problems with friends and ultimately decide that neither of them will date him. Jackson called his assistant, John Branca, and ordered him to destroy the negatives. There's a lot to unpack in Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball" video. I think that video by MJ is just big, but it isn't that fantastic. "Above all, it's just this amazing documentation of Michael Jackson at his most electric," he says. The video was directed by John Landis, written by Landis and Jackson, and stars Jackson and Ola Ray. [12] Jackson's parents Joseph and Katherine Jackson also visited. The actress and the musician wound up getting along just fine more than fine, actually. TheOddOne - no, I know . Jackson's success ensured the lifting of a ban on black video by MTV in the US. [8] Vestron Music Video offered to distribute Making Michael Jackson's Thriller on VHS and Betamax; this was a pioneering concept, as most video cassettes at the time were sold to rental stores rather than directly to viewers. [14] According to Landis, the production involved the largest makeup team in film history up to that point, with 40 makeup artists. [39] In 2010, Jackson's estate objected to the Jackson zombie in the game. Additionally, Landis equates the process of man turning to beast, in "Thriller" and in other werewolf-based movies (such as the director's own An American Werewolf in London), with puberty. A YouTube video of more than 1,500 prisoners performing the dance attracted 14 million views by 2010. Miss Scarlet and The Duke, starring Kate Phillips and Stuart Martin, is a high-octane, smart and sassy mystery series filled set in 1882 . 2, and Madonna's Vogue at No. However, Epic wouldn't pay for it the label spent $250,000 on the video for "Billie Jean" but made Jackson pay the $150,000 budget for "Beat It" himself. At the end of the credits, they all dance back into their graves, with one of them gruesomely grimacing at the screen. During the closing credits, a reprise of the zombies dancing is shown. The pair are spies for an elite intelligence agency called Citadel - but eight years ago . To be eligible for the Oscars, it needed a week-long theatrical release, so Landis arranged for it to open, bizarrely, for Disney's Fantasia at a single cinema in LA. Could you want anything more in a video? [8] Jackson covered additional costs, for which he would be reimbursed. Jackson was 25 years old at the time of filming. [32], In 2017, the video made its debut in a newly restored 3D version at the 74th annual Venice Film Festival, accompanied by the Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller documentary, also newly remastered. It references numerous horror films and sees Jackson dancing with a horde of zombies . During all the chaos, lead singer Brendon Urie is the ringmaster. Epic Records head of promotions Frank DiLeo suggested a third music video, for the album's title track, which wasn't even slated to be a single. ", Jonze took the freedom he sensed in Thriller and also its eccentricity and humour and ran with it, creating some of the 90s' most famous music videos, including the Beastie Boys' Sabotage and Praise You by Fatboy Slim, which also get continually spoofed. It's hard to forget. Before We Die. "Girl meets boy, they fall in love, boy has big secret, now what." In the 1950s, Michael Jackson and a young woman (Ola Ray) run out of gas while driving in a wooded area. [25] In a poll of over one thousand users conducted by Myspace in 2010, it was voted the most influential music video. The video has received over 700 million views on YouTube. 's Bad Girls and that's got to be one of the best videos ever. One of the lengthiest music videos made at the time, running for 14 minutes and 7 seconds. He and Peters imagined how the zombies would move by making faces in the mirror, incorporating "jazzy" moves, "not too much ballet or whatever". Here's the inside story on the development, production, and impact of the video for Michael Jackson's spookiest hit. [8], The video debuted on MTV alongside Making Michael Jackson's Thriller on December 2, 1983. But that night is also known as the night Kanye West got on stage and interrupted Taylor Swift's speech after she beat Beyonc in the best female video category. Spooks (a.k.a. The "Life on Mars" music video was filmed for the song's release as a single. Encompassing just about . Nevertheless, the Thriller video was set to be so expensive $900,000, to pay for not just the filming and effects but 10 days of dance rehearsals that Landis and Jackson had to find a way to fund it (Jackson had paid the $150,000 cost of the Beat It video himself). The simple black-and-white video features Beyonc in a leotard flanked on either side by a dancer in a similar outfit. More than 300 people dressed as Bush in the red dress recreated her video in a Brighton park in 2013. It's dark and striking and fits perfectly with the song. This brilliant video won the VMA for video of the year. It starts with the boy band as puppets being controlled by a giant woman. 23 of 25 found this interesting | Share this On June 27, 2011, the red jacket Jackson wore in this video sold for 1.8 million dollars at Julien's Auctions of Beverly Hills. [10] Landis felt Jackson should become scary and creepy, but not ugly. Following a worldwide audit during 200304 by the then copyright-holders Carlton, almost all the original UK PAL fisheye-titled 2" videotapes of Thriller were located and transferred onto modern digital tape by the British Film Institute, with subsequent restoration work by BBC Resources. [29], Jackson's red leather jacket became a fashion icon and has been widely emulated. '"[20], The Thriller video sealed MTV's position as a major cultural force, helped disassemble racial barriers for black artists, revolutionized music video production, popularized making-of documentaries, and drove rentals and sales of VHS tapes. The critic Kobena Mercer found similarities to the werewolf in The Company of Wolves (1984). This steamy drama, which is adapted from a book series by Diana Gabaldon of the same name, follows former World War II nurse Claire Randall as she unexpectedly travels back in time to . The visuals are striking, and at one point, Janet throws a middle finger to the camera. Michael Jackson seems like this kid who loves music, horror films, special effects, makeup, zombies and wants all of those things in the video. [8], The horror-themed "Thriller" had not been planned for release as a single. "I had some intimate moments with him in his trailer," Ray said. I just wanted to create something that would do justice to the song and I was excited about making, and I think Thriller was the same way.". It has that spirit to it that must have been contagious; it spoke to other kids. With Patrick Gibson . The boy returns in ghost form but his mom can't see him, and both the man and woman fade from the video. [3] Background [ edit] Stars: Alexander Arnold, David Bamber, Claudie Blakley, Denise Gough Votes: 3,682 3. Filmeditor Marshall Harvey had previously been hired by John Landis to make the behind the scenes footage to his movies An American Werewolf in London and Blues Brothers. She won the MTV award for video of the year. The "Dancing Zombie" enemy was originally resembled Jackson dressed in his Thriller outfit and the "Backup Dancer Zombies" that surrounded the Dancing Zombie resembled the backup dancers from the part of Thriller where Jackson turns onto a zombie. The video for My Chemical Romance's jam featured a main character in a hospital bed who is eventually led by Death to the Black Parade. The Gorillaz are known for their animations, but it all started with their first single from their debut, "Clint Eastwood." [10] Makeup artist Rick Baker decided to turn Jackson into a werecat "because I just didn't want to do another werewolf". They run naked on a beach, they wear ridiculous outfits, and they rock out in front of crowds of people. And yet despite all these fancy awards, "Thriller" didn't win the one prize that seemed like a lock. Inspired by the reaction to the Beatles performance on "The Ed Sullivan Show," "Hey Ya!" The record was a major hit that sold millions of copies and spawned numerous hit singles, which, in turn, led to more album sales. Injustice: Created by Anthony Horowitz. It ends with the groom as the actual ringmaster. Panic! Landis and Jackson worked out a story about a guy who takes a young woman on a date and transforms into a bloodthirsty horror movie monster before her very eyes. A making-of documentary, Making Michael Jackson's Thriller, was produced to sell to television networks. That's a pretty serious statement, and one that makes the silly horror movie-inspired fun to follow seem like it's going to be a lot darker and menacing than it is. Watch the red dress video here the white dress video here. Less than two years later, sister network VH1 would also name "Thriller" the top video ever made. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is considered one of the greatest songs of all time, and the video is a testament to the song as a teen rock anthem. They won the MTV VMA for video of year. Thoroughly upset, Jackson ordered his lawyer, John Branca, to destroy the "Thriller" negatives. It continuously shifts through a series of triangles shifting between images of Meg and Jack White playing instruments. She screams and wakes up, realizing it was a nightmare. In 2009, the Library of Congress added "Thriller" to the National Film Registry, naming it part of its collection of films that should be "preserved as cultural, artistic, and/or historical treasures for generations to come," according toLA Weekly. The main point of the video is that Gaga is being sold for sex, and the video switches between various scenes including one where she's dancing in an all-white outfit in a bath house and one where she is dancing for the men bidding as she's dressed in diamonds. The story is great, the scenes are marvelous, the music is fantastic and overall the clip is fun, eye-popping, spooky and is a real spectacle. [8], Thriller was filmed at the Palace Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, the zombie sequence at the junction of Union Pacific Avenue and South Calzona Street in East Los Angeles, and the final house scene at 1345 Carroll Avenue in the Angeleno Heights neighborhood of Echo Park. Joseph denied this. It's incredibly simple, with David Bowie just standing in front of a white background for most of it, but with his orange hair, powder blue suit, and blue eye shadow, the visuals are vibrant and mesmerizing. On principle, though, it should be up to the parents to decide , in a situation where a film is being shown that is above the age range for that class. Eventually, she stands on the edge of an overpass preparing to jump when her ex shows up with a bunch of cops. Ola Ray took home a lot of memories and stories from her time co-starring in Michael Jackson's landmark "Thriller" music video. Isn't it ironic? Epic saw it as a novelty song;[9] Yetnikoff asked, "Who wants a single about monsters? 1 Thriller Michael Jackson 2 Bohemian Rhapsody Queen 3 Take On Me A-ha 4 My Heart Will Go On Celine Dion 5 Virtual Insanity Jamiroquai 6 Vogue Madonnna 7 Fastlove George Michael 8 Say You'll Be There Spice Girls 9 Earth Song Michael Jackson 10 Sledgehammer Peter Gabriel, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. In 2008 a DVD box set containing all six series was released. He grooves on an escalator, he flies in the air, he shimmies in the lobby. Kendrick Lamar's "Humble" is an incredible video. Avril Lavigne's disastrous romp through a mall was every teen's dream in the early 2000s. During the elaborate production of this music video. "It was never like some marketing thing. [35] It was remastered in IMAX 3D for a limited engagement in 2018, preceding screenings of The House With a Clock in Its Walls in North America for its first week. According to The Guardian, Jackson made up a lot of the difference out of his own pocket. Top editors give you the stories you want delivered right to your inbox each weekday. At Murphy's insistence, the film was played again. [40][39], The Thriller dance is performed in major cities around the world; the largest zombie dance included 12,937 dancers, in Mexico City. "[11], Ola Ray also complained of problems collecting royalties. The singer and the filmmaker met, and Landis dismissed the notion of presenting "Thriller" as a typical, cheaply made music video. MTV, which, to that point, had never paid for content, contributed $250,000, and Showtime paid $300,000. The striking video is mostly black-and-white with some of the only color provided by red flowers on the float. [12][18] After each broadcast, MTV advertised when they would next play it, and recorded audience figures ten times the norm. Fifteen years ago, it was deemed suitable only for late-night viewing, and even boycotted by a then fledgling MTV network in the US. The singer liked that idea and later told Jehovah's Witness publication Awakethat he "just intended to do a good, fun short film, not to purposely bring to the screen something to scare people or to do anything bad.". It really opened our eyes to music videos as a creative form of film-making, and a potential career." It's easy to overlook this fact, but M. Night . [10], To help finance the production, Landis's producer George Folsey Jr. suggested a making-of documentary that, combined with the "Thriller" video, would produce an hour-long film that could be sold to television. Thriller was an event even when it was being shot in October 1983. As fun as Smash Mouth's song is, the video is even more wild. [36], A Hollywood production company attempted to turn Jackson's song "Billie Jean", which is also featured on Jackson's Thriller album, into a feature film, but no plans were completed. The proposed cost of the "Thriller" video: slightly less than $1 million. The image of her white tank and black tie is a definitive one. I was suing him for 14 years. Directed by F. Gary Gray, who also directed "Straight Out of Compton" and "The Fate of the Furious," the "Waterfalls" video is emotional. When it was released on VHS in the UK, the short film was given the "15" certificate for its frightening scenes (the rating was later changed to "12" in 2018). In a 2009 interview with Billboard, Bey said she was surprised by the reaction. The video features lead singer Amy Lee dreaming of falling from her apartment window. There's even data to suggest that the existence of Making Michael Jackson's Thriller helped fuel the massive rise of VCR sales in late 1983. Less than two years later, sister network VH1 would also name "Thriller" the top video ever made. Jackson said his first concern was to create a zombie dance that did not seem comical. He was tortured, but he was happy-go-lucky for a lot of it. "For nearly three decades, music-related projects had to conform to TV's rules," says Giorgio Testi, who makes artful, elegant films with bands like the Killers and Savages that are not related to a single's release, yet clock up hundreds of thousands of views online. Mumsnet carries some affiliate marketing links, so if you buy something through our posts, we may get a small share of the sale (more details here). / The foulest stench is in the air / The funk of 40,000 years / And grizzy 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. Trudy Bellinger was studying art in Brighton when it first shown and it inspired her to start making music films herself. [11] Landis and Jackson conceived a short film shot on 35mm film with the production values of a feature film, with a budget of $900,000, much larger than any previous music video. "Music videos in the early 80s started as a little cottage industry in Britain, really," says Brian Grant, the British director who made the Private Dancer video for Tina Turner and Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance With Somebody. ThrillerVideo ThrillerVideo was a horror home video series that began being released in February 1985 to 1987 by U.S.A. Home Video and International Video Entertainment (I.V.E.). [6] According to Peter Dendle, the zombie invasion sequence was inspired by Night of the Living Dead (1968). [12] Nina Blackwood, a former MTV executive, said music videos improved after Thriller, with more storylines and more intricate choreography. The mystery and thriller . Some music videos are more memorable than others. There's shots of them on a boat in a "storm," there's memorable camouflage outfits, and a truly special dance break in front of a temple. The emotional video for "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" starts with Cline Dion's love leaving their mansion on a motorcycle in a rainstorm before dying in a fiery crash when lighting causes a tree to fall. Tom Petty channeled "Alice in Wonderland" for the "Don't Come Around Here No More" music video. The rules have been rewritten, unleashing a new surge of creativity. It won a Grammy for best music video. At one point, the boy tries to cut his antlers off to be accepted, but she stops him. "Then YouTube came along and that suddenly brought film-makers back to a more unconventional way of thinking, which I see as a totally positive thing. Love it or hate it, labels are obsessed with it and it's here to stay. One of the Zombie ladies from "Thriller" short film by Michael Jackson is Claire Sisk Reeves. | Narration: Darkness falls across the land / The midnight hour is close at hand / Creatures crawl in search of blood / To terrorize y'all's neighbourhood / And whosoever shall be found / Without the soul for getting down / Must stand and face the hounds of hell / And rot inside a corpse's shell. 2 Bohemian Rhapsody Queen. "Thriller" remains a classic, as well as an unprecedented moment in music and film, and it wasn't easy to pull off. Part of a longer movie, the "Runaway" music video features Kanye West playing a white piano as a ballet troupe dressed all in black dance near him. He worked very hard. Sessions had been previously sparsely attended, so Garcia introduced elaborately choreographed dance routines, and before long, as many as 1,500 inmates reported to the prison yard to learn some moves. According to Vanity Fair, Vestron Video helped offset the high production cost of "Thriller" by paying for the VHS and Betamax distribution rights for the Making Michael Jackson's Thriller documentary and then gave it a $29.95 retail price tag. This is to say nothing of the countless videos, viral and otherwise, of people re-creating the familiar "Thriller" dance moves particularly the stylized zombie movements at weddings, block parties, and Halloween celebrations. Thriller, released in 1983, was initially given a late-night premiere on Channel 4 - a formula repeated by Jackson five years later with his Bad video. Jackson hired Landis after seeing his 1981 film An American Werewolf in London. [10], In 1984, the National Coalition on Television Violence (NCTV) reviewed 200 MTV videos and classified more than half as too violent, including Thriller. But what truly stands out about the video is Cher's iconic sheer body suit and leather jacket. [10] MTV paid $250,000 for the exclusive rights to show the documentary; Showtime paid $300,000 for pay-cable rights. The video is as fun as the song itself. The flipside of all these interviews, sessions and phone footage is that it takes the heat off music videos, making the traditional performance video completely redundant. Marlon Brando, Fred Astaire, Rock Hudson and Jackie Kennedy Onassis all turned up on set, and Eddie Murphy, Prince and Diana. The floors appears to move as the walls stand still, furniture seems to glide, and the titled camera makes viewers feel a bit sideways. NCTV chairman Thomas Radecki said: "It's not hard to imagine young viewers after seeing Thriller saying, 'Gee, if Michael Jackson can terrorize his girlfriend, why can't I do it too? pg-13 147m. In January 2009, nearly three decades after production on the video wrapped, Landis sued Jackson and his production company for having failed to fork over what was due over the years. Landis said he would do the video if it could be a short film, and Jackson embraced the idea. However Harvey declined and then suggested another director who did in the end make the documentary. According to Baker, he technically portrays a "werecat. The remastered 3D version first premiered at the 74th Venice Film Festival on September 4th, 2017 alongside the 'Making Of' documentary. Then it shifts to the musicians performing on stage. The video includes clips from "Purple Rain," too. Jackson died a few weeks after the suit was filed, and according to TMZ, the singer's estate settled with Ray in 2013 to the tune of $75,000. This did not stop him being threatened with expulsion from his church because of the film's subject matter. Her 10-year-old son recently learned the routines at a holiday kids' club in Turkey, reminding her of the huge impact it had on kids in the 1980s. The stories were often set in the London commuter belt. But yesterday Michael Jackson's Thriller video was named the greatest pop video of all time in a survey of viewers of the VH1 music channel. [37], The video game Plants vs. Zombies by PopCap Games contained a reference to the Thriller music video in its original releases from May 2009 (a month before Jackson's death) until it was removed in July 2010. The video shows two stories: one in which a boy is killed in a drug deal after not listening to his mom to stop and another where a man contracts AIDS after having unprotected sex with a woman. It was also the first big break for drag queen RuPaul. TV-MA | 240 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller 7.4 Rate A young couple move into an apartment only to find the body of a young woman that had been missing for 2 years but never registered as missing which leads to a deeper investigation into what actually happened. The success transformed Jackson into a dominant force in global pop culture. And as later legal filings would indicate, that's about all the actress and model took home. She ran around with her friends bothering patrons and employees, trying on a bunch of clothes, and making a giant mess. | She manages to escape and there's a whole action series with her jumping into a pool, riding a jet ski, and making her great escape to an island with her man and dog. It was shown as a 'Tube' exclusive at midnight (ish) on Channel four. | It won a Grammy as part of a long-form video project titled "Rhythm Nation 1814 Film.". [8], In June 1983, Thriller was displaced from the top of the Billboard 200 chart by the Flashdance soundtrack. A particular trademark of the series' storytelling was to hook the viewer with a simple yet totally baffling situation, of the kind seen in films such as Les Diaboliques (1955). "As soon as the Americans got involved, things became monetised, turning music videos into a proper industry, which operated alongside MTV. Michael Jackson - Thriller (Official 4K Video) Michael Jackson 27.3M subscribers Subscribe 6.6M Share 887M views 13 years ago #Halloween #MichaelJackson #4kRemastered Michael Jackson's official. At one point, she climbs up the building to a room where Paul McCoy and the rest of the band are playing music. Here are 55 of the most iconic music . I would never do anything like that again." The song is featured in the superhero comedy "Mystery Men," and actors William H. Macy, Ben Stiller, Hank Azaria, Diane Rehm, Paul Reubens, Kel Mitchell, Janeane Garofalo, Doug Jones, and Dane Cook all make cameos. "[8] According to Vanity Fair, Jackson preferred "benign Disney-esque fantasies where people were nice and children were safe", which ensured the video would be "creepy-comical, not genuinely terrifying".