Michael Jackson's Thriller (music video) Michael Jackson's Thriller (music video) Michael Jackson's Thriller is a music video for the Michael Jackson song "Thriller". It was directed by John Landis and written by Landis and Jackson. It was released on December 2, 1983, by Columbia Pictures. In the video, Jackson and his girlfriend (played by Ola Ray) are confronted by zombies while walking home from a movie theater. Jackson becomes a zombie and performs a dance routine with a horde of the undead. The video references numerous horror films. Jackson contacted Landis after seeing his film "An American Werewolf in London." The pair conceived a short
Michael Jackson's Thriller (music video) remove the phone from his ear. Jackson's record company had little interest in making another video for "Thriller", believing that the album had peaked. Yetnikoff eventually agreed that the company would contribute only $100,000. To help finance the production, Landis's producer George Folsey Jr suggesting a making-of documentary that, combined with the "Thriller" video, would produce an hour-long film that could be sold on television. Initially, the television networks refused to finance the project, sharing the view that "Thriller" was "last year's news". MTV, which had found success with Jackson's videos for "Billie Jean" and "Beat It", had a policy