Music Video #31 (Day 1 of 2008)

We start the second annual July Music Video Challenge month with one of the most famous music videos ever made. It's Thriller by Michael Jackson and it's a whopping 13:41 minutes long. Ah, the memories. I remember when I told Lita that I wasn't even that familiar with video, and she lost the last bit of respect she had for me. Good times.





I don't know why I'm about to describe the most famous music video ever, but maybe there's someone who's just escaped from a Communist or Islamic country who just discovered the internet and the first website they came across was my blog. Hi. The video starts with a this quote:

Due to my strong personal convictions, I with to stress that this film in no way endorses a belief in the occult.

Pfft, wimp. Does that mean I can do what I please, profit off it, and then turn around and say I didn't really believe in it? Come on, own your sins or experiences or whatever!

We start the fireworks with a half minute of a car pulling up in the woods and dying. Michael is embarrassed to tell his nameless girlfriend that his car ran out of gas, for real. They walk and have a gooey conversation. I think Michael asks her to go steady and she accepts, but he warns her that he's not like other guys. At least guys who don't have to warn neighborhoods about their presence. She ends up running away. Also, Michael Jackson turns into a cross between Teen Wolf and a Chuck E Cheese cat animatronic. He chases her, she falls on her back, he pounces, and I suddenly feel sorry for Lisa Marie.

But haw haw, the first four minutes of this video is really just a movie Michael and his girlfriend are watching. I guess she's the same person by my internal facial recognition software is terrible. She's frightened so they leave and walk into a cemetery for some reason. Then the video starts proper, where Michael sings about scary stuff playfully. I wish I could do the dance moves that Michael does here without looking like a complete dork.

Of course, after that we get to the Vincent Price rap. Vincent Price was introduced as the star of the movie these two were watching, and we now hear him resurrect the dead with his rap/poem. Somehow these slow zombies surround our couple, which leads to the iconic zombie dance. Even a dope like me knows about this scene, despite not watching the rest of the video.

Girlfriend runs into a shack. Her survival instincts needs work. The zombies attack, including a zombie Michael, until it's revealed that it's all just a dream at Michael's place. He offers to take her home but we get a wink at the camera that reveals that it really happened. Cue credits.


The song itself is pretty easy to understand. It's all about being scared to the poin of paralysis. The title refers to the state. He mentions beasts and aliens and zombies. (Vincent's spoken rap just sticks to zombies.) Of course, it wouldn't be such a famous video if the music wasn't so catchy.

While I joked about the long opening that sets up the actual music video, it does work in establishing the fact that it's a horror spoof. It would be hard to pull off if it just started in the theater. I'm not a fan of zombie movies but they were a great idea for this video. It must have taken forever to get them to dance in sync with Michael.

I have one compliant about this video. It's dark and hard to see. It's probably because it's a bad copy, but this is Michael Jackson's youtube account, so you'd hope it would be a little clearer.

The awesome part of this video is that it takes its time. Again, I joked about the opening but I prefer this video to any of the music videos made since that have a hundred cuts per minute. No wonder why this video can be enjoyed by so many. I'm sure Lita loves the fact that it has Vincent Price, since she's a fan of his horror movies.

Classic video, classic not-creepy Michael. Do I have to say more? Bring on the next video.