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Illustration of Thriller zombies
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
File No. 112 of 446

Thriller zombies

The video for Thriller has the dead rise from their graves, surround a couple and dance, with Jackson himself among them. It is credited with turning the music video into a serious art form. The zombie dance is widely re-enacted and the video is closely tied to Halloween.1

Battle it
First appeared
1983
Released 1983
Source work
Michael Jackson's Thriller (1983)
John Landis
Age rating
15 (UK)
Made in
USA
What causes it
Never explained
No cause is given; the dead climb out of their graves at night.
field notes

What the sources say

1

Michael Peters choreographed the zombie dance1

2

Jackson himself turns into a zombie and leads the routine1

3

In 2009 it became the first music video added to the US National Film Registry1

4

Landis said about 40 makeup artists worked on it; Rick Baker did Jackson's werecat transformation1

5

Its making-of tape sold over a million copies and the video helped double the album's sales1

Sources

  1. Michael Jackson's Thriller (music video) - Wikipedia

Every fact on this page comes from these sources, written in our own words. Spotted a mistake? Tell us at [email protected].

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Same era: 1968 to 1999

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