Max Desiano

Mr. Furman
AICE Media Pd. 4
October 24, 2016
Thriller Textual Analysis
Thriller by Michael Jackson is one of the most popular and famous music videos
in history. The director, John Landis, made the video extremely unique since it was
longer than most music videos during the time. The short film consists of Michael
Jacksons pop style of music while expressing a spooky and scary tone. It represents fear
and terror throughout the video, which is demonstrated from the different camera angles,
distinctive style of editing, eerie sounds, and the terrifying mise-en-scene.
The camerawork is essential to creating horror in the film. As the scene opens, an
establishing shot is used to display the location to the audience. It displays a car driving
during the night without anyone in sight. This sets up the rest of the film since the
audience can sense where the characters are. Additionally, The director uses many
extreme close-up shots in order to capture the emotion of Michael Jackson and his
girlfriend. As Michael transforms into a werewolf, the camera zooms in on his face to
show his horrendous reactions as he gradually changes into different phases of the beast.
As this is occurring, his girlfriend starts to scream at the top of her lungs and the camera
gets a close up on her to display the immense terror in her eyes. After the audience
realizes it was a scary movie, a two shot is used to show Michael and his girl as they go
for a walk. A track effect is used enable to follow them on their stroll through the
darkness. This allows the audience to feel like they are walking with them through the

night. During this scene, the camera shakes around as they walk to create a hand-held
effect. Immediately, Michael starts to dance with the zombies and a master shot is used
during the dance scene in order to show all of the people in the scene. This allows the
audience to get to look at everything that is going on during the dance routine.
Additionally, the film is edited in ways to make the film scarier and more intense.
The video starts off with Michael and his girl talking while the shot reverse shot
technique is used to display their conversation. They seem like they are falling in love
until a full moon appears and the conversation seems to become awkward. When Michael
turns into a werewolf and chases the girl, fast pace cutting is used to imply energy and
chaos of the chase. This keeps the audience on their feet as they see the girl running for
her life trying to escape this monster. During this scene, crosscutting is used as well to
show two actions going on at once. They show the wolf searching for the girl as she tries
to hide from him. Crosscutting is also used when Michael dances with the zombies from
the dead. The camera shows all the different types of zombies as they dance the night
away with the king of pop. The girl is severely frightened and runs away to a random
house as she starts to panic. The zombies somehow enter the complex and an eye-line
match is used to show the girls view of the sickening creatures trying to attack her. This
puts the audience in her perspective and makes the scene even more realistic for the
viewers.
Moreover, different sounds are used to enhance the amount of fear in the film.
Throughout the video, there is a non-diegetic voiceover from a man with a deep and
creepy voice. He attempts to frighten the audience by narrating a petrifying story about
all the fearsome events taking place. He states things including, Darkness falls across

the land and Creatures crawl in search for blood in order to describe the film in the
spookiest way possible. This helps set the tone for audience and immediately tries to
scare them. Erie background music takes over as the zombies start to escape from the
dead. The diegetic sounds of tombstones creaking and scraping take over the scene. The
zombies start to moan and groan as they all unite and slowly walk towards Michael and
his girl. These sounds add a lifeless and disturbing atmosphere and express the dead
coming back to life. Suddenly, Michael starts to sing and the dead seem to become
livelier. The music is uplifting and its makes them want to dance along to the song. This
displays a more upbeat feel while the tone continues to be spooky and scary. The dancing
comes to a stop and the zombies chase after the girl as she prints off into the distance.
The scene ends with a loud and horrific shriek, which scares the audience until she wakes
up from the dream. The film ends with the same frightening non-diegetic voice, this time
laughing in an evil manner.
Furthermore, the video consists of terrifying props and costumes that try to
frighten the audience. In the first scene, the two lovers are dressed in 50s clothing, which
expresses the century the scene takes place in. As the full moon arises, Michael turns into
a terrifying werewolf that makes the girl scream at the top of her lungs. This costume
looks extremely realistic since it consists of huge fangs and whiskers simulating the
qualities of a wolf. When the movie is over, Michael goes for a walk with his girl on a
dark and gloomy night with no humans in sight. The lighting is extremely dim in order to
create fear and anxiety in the audiences head. They walk upon a spooky graveyard,
which creates horror since the audience associates a cemetery with death. The zombies
gradually start to escape the graveyard and look extremely disgusting and deadly. Their

makeup consists of pale skin, pointy teeth, and bloody faces. Their clothes are comprised
of filth with several rips on each article of clothing. The girl starts to feel threatened and
runs into a creepy old house nearby. The house looks completely abandoned and has an
uncomforting ambiance. The whole environment has a dark and scary atmosphere that
emphasizes the amount of fear on the audience.
Overall, Michael Jacksons hit, Thriller, was one of the most successful music
videos of all time. It represents fear and horror from the creatures of the night. The
director uses many techniques in order to set the frightening tone by using strategic
camerawork and editing styles. He also uses spooky sounds and horrifying costumes to
make the music video come to life. For these reasons, Thriller is a masterpiece and will
always be looked at as one of the best short films.