[1] It is an anthology series: each episode has a self-contained story and its own cast. "Everyone experiences these physical transformations in their bodies and new, unfamiliar sexual thoughts in their minds. 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. "It was the first time an artist had considered the pop video as a legitimate art form. '"[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 trivia item below may give away important plot points. At one point, she climbs up the building to a room where Paul McCoy and the rest of the band are playing music. The suit alleged that Landis didn't receive his promised 50-percent cut of the profits and that Jackson and company acted with "fraudulent, malicious, and oppressive conduct" in withholding what The Hollywood Reporter said amounted to about $2.3 million. PopCap agreed to remove the Thriller zombies and replace them with generic disco-dancing zombies. Jackson embraces her, but turns to the camera and grins, revealing his werecat eyes. 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 . Garcia taped and uploaded videos of the sessions to YouTube, and in 2007, the one of the "CPDRC Dancing Inmates" doing the "Thriller" dance hit big and went viral. [12][18] After each broadcast, MTV advertised when they would next play it, and recorded audience figures ten times the norm. But for director John Landis, "Thriller" was about something more: sex, primarily. Recorded as a cover for the movie "Moulin Rouge," the four women appeared in the video. C4 showed it on the Friday night but it was incomplete and none of the end credits were shown. When the documentary was released on VHS, selling for $29.95, it attracted more than 100,000 advance orders in its own right. [3] Background [ edit] She leaps and hang over the cars with a rope and flip her ex off is iconic. However Harvey declined and then suggested another director who did in the end make the documentary. If youd like to join in, please sign in or register. After production on the video wrapped, Jackson was told by leaders of his church (Jackson was a practicing member of the Jehovah's Witness faith) that they thought "Thriller" encouraged demon worship, and if it were released, he'd be excommunicated. Between Britney Spears' flight attendant uniform, diamond and nude body suit, and black cat suit, all of her outfits are memorable. The video won a Grammy for best long-form video. The "Love Shack" video was filmed at the home of ceramic artists Philip Maberry and Scott Walker and shows people grooving and having a fun party in this place in the middle of some woods. So in the beginning of the video, Michael has a message stating that "Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film is no way endorses a belief in the occult". The image of her white tank and black tie is a definitive one. They won the MTV VMA for video of year. [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 a watershed moment in music video. Cast: Christian Bale, Harry Melling, Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Toby Jones. We didn't get a Channel 4 signal until late 84 so missed out entirely! Jackson hired Landis after seeing his 1981 film An American Werewolf in London. Stars: Alexander Arnold, David Bamber, Claudie Blakley, Denise Gough Votes: 3,682 3. It is credited for transforming music videos into a serious art form, breaking down racial barriers in popular entertainment and popularizing the making-of documentary format. afraid (he hasn't really got much of a "front" yet). Filmed in one continuous shot, the band is also occasionally shown playing in the burning building. Before We Die. At the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards in 1984, "Thriller" surprisingly lost Video of the Year to the Cars' "You Might Think.". [29], Jackson's red leather jacket became a fashion icon and has been widely emulated. The theatre in the movie is the Palace Theatre in Los Angeles, where, The short film was packaged on home video with, The score heard in this music video is actually unused music from composer. He reaches out to her but can't pull her back up and she falls. The band's front man lifts a bus up off a girl at some point and saves a dog from a fire. 'we Need To Talk About Kevin' (2011) Based on Lionel Shriver's novel of the same title, this Golden Globe-nominated film stars Tilda Swinton as Eva, the mother of a disturbed teenager (Ezra Miller) who has committed mass murder at his school. I want to do what's right. 1. 4 My Heart Will Go On Celine Dion. As of September 2020, the video, hosted by Michael Jackson's official YouTube account, had racked up nearly 700 million views. There's a lot to process. "Above all, it's just this amazing documentation of Michael Jackson at his most electric," he says. The video also features a striking shot of Madonna dancing in front of burning crosses. "Even him bantering with the girl after they come out of the movie; you're seeing him at this incredible age and at this moment in his life. The video starts in black-and-white as Whitney Houston finishes a show and heads backstage. It's amazing. During all the chaos, lead singer Brendon Urie is the ringmaster. [28] The National Film Preservation Board coordinator, Steve Legett, said the video had been considered for induction for years, but was chosen mainly due to Jackson's death that year. He worked very hard. Ola Ray took home a lot of memories and stories from her time co-starring in Michael Jackson's landmark "Thriller" music video. He changes back into a human to sing the choruses. [8] Entertainment figures including Marlon Brando, Fred Astaire, Rock Hudson and Jackie Kennedy Onassis visited the set. The video was directed by John Landis, written by Landis and Jackson, and stars Jackson and Ola Ray. There are shots of Missy covered in bees and tributes to the late Aaliyah and Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes spray-painted on the hoods of cars it's truly filled with striking visuals. In 2009, according to Broadway World, theater production company the Nederlander Organization announced that it had obtained the rights to Jackson's magnum opus and would be making a big musical based specifically on the "Thriller" video. [9][8] These title sequences were used in Britain when the series was repeated on regional ITV stations in the 1980s, and are also included as extras on the Complete Series box set. This idea was replaced with a two-legged monster, as this made it easier for him to dance. [12] The documentary, Making Michael Jackson's Thriller, was directed by Jerry Kramer. It's a moot point whether or not a bit of fear does them any harm in the long term. The initial image is one that has defined the band since. [6] Jackson's make-up casts "a ghostly pallor" over his skin and emphasizes the outline of his skull, an allusion to the mask from The Phantom of the Opera (1925). 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. [1] It is an anthology series: each episode has a self-contained story and its own cast. It was (as others have said) billed as a "The Tube" special. [8], The horror-themed "Thriller" had not been planned for release as a single. 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. By the time Thriller's sales cycle wound down in 1984, it was the best-selling LP of all time in the United States, with sales of 33 million. ", "Thriller" hit MTV and other outlets in 1983, the same year that the risqu (for the time) Flashdance was a hit in movie theaters and made a star out of Jennifer Beals. Thriller extended the usual pop video format with a long build-up to the start of the music in which Jackson was slowly transformed into a werewolf, and later a zombie.The horror film star Vincent Price was hired to provide a suitably eerie commentary. The promotional video for "Bohemian Rhapsody" starts off with the striking, yet simple shot of the four band members sitting in darkness and singing the a capella part of the song. 3 Take On Me A-ha. The scenes incorporated claymation, pixilation, and stop-motion animation to come to life. 1 Thriller Michael Jackson. The video features the four guys of OK Go doing a choreographed dance on treadmills all filmed in one shot. "Thriller" never really stopped being popular. Ending with Alice as a cake that the Mad Hatter and friends consume and a small burp from Petty is just the cherry on top. [41] The lawsuit was settled in 2012 for an undisclosed amount. [8], The video debuted on MTV alongside Making Michael Jackson's Thriller on December 2, 1983. It won a Grammy as part of a long-form video project titled "Rhythm Nation 1814 Film.". ", Jonze doubts Thriller has had a direct influence on the new school of music video directors, but he is nonetheless convinced it will survive as a portrait of an artist on the mountaintop. It starts with the boy band as puppets being controlled by a giant woman. Either in the VHS or Betamax format, the TV accessory allowed them to watch movies or other content at home via a cassette borrowed for the cost of a few bucks from a local video rental outlet. And people have been copying it ever since.". Feel free to tell me if you think I'm being over protective but I'm really not happy that my son's Yr3 class has been shown the full version of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' video this afternoon in school. [12] Perhaps the most ingenious[editorializing] episode is the Dial M for Murder-style "The Double Kill", in which a man hires a hitman to kill his wife, but makes a fatal error in his otherwise meticulous planning. In July 1983, after Thriller was displaced from the top of the chart, Jackson's manager Frank DiLeo suggested making a music video for "Thriller". [8] As films required theatrical screenings to be eligible for Academy Awards, Landis had the video played before screenings of Fantasia (1940) at a Los Angeles cinema, though it was not nominated. (based on the familiar songs of ABBA). According to Landis, Michael asked Joseph to be removed; he refused and had to be escorted off the set by police. Quotes "We came to the conclusion that if Michael was going to dance, it would be a hell of a lot easier for his monster to have two legs instead of four." Miss Scarlet and The Duke, Season 1-2 | Watch Now. | Blink-182 does parodies of the Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguilera, NSYNC, and more as the camera flashes to different scenes. [8] After originally being screened late at night in the U.S. under the ABC Wide World of Entertainment billing from 1973, some episodes were retitled for U.S. syndication in 1978, and all had additional opening sequences shot with new titles and credits but without the original cast and, for this reason, often only featuring menacing figures seen from the neck down. [40][39], The Thriller dance is performed in major cities around the world; the largest zombie dance included 12,937 dancers, in Mexico City. 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. [10] Makeup artist Rick Baker decided to turn Jackson into a werecat "because I just didn't want to do another werewolf". "We don't believe they were complete, and they were never timely," Ray's attorney, Jason Feldman, told the New York Daily News, which reported that the most substantial chunk of money the actress received came in 1998 15 years after "Thriller" was shot. It's hard to forget. Prime Video has released the new trailer for its upcoming, star-studded, spy thriller Citadel.. I don't think we had video recorder then. In 1984, Making Michael Jackson's Thriller won the Grammy Award for Best Video Album, and in a 1999 end-of-the-century countdown, MTV named "Thriller" the #1 music video of all time. There's also a memorable scene of her covered in diamonds. "In many ways, it wasn't something you really wanted to aspire to," he says. Also, the group performs in water and in liquefied forms in front of a waterfall. [10] MTV, which had found success with Jackson's earlier videos, had a policy of not financing music videos, instead expecting record companies to pay for them. 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. Other videos that featured highly in yesterday's poll included Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody at No. Jackson's sixth album, Thriller, was released in November 1982 and spent months at the top of the Billboard 200, backed by successful videos for the singles "Billie Jean" and "Beat It". Inspired by the reaction to the Beatles performance on "The Ed Sullivan Show," "Hey Ya!" The band is performing at a high school pep rally where cheerleaders have the circle-A anarchy symbol on their chests. Michael Jackson's Thriller was launched to great anticipation and played regularly on MTV. Isn't it ironic? This was the business model in home video for most of the early to mid-1980s: Studios and publishers charged about $90 for tapes and sold almost exclusively to rental stores, which would then charge customers a few bucks to rent it for a day or two. / 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. 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. Jennifer Beals turned down an offer to play Jackson's girlfriend. "Everybody Hurts" is a heavy song, and the corresponding video highlights the emotional lyrics. [10] "Come Out Come Out, Wherever You Are" takes place at a creaky country house hotel: a female guest begins asking about her missing travelling companion whom the owner claims was not with her upon arrival the previous evening and whom none of the other guests initially recall seeing. He opens the window and she almost falls. I remember watching it on C4 late at night. Fifteen years ago, it was deemed suitable only for late-night viewing, and even boycotted by a then fledgling MTV network in the US. They run naked on a beach, they wear ridiculous outfits, and they rock out in front of crowds of people. Contents 1 Background 2 Releases 2.1 Hosted by Elvira 2.2 Non-Elvira releases 3 References 4 External links Background [ edit] It was the first music video to be selected. One such kid was Spike Jonze, who was 14 in 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. features a band called the Love Below performing on a London show as a bunch of women scream in excitement. Some music videos are more memorable than others. YouTube/KendrickLamarVEVO. 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. The video features lead singer Amy Lee dreaming of falling from her apartment window. The stories were often set in the London commuter belt. Here's the inside story on the development, production, and impact of the video for Michael Jackson's spookiest hit. Perhaps that's Thriller's ultimate legacy, and it's also why Jonze has become a key influence on film-makers creating videos for YouTube. Jackson urged the Epic executives Walter Yetnikoff and Larry Stessel to help conceive a plan to return the album to the top of the charts. The video even won a Grammy. "Thriller" remains a classic, as well as an unprecedented moment in music and film, and it wasn't easy to pull off. [8] According to Landis, Ola Ray, a former Playboy Playmate, was cast as she was "crazy for Michael" and had a "great smile". There's the car running out of gas and it's like a movie, then it just keeps going, as if they're saying: 'That'd be cool, let's do that.' I would never do anything like that again." 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. T. (Pretty Young Thing)," all hit the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, with "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" going the extra mile, all the way to #1. The Spice Girls video for "Wannabe" is entirely one-shot and shows the girls taking over the St. Pancras Grand Hotel in London. As fun as Smash Mouth's song is, the video is even more wild. Directed by Spike Jonze ("Her"), the "Buddy Holly" video places the band in Arnold's Drive-In from the show "Happy Days." "[11], Thriller was the first time Jackson had interacted with a woman in a video, which Landis described as a "breakthrough". 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. "The Thriller video became a worldwide megahit and an iconic pop culture phenomenon that has continued to generate profits for defendants Optimum Productions and Michael Jackson, who have wrongfully refused to pay or account for such profits to plaintiff," the suit read (via The Guardian). In one scene, Michael's right "cat's eye" contact lens is askew and not in straight. The metamorphosis of the polite "boy next door" into a werecat has been interpreted as a depiction of male sexuality, depicted as naturally bestial, predatory, and aggressive. Vaughan Arnell, who had videos on MTV in its earliest days, and has gone on to make 12 promos for Robbie Williams and three for One Direction, remembers Thriller with some trepidation. [10], In 1984, the National Coalition on Television Violence (NCTV) reviewed 200 MTV videos and classified more than half as too violent, including Thriller. [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. Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video is a cinematic masterpiece. Connections [9][14] Brian Clemens' own favourite episode, "A Coffin for the Bride" (US: Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill), featured a performance from a young Helen Mirren.[15]. But the video ends with a shot of her in bed. [11], Landis's wife Deborah Nadoolman, who had recently worked on the film Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), designed the costumes, including Jackson's red jacket. In 2017, it was remastered from the original 35mm negative and converted into 3D under John Landis' supervision. [26] In 2009, it became the first music video to be selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Between his Mad Hatter costume and the trippy adventures of Alice as she tries to escape Wonderland, the video is ful of memorable scenes. From the first moment doves fly through a door and a camera zooms in on Prince in a bathtub, viewers know that the video is not going to be simple. The second stars Bush in a red dress doing the same memorable dance moves and emotive faces, but instead of a room, she is in the middle of the woods. "It had some magic that made it shine. [10] MTV paid $250,000 for the exclusive rights to show the documentary; Showtime paid $300,000 for pay-cable rights. The Gorillaz are known for their animations, but it all started with their first single from their debut, "Clint Eastwood."