Thriller zombies
The video for Thriller has the dead rise from their graves, surround a couple and dance, with Jackson himself among them. It is credited with turning the music video into a serious art form. The zombie dance is widely re-enacted and the video is closely tied to Halloween.1
When did it first appear?
1983Released 1983
What the sources say
Michael Peters choreographed the zombie dance1
Jackson himself turns into a zombie and leads the routine1
In 2009 it became the first music video added to the US National Film Registry1
Landis said about 40 makeup artists worked on it; Rick Baker did Jackson's werecat transformation1
Its making-of tape sold over a million copies and the video helped double the album's sales1
Sources
Every fact on this page comes from these sources, written in our own words. Spotted a mistake? Tell us at hello@zombiewiki.app.
Ghouls of Night of the Living Dead
Zombies of Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Bub
Deadites
Jiangshi of Mr. Vampire
Re-animated corpses of Re-Animator