Thriller (song) adapted by director John Landis into a highly successful music video, known independently as "Michael Jackson's Thriller". At fourteen minutes, the video is substantially longer than the song and ties together a narrative featuring Jackson and actress Ola Ray in a setting heavily inspired by horror films of the 1950s. In the video's most iconic scene, Jackson leads other actors costumed as zombies in a choreographed dance routine. Though it garnered some criticism for its occult theme and violent imagery, the video was immediately popular and received high critical acclaim, being nominated for six MTV Video Music Awards in 1984
Michael Jackson's Thriller (music video) continues to be popular on YouTube, which also hosts user-submitted videos of reenactments of the dance. The dance is performed in major cities around the world; the largest zombie dance included 12,937 dancers, in Mexico City. A YouTube video of more than 1,500 prisoners performing the dance had attracted 14 million views as of 2010. In 2017, the music video made its world debut in a newly-restored 3D version at the 74th annual Venice Film Festival, accompanied by the "Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller" documentary, also newly remastered. It was also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, followed by