The scene where he's the only man looking at the camera as men around him bob their heads is striking, but even more notable is the scene where his head is on fire as he's surrounded by men with their heads wrapped in burning rope. 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). [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. He was tortured, but he was happy-go-lucky for a lot of it. pg-13 147m. "The thrill is gone," suggested the Melody Maker in its review of the album, and it wasn't until videos for Billie Jean and Beat It hit heavy rotation on MTV in early 1983, and Jackson performed the Moonwalk for the first time on the Motown 25 TV special in May, that it really took off. I'm sure VCRs had timers even then. Some music videos are more memorable than others. She ran around with her friends bothering patrons and employees, trying on a bunch of clothes, and making a giant mess. [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. The video features lead singer Amy Lee dreaming of falling from her apartment window. Later, she's on the same ball nude, except for the boots. See production, box office & company info, The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018), At the Movies: Christine/Silkwood/Sudden Impact/Thriller, Palace Theater, 630 S Broadway, Los Angeles, California, USA. Ola Ray took home a lot of memories and stories from her time co-starring in Michael Jackson's landmark "Thriller" music video. In December 2009, the Library of Congress selected the video for the National Film Registry. She was the mother of the character Ken Reeves from the TV Show "The White Shadow". [1] It is an anthology series: each episode has a self-contained story and its own cast. A musical number set to "Thriller" (the song) would comprise most of the video, but it would also have a scripted drawing device. They run naked on a beach, they wear ridiculous outfits, and they rock out in front of crowds of people. "Thriller" remains a classic, as well as an unprecedented moment in music and film, and it wasn't easy to pull off. I don't think we had video recorder then. The changes applied starting with the Game of the Year edition and all future releases since. She later lies next to the charred remains. Before my time, but I gather it was shown on Channel 4 late at night. 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. Here, in no particular order, are the eight best thrillers on Prime Video. "In adolescence, youngsters begin to grow hair in unexpected places and parts of their anatomy swell and grow," Landis wrote in Monsters in Movies. It's dark and striking and fits perfectly with the song. From the movie theater setting that resulted in the popular "Michael Jackson eating popcorn" GIF to the choreographed zombie dance, it's 14 minutes of pure enjoyment. "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. Tom Petty channeled "Alice in Wonderland" for the "Don't Come Around Here No More" music video. On Sunday, January 15, it will debut on HBO at 9 . It continuously shifts through a series of triangles shifting between images of Meg and Jack White playing instruments. It was shown on Channel 4 in November 1983 at something like 1 in the morning, as I remember sitting up waiting for it to come on and then being amazed and a little bit scared as I was only 13 at. [20] In 2009, Jackson sold the Thriller rights to the Nederlander Organization to stage a Broadway musical based on the video. As of 2020, more than 59 million people had watched the sea of orange-clad people amble and groove like zombie-monsters. 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. The imagery in Lamar's "Humble" is evocative and breathtaking. [5], The zombie dance sequence corresponds the lyric about a masquerade ball of the dead. Jackson embraces her, but turns to the camera and grins, revealing his werecat eyes. It was in all the papers but it was quite funny how Radio 1 avoided the subject. 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. Jackson becomes a zombie himself and dances with the horde to the song. Unbreakable. The 15-year-old promo, directed by John Landis, is now regarded as a landmark release - the first to transform pop videos into mini-films. Prime Video has released the new trailer for its upcoming, star-studded, spy thriller Citadel.. [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). "I had some intimate moments with him in his trailer," Ray said. It was (as others have said) billed as a "The Tube" special. During the elaborate production of this music video. During all the chaos, lead singer Brendon Urie is the ringmaster. Watch the red dress video here the white dress video here. Title track "Thriller" was the seventh and final Thriller single, released to stores and radio in January 1984, well over a year after the album debuted. [10] Landis felt Jackson should become scary and creepy, but not ugly. 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. Cannot remember the excate time but dout it was 1 am as we would of not been allowed to stay up. MI-5) If you want a long-running procedural about the inner workings of Britain's premiere counterterrorism unit, Spooks was created with you in mind. [6] According to Peter Dendle, the zombie invasion sequence was inspired by Night of the Living Dead (1968). "Thriller" was one of the first music videos to show that the medium carried the potential for greatness, and not only did critics acknowledge its importance, but they kept doing so for years afterward. But then there's also some random dance scenes with her on a boat. He worked very hard. Andr 3000 plays all eight characters featured in the band. 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 Spice Girls video for "Wannabe" is entirely one-shot and shows the girls taking over the St. Pancras Grand Hotel in London. And then there's the wild action sequence in a futuristic Paris where she poisons her unfaithful boyfriend. 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. Spooks (a.k.a. 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.". The UK version features Bush in a white dress as she dances around a dark room white white mist. [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). Injustice: Created by Anthony Horowitz. The video was a bit controversial for its sexual visuals. It got video of the year at the MTV VMAs. Some of the biggest Broadway productions of recent years are musicals based on preexisting, well-known media. Crazy Credits From Michael Jackson's zombie dance in "Thriller" to Miley Cyrus' naked wrecking ball ride, certain visuals stay with the viewer long after the video has ended. 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. [8] Showtime aired the video six times in February. "Thriller was important because it was the first time anything this ambitious had ever been attempted," a spokesperson for VH1 said yesterday. MTV, which, to that point, had never paid for content, contributed $250,000, and Showtime paid $300,000. As Katy Perry makes her way through the board game world, she rescues some girls from candy-related prisons and then defeats Snoop Dogg and his gummy bear army with whipped cream. 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. And Chris Milk the [interactive] stuff he's doing, like The Wilderness Downtown with Arcade Fire and The Johnny Cash Project could never have been done in the 90s. Her use of religious symbols caused controversy, and the Vatican even condemned it. The signs on the theater are as follows: The main sign reads "Vincent Price's Thriller". The cat's dance moves even mirror her's. The Library of Congress described it as the most famous music video of all time, and it has been named the greatest video by various publications and readers' polls. 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. 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. "I won't say that I have seen him in his birthday suit but close enough.". 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.' "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 the present, Jackson and his girlfriend are watching the werecat film in a theater. 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. [8] It was backed by successful music videos for the singles "Billie Jean" and "Beat It", which are credited for raising creative standards for music videos and demonstrating their promotional power. "Out of all my videos, it was the least expensive and took the least amount of time. [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. It's a weird video, but that's why it's unforgettable. 5 Virtual Insanity Jamiroquai. 6 Vogue Madonnna. [17], On November 14, 1983, Thriller was shown to a private audience at the Crest Theater in Los Angeles. It's amazing. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. At the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards in 1984, "Thriller" surprisingly lost Video of the Year to the Cars' "You Might Think.". '"[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. "[11], Thriller was the first time Jackson had interacted with a woman in a video, which Landis described as a "breakthrough". "When I made videos, whether it was with the Beastie Boys or Bjrk, we weren't chasing anything," he says. To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account. [12] The documentary, Making Michael Jackson's Thriller, was directed by Jerry Kramer. It was also the first big break for drag queen RuPaul. At the time, music videos cost around one hundred thousand dollars to produce. Landis talked Jackson out of getting a new actress by reminding him that Ray was a Playmate in Playboy, not in "Thriller." [8], According to Landis, when he called Yetnikoff to propose the film, he swore so loudly he had to remove the phone from his ear. And yet, it was something of an afterthought: the seventh single from a 10-track album that didn't have the most auspicious of starts when it was released a full year before the Thriller video (long enough for Jackson's nose to look different in the film than it does on the LP cover). Much of Cher's body is exposed and both she and the Navy received criticism for it.