The Video begins without music at all, it is centred at a remote place in which Michael Jackson is the central character. He then procedes to turn into a werewolf and chase his girlfriend down. This is very stereotypical of a Horror/Thriller movie, with supernatural creatures chasing down unsuspecting prey. The scene quickly advances to a point where the Werewolf has caught the girl, and is about to maul/shred/ravage her, thus being the most suspenseful (and by proxy, 'thrilling') part. At this point, the scene zooms out and shows Michael Jackson in a movie theater with the same girl, but her being incredibly scared whilst he is enjoying the movie. From this point, the story changes to him taking his girlfriend out, and walking with her as he sings the story. This serves to lighten her tension from the previous scare. From then on, they are attacked by Zombies, and as they are encroached by the horde, the girl turns around to see Michael has become a really freaky looking Zombie. After this, the Zombies procede to Dance, with Michael Jackson changing between a Zombie and a regular human. The girl eventually runs up to a scary looking house (perhaps a referance to a haunted house) whilst the Zombies chase her there. Once she gets inside, they procede to batter down the doors and break in through the floor and doors. They have stopped dancing to chase her, and therefore this brings a strong element of seriousness to the song, whilst still being partially humorous. As the song comes to a climax, so does the story, with the Zombies breaking into the room and finally closing in on her completely, with nowhere for her to run, increasing the tension along with the climactic nature of the song.
A short blink happens, and the Zombie Michael is seen to be human, and the house to be a normal house, not broken down or creepy looking at all, when the music comes to a halt. She takes his hand and they stand up, and as they walk away, his head turns to face the camera, at this point, his eyes turning yellow and having a ghoulish appearance, making the irony of the situation that the whole thing was just alluding to his actual paranormal problem. The video comes to a close with the music playing and the closing of the movie on Michael Jacksons face, whislt credits show.
The reason I chose to analyze this video is not due to its genre, but is instead because I find the video interesting in the fact that it is unconventional. It has an introduction without music before the music video part starts. Along with this, it has credits, as well as a particular story, following the lead singer. The story is also sang by the character as he moves along, making it appear to be a narrative.This is a more rare form of expression in videos, with many Artists choosing to opt for scenes of a band playing, and whilst the singing is happening, a storyline which does not follow the lead singer lip syncing is in progress.
Overall, I believe this video to be highly inspirational, and in many ways a short film or musical rather than an absolute music video. Nonetheless, I find it interesting and entertaining, and would like a story driven video to compliment my choice of music later on in the project.
This is the album cover to Thriler by Michael Jackson. It shows him lieing on his side, in a white suit. This drastically contrasts the video which is all about evil, the occult, and darkness. The album cover is more representative of peace, goodness, and tranquility, showing more of a laid back image, with Michael Jackson (in white/light clothes) as a beacon in the darkness which surrounds him (a heavy contrast from the video where he is the Antagonist.
