Music Video Analysis

Michael Jackson - Thriller

A very old music video but still one of the best. It is a combination of narrative and performative structure, combined with great visual effects, costume design and makeup.

The entire video is shot in dark and that does not change. What does change is the movement of characters and camera. In the first part, when werewolf is trying to chaise the girl we see a lot of movement going on, then for some time we see stationary shots with characters’ movements only, giving us a bit of relaxation after that action start. Then the camera follows the couple walking home, letting us enjoy the music and performance of Michael Jackson dancing and singing, but at that moment we notice the color change, now the scene is in cold  colors, playing two different roles, first calming us down after the werewolf scene, but then raising our concern and unsafe feeling, transitioning in the scene with graveyard, camera capturing larger landscapes, giving us feeling that they are everywhere, balanced with close-ups on zombies, raising horror in us. All of that allows to transition to the main dancing scene on the street, where Michael shines in his glory, pulling off a stunning and well-choreographed dancing performance, followed by the final set of scenes. Again, we see the girl running from living dead to her house, where they still coming through, breaking closed windows, floor, and doors, ending up surrounding and trapping her on the couch, with Michael as corpse approaching to her. Finally, when he touches her, the scene changed to normal color, and we see Michael as a normal human being, realizing that all the things we saw, was just a dream. He offers a ride home and they walk away when suddenly Michael turns on us showing his werewolf eyes and the scene freezes, making it a key moment of the entire video, making us think that all that horror happening might come true.

The video does not exactly follow the story of the song but it does represent the feeling described in it.