Federico Martinez

Mr. Furman
Thriller Deconstruction Essay
October 24, 2016
Michael Jacksons Thriller
John Landis in the music video, Thriller, asserts the idea of fear into the viewers through the use
of various techniques such as camera shots/angles, editing, mise-en-scene, and sound. He supports and
tries to get across this point by using traditional scaring technique factors that lead to ensuing emotions of
fear into the viewers. These emotions of fear include things such as death, immortality vs. mortality, and
human-like monsters (zombies and werewolf). Landis made this thriller for a more adult audience due to
the fear factor involved within it and for the reason that it would not appeal to children at all.
The opening scene of this music video begins with Michael Jackson and what seems to be his
girlfriend walking around in the woods. Due to the mise-en-scene, the viewers can infer that the year this
takes place in is around the 1950s. This can be seen from the car that they are seen riding in and the
costume they are wearing. Furthermore, Michael and his girlfriend start talking while they are walking in
the low-key lighting woods and he tells her he is different. The slow-paced editing at the beginning
quickly accelerates through the use of shot-reverse shot and non-diegetic sound when Michael starts to
feel weird. He then begins to mutate into a werewolf. Landis uses close-up shots of Michaels face and
body to show this metamorphosis and to generate that fear factor into the viewers. Very quickly, his
girlfriend begins to scream and run away from the beast he has become and this is shown through the use
of a Steadicam that follows both characters. This opening scene really sets the tone for the rest of the
short film.
That first scene is abruptly cut to begin the second scene where Michael and his girlfriend are
seen again but they are in a movie theater watching a movie. This movie they are watching is of
themselves which causes confusion to the viewers. Michaels girlfriend becomes scared and leaves the

movie quickly followed by Michael. Here is where the viewers are introduced with the title of this short
film, Thriller. The typography that the word Thriller is written in is very bold and in a dark red color
resembling blood. This gives the adult audience the effect of fear because of the red letters and very
assertive bold text.
Moreover, this same scene then progresses into Michael and his girlfriend walking once again.
The director then starts to incorporate the non-diegetic sound of music into the scene where Michael starts
signing his famous song thriller. Both him and his girl are human and part of the mortal world. However,
they are quickly approached by zombies who are part of the immortal world. Landis includes this
representation of mortality and immortality to generate feelings of fear and in specific of death. Mise-enscene plays a very important part here with the make-up and torn up costumes of the actors playing the
zombies to show they are actually dead. In addition, all though the zombies start dancing along with
Michael, their presence is still known and the low-key lighting still presents an eerie and scary setting.
The girl quickly starts running away towards a house she sees in the distance and the zombies begin to
follow her.
The last scene then begins in a dark, old, scary looking house where the zombies are trying to get
inside to reach the girl. The director Landis incorporates low-angles shots of the zombies getting into the
house to make them look like they are larger and more powerful than the girl sitting in the couch. This
once again shows the immortality vs. mortality that Landis is trying to get across due to the fact that it
generates fears of death into the audience. Moreover, this scene ends with a constant shot-reverse shot
between the zombies and the girl which shows the zombies approaching and the girl screaming for help.
When the zombies get close enough the shot dissolves into normal Michael and the girl wakes up from
what seems to be a dream. She gets up and they start to walk away from the shot, but Michael quickly
turns around before and his werewolf eyes are seen once again. This then fades to black to transition into
the end scene that shows the credits for all the characters and people involved in the film

Overall, the director of Thriller, John Landis accurately gets his point across through the use
filming techniques such as camera shots/angles, editing, mise-en-scene, and sound. These are all used to
generate feelings and emotions of fear in the intended audience of adults in specific. These fears are
associated with death; as well as, immortality vs. mortality.