Thriller (song)
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"No mere mortal can resist... the e-vil of the Thrillerrrr!"
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"Thriller" is a 1982 song by Michael Jackson, released in the album of the same name. The following year, there was a music video, titled Michael Jackson's Thriller, directed and co-written by John Landis (Yes, that one!) With the choreography and the pioneering of the short film music video, it was released to much acclaim, selling over nine million units and being inducted into the Library of Congress's National Film Registry in 2009.
The music video was restored and converted to 3D in 2017, premiering at that year's Venice Film Festival.
Tropes used in Thriller include:
- Creepy Cemetery
- The Dead Can Dance: There's slow zombies, fast zombies, and then there's funk zombies.
- Everything's Deader with Zombies
- Evil Laugh: Vincent Prince does a great one at the end.
- Face Revealing Turn: One of the most famous instances of this trope.
- Nested Story Reveal: Or is it?
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Michael turns into a werecat.
- Pass the Popcorn: Turns out the opening sequence was a movie, and Michael Jackson was enjoying some while watching.
- Shapeshifting Lover: Given that Michael Jackson was a werecat at the beginning during the full moon...
- Spoken Word in Music: Vincent Price's short monologue at the end.
- Talky Bookends: Popularized the concept.
- Wham! Shot: Michael Jackson's sudden transformation into a zombie -- followed by the The End - or Is It? moment in its final seconds.
- Zombie Apocalypse