1983. MTV is two years old. Specializing in music, this satellite channel reaches ten million homes, and targets 12- to 25-year-olds. At that time-based on a karaoke aesthetic-music videos are shot quickly, and with very little money. Videos aren't making a statement, and they are sinking fast.

The King of Pop revolutionizes the genre and sets new standards. He invents a mini-comedy of music and gore, Thriller. The aesthetic choices and visual intrigue in this video are, in themselves, innovations. At this time, the general public is not yet familiar with this genre. (Jackson also strikes a universally sensitive chord, the fear of death.)

MTV first broadcasts the video on December 2, 1983, more than a year after the album release. As an innovative presentation detail, the video contains a disclaimer, a title, and closing credits.

Michael Jackson tells a story with "a beginning, a middle and an end" in that 14-minute clip. In a stroke of genius, the artist finances the $500,000 production of the video clip using the money from the sales of the "making-of" of the video clip.

Technical detail: this "video" clip is produced on cinematic film. If this movie could qualify for a specific category, it would have full potential to receive an Oscar. Being an audiovisual anomaly dashes that chance.

While Thriller may never have received an Oscar nod, its images endure:

Michael and his girlfriend are driving at night. They run out of gas. "So, what are we gonna do now?" smirks the young lady, who seems game for a moment of love. Rather than fulfilling his obligation as a man, Michael reveals himself, in the light of the full moon, to be a werewolf with yellow eyes-the very image of the beast from Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946). A chase starts. The monster seizes the girl and waves its claws at her. But... it was only a movie! Inside a movie theater, Michael is laughing, while his girlfriend's eyes are closed. The girl leaves. A joking Michael joins her. The couple walks by a cemetery. The tombs start to move. The living dead, dressed in tattered clothes, emerge from their graves. The couple is encircled. Suddenly, Michael becomes the head of the group of zombies. He turns green, and his beautiful jacket bursts open.

From this moment on, the music video industry will consider this dance style, with performers lined up, the new standard. Its permutations might have varying aesthetics, but the concept begins with Thriller.

When he sings, Michael is no longer a zombie; his Star Trek-style jacket is mended, and his red jeans are clean and pressed. It is as if singing restores his life.

Then, the zombies become more menacing. The girl seeks refuge in a house that resembles the one in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Michael becomes a zombie again. The living dead bang on the door of the "castle." They break the walls and infiltrate. Michael demolishes a door with his bare hands. The girl is cornered, terrified. She screams. Then, she wakes up in a bourgeois setting, with Michael in front of her. He is no longer gaunt like a zombie.

Again, it was nothing but a dream! Now, M.J. gets ready to accompany the girl home. When he turns toward the camera, he has the yellow eyes of the werewolf that appeared at the beginning of the film they were watching.

Freeze-frame.

There are six key sequences in Thriller to note:

1. "Out of Gas" (00:00 to 02:07)

2. "The Werewolf" (02:07 to 03:39)

3. "Only a Movie" (03:39 to 08:23)

4. "Michael is a Zombie" (08:23 to 11:44)

5. "Wake Up" (11:44 to 11:54)

6. End: "Michael was a Werewolf!" (11:54)

The video plays on several dichotomies: human/ animal, living/dead, good/bad, and real/fictional. The combination changes with each plot developments.

Thus, in the beginning of the clip, Michael transforms from a "good human" into a "bad animal," and so forth. The OK, it was only fiction! and the No, it was real! assertions push the viewer to continuously think back on the film. Is it reality or fiction? One never knows where one is. Everything moves too quickly. This video is like a gigantic roller coaster: we are glued to our seats, go for the adrenaline pumping, pleasurable feeling of fear, and suspend comprehension of the story. This aspect contributes to the success of the clip. To understand it, you have to watch it again and again.

Let's propose one interpretation. It is necessary to begin at the end of the video, when the girl wakes up inside the bourgeois setting (5). The car out of gas (1), the werewolf (2), the movie theater (3), and the zombies (4) were all part of a big dream. We can therefore deduce that, in her dream, the young woman had the premonition that Michael was a werewolf (she transposes this revelation on the movie at the theater). Afterward, she dreams that her sweet boyfriend transforms into a green zombie. It's as if her unconscious self has been sending her a strong warning.

After Michael wakes the girl up from her nightmare, and proposes gently that he accompany her, his yellow eyes indicate that on the way back, the maiden will be slaughtered by the werewolf... another reference to the beginning of the clip. The circle is complete.

The video's main undercurrent is the deviation of one's sex drive into one's death drive. Like the human, Dr. Jekyll, versus his animal alter-ego, Mr. Hyde, the character exteriorizes his instincts-but not in the expected way. He prefers to tear the woman into shreds (and eat her), rather than offer her his affection. It's as if the woman scares him. On another level, and in a more general way, the "monsters" represent the unconscious forces that everyone tries to repress, and which finally express themselves in a sudden and violent way.

Thriller remains the King of Pop's opus magnum. As a pioneering work of art, this video makes sense because its scenes connect both imagery and music. Thriller maximizes this link: in each image, the choreography is synchronized with the music. What's more, in line with the set's circular shape, this video "completes the circle." The final product is one of remarkable unity, and stands on its own feet to conquer the world.