10 Amazing Facts About Thriller

[Music] Michael Jackson's Thriller arguably the greatest music video of all time released in 1983 at the height of Jackson's fame and success with his Thriller album and directed by acclaim director John Landis what with its 14 minute running time and movie quality production this ghoulish music video which pays a funky tribute to the horror genre push the boundaries of the quality of music videos and propelled Michael Jackson into superstardom and even to this day the classic short film which sees the King of Pop turn into a werewolf and dance with a bunch of zombies is still a massive fan favorite and is just as celebrated now as it was back in 1983 so much so that the sight of Michael Jackson eating popcorn has become a popular Facebook meme so today we are going to celebrate this amazing piece of pop culture that is both a celebration of magic music and fun and is also a celebration of the talents of Michael Jackson while looking into 10 things that you may not know about this famous horror themed music video the perfect short film for those who just can't get enough of moonwalking and zombies and Vincent Price rapping so let's check it out Shambo [Music] [Music] I have something I want to tell you yes Michael [Applause] like other guys number 10 the designer behind Indiana Jones's getup also designed Michael's red suit one of the most iconic bits of imagery associated with friller is without a doubt Michael Jackson's funky as hell red suit the suit was designed by none other than the directors wife Debra Landis whom had previously designed costumes for Animal House and was responsible for designing the iconic imagery of Indiana Jones is a tire and if Indiana Jones's look of hat satchel and bullwhip is iconic then Jackson's Thriller look of red levers is just as iconic Deborah said she wanted the costume to make Michael stand out and pop up on screen and thanks to the dark horror movie surroundings it totally works and does instantly draw your eyes and as for his be shaped jacket she said that that was designed to make Jackson look more Verrill two jackets were made for the music video one of which was recently sold off at an auction for 1.8 million dollars I don't know why but it just brings me so much joy knowing that the designer who was responsible for Indiana Jones's look was also responsible for MJ's looking friller should that's awesome no.9 controversy over jackson's fade at the time thriller went into production Jackson was a devotee Hovis weakness however many Jehovah's Witness organizations were not happy with Jackson and were threatening to cut ties with the singer on the account that he was making a short film which featured a werewolf which strongly goes against the singer's faith so in retaliation to the negative backlash and to show no hard feelings Jackson put up the now-famous disclaimer at the start of the short movie expressing that he means no disrespect to his faith and that he doesn't have ties with the occult so at least he was going out of his way to keep the peace and keep his position in his faith of being a Jehovah's Witness in Goodspeed number 8 the werewolf transformation was a metaphor for puberty john landis has explained that the werewolf transformation scene in friller is meant to be a metaphor for puberty in that when you reach a certain age you start to become hairy with all kinds of physical changes and manifestations Landis has also explained this to be the case for his horror masterpiece an American Werewolf in London of which Jackson saw American wealth in London and immediately he wanted Landers to direct his short pop movie his house and we talked I gradually became aware that he knew American Werewolf and knew nothing else and thus Landis brought his beams of puberty with him after all we see Jackson on a date with a girl where all of a sudden he starts to change and become hairy and his voice breaks for some reason John Landis really seems to see a link between puberty and in the werewolf number 7 Fred Astaire was nearly in the video [Music] as we all know both the Thriller song and short movie features a famous rap by horror movie legend Vincent Price which thanks to prices iconic laugh has become a staple in pop culture of its own however thriller nearly used the services of another veteran of the arts dancer / singer / actor Fred Astaire Astaire was 72 at the time and was a massive fan of Jackson's on the account that he loved his dancing and the two were actually friends and at one stage it was suggested that a stair could star in the thriller music video and he even attended some of the Thriller rehearsals but sadly it didn't happen and it just wasn't meant to me I'm curious just to know what part a stair would have played in thriller I like to think that he would have been some homeless guy who gets approached by the zombies and and like Michael becomes a zombie himself and then dances with them I don't know why I can see that being the case but hey that's just how I roll number 6 the Thriller music video broke many records [Music] the music video cost half a million dollars to make instantly making it the most expensive music video at that time especially when you compare it to most music videos that were being made at that time which do look like they were made on the cheap but the big struggle was how to get the money to make the video CBS records refused to invest any funding into the video on the account that the company had already helped to fund the music videos for Billie Jean and beat it and didn't want to invest in a third MJ music video which is strange as anything Michael Jackson sold like crazy back then the next step was MTV but MTV had a policy that they didn't pay for music videos so Jackson's way around this was making a short movie about the making of Thriller and offered to sell it to MTV that way wouldn't be in breach of MTV's policy as it'd be paying for an actual movie not a music clip welcome to the making of thriller and so coming in at 34 minutes the making of Thriller was actually three times longer than thriller itself but it worked because of the making of thriller short film both MTV and Showtime invested money money which went towards making thriller itself so they had to make a movie showing the making of thriller in order to make thriller and just like that my mind is blown there is a paradox if I have ever seen one many people know about the making of thriller documentary and it was even released on VHS but without this famous behind the scenes documentary thriller couldn't even exist another record that friller broke is that it was actually shown at movie theaters as well as being shown on TV and back then the idea of a music video being shown in cinemas was done heard of get out of here Norma toners number 5 the zombie clothes were purchased from the Salvation Army as mentioned before it was vital to get Jackson's look right for the music video to make him look cool and for him to stand out however what do you do with a heap of zombie extras especially considering costs had to be spared simple The Salvation Army to the rescue the production company acquired a heap of used clothes from the charity organization so they could crumple them and ruin them and make them look like zombie attire I suppose it makes sense after all they're zombies so their clothes are meant to look old and used and run down and even grubby so indeed why not buy old clothes from a secondhand goods store number 4 thriller was choreographed by a BTech gang member [Music] before thriller went into production Jackson brought out his beset music video which showed the tough gritty street life of gangs and in the music video we see two tough gang members go to Juke it out with switchblade knives until Michael comes along and saves the day with the power of dance the mustachioed gang member with the sunglasses whom is dressed in all white was played by choreographer Michael Peters well Peters also provided his services for the Thriller music video to only this time he was behind the camera as he helped choreograph the dad seemed shown in the music video so yeah this guy introduced the world to the famous friller dance and he must be one hell of a choreographer as Landis explains in the dance scene where Michael and the zombies do a jump if you watch carefully they all jump at exactly the same time which shows just how much time and care was put into the dance choreography number three ties to an American Werewolf in London [Music] as mentioned it was American wealth in London that got Landis involved in working on thriller as when Jackson saw the epic horror comedy a spark obviously went off in his head as he decided that that was the direction he wanted his music video for friller to go in and thus because of Landis's involvement with brilla both thriller and American Werewolf in London shared a lot of the same production crew for example Elmer Bernstein provided background music for thriller as well as composing the score for an American Werewolf and both movies were edited by George falsey jr. and both have makeup effects done by legendary makeup artist Rick Baker and in my opinion the makeup in friller is nothing short of sensational and thriller even pays homage to see you next Wednesday which was a fictional porno seen in American wealth in London and is something of a trademark sentence Landis uses in his movies both movies also rely heavy on moments of comedy and then juxtapose them with sudden genuine moments of scares and terror and I also can't help but feel like the wolf transformation scenes in BO friller and American wealth in London look incredibly similar with similar effects being used so this makes me wonder could it be that thriller is actually kind of a sequel to American Werewolf in London hmm number two the friller girlfriend was also a Playboy Playmate the role of Michael's unfortunate girlfriend who both gets terrorized by a King of Pop werewolf and a zombified MJ along with an army of zombies was originally offered to jennifer bill whom at that time was making waves in the movie scene thanks to her major role in hit dance movie flash dogs and has she starred in friller that would have been pretty awesome but she turned down the role so instead the part went to Ola Raya whom had just previously been a Playboy Playmate Miss June 1980 to be precise by regardless she still does a fairly impressive job in the film and every time I watch thriller I always feel nervous and worried for her I mean she goes through some pretty scary stuff what with her boyfriend being turned into a zombie and all and that scene where she runs to the house to get away and the Michael zombie along with the rest of the zombies crashed through the walls to get her still gives me chills and every time the movie ends where Jackson reveals his wolf eyes I always think oh man come on can't we just leave this poor girl alone already hasn't she been through enough I guess we'll never know if the poor thriller girl ever made it home okay number one the song thriller originally had a different name it's hard to imagine the song thriller being called anything but freely but yeah indeed in the early days of the production of the Thriller album the popular Leeds Sun was actually called starlight I kid you not starlight and listening to thriller with different words sounds weird okay listening to starlight is like listening to thriller if you're in a parallel dimension it sounds the same but it's just not right unlike friller which definitely has a ghoulish old horror movie feel about it I can't help but feel like starlight is more about the paranoia of being under the famed spotlight very much in the same vein as Billie Jean which is about an obsessed stalker but thankfully rod Tim Burton who wrote the song changed it to thriller and completely change the song around to be more about trying to survive an encounter with evil ghouls which I think worked in the songs favor and of course led to the creation of the music video and the title thriller just has an irresistible sharpness about it and thank God the song was changed to thriller because at one stage the album was going to be called midnight man seriously midnight man making Jackson sound more like a gigolo than the king of pop I mean imagine if they stuck with that name I wonder if it still would have been a big hit I wonder if people would be saying I love Michael Jackson's album midnight man well guys that was my look into Michael Jackson's Thriller the pop music horror movie masterpiece and let's be honest ever since thriller the realm of pop music and how the way things have just gone hand in hand as Thriller did without a doubt change the world anyway I'm minty and I'm not like over guys say ah [Music] [Music]

Channel: Minty Comedic Arts

Views: 354,960

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Id: y3KlMuTQeFg

Length: 17min 48sec (1068 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 05 2017