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) and had a "great smile". Landis encouraged Jackson and Ray to improvise during their scenes, and urged Jackson to satisfy his female fans by acting "sexy" and showing "virility". According to Ray, the attraction between them was real and they became intimate on set. Jackson's transformation makeup was designed by artist Rick Baker, who had worked on "American Werewolf". Elmer Bernstein composed incidental music for the video. The director of photography was Robert Paynter, who had worked with Landis on "Trading Places." "Thriller" was filmed at the Palace Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles, the zombie dance sequence at the junction