Michael and Ola’s romantic moment starts with an establisher shot, a very common shot to start with. We first see the Cadillac, which is from the same era; coming closer to us, but then the gas, mysteriously runs out. Michael and Ola get out and start to walk into the woods; Michael is wearing a red jacket with red trousers, which makes the audience view him as the dominant male. Ola, on the other hand, is wearing a pink dress, with white shoes; her hair is short and sways. I thought that their relationship was very soppy.
My personal views on the effectiveness of the close-up shots during the metamorphosis are rather mixed. I felt that the close up shots of his different body parts changing into the werewolf were pretty slow. At one point, there is a close up shot of Michael’s hand changing and whilst it was changing, Michael just stood there; I would think a werewolf would be more active. The production crew used editing to enable make-up artists to build up the werewolf mask, which was made of latex rubber. Special effects were repeated to make the audience feel anxious, Elmer Bernstein’s scary music helped to great tension. During the chase, there was symbolisms of moon shots, lots of POVS, such as when Michael is about to pounce on Ola. We see it from her POV looking up at him then from Michael’s POV looking down on Ola, to make us feel like we’re actually that person.
A flash-forward jump cut brings us to the early 80s. Michael and Ola are wearing completely different clothes than in the 50s. Now that we are in the 80s, I feel Michael and Ola’s relationship looks more stable.
The use of a long dolly shot, makes us feel as if we were walking beside them, using CO2 helps set the scene, makes the graveyard feel dark and gloomy. The effectiveness of the lighting creates a mood round the graveyard and buildings. Michael’s brilliant dance skills were put to the test when he did an unchoerographed dance around Ola. As Michael and Ola get closer to the graveyard, zombies start emerging from graves, tomb and vaults. A few camera shots were used such as medium shots, close ups and over the shoulder shot. The effectiveness of the zombie’s clothes and make-up brought them to life; dirty, grubby clothes made them look real.
When the zombies surround Micheal and Ola, the music starts and Ola is basically standing there watching. Micheal and the zombies are dancing to the song “Thriller”; the zombies have stiff movements, synchronized steps. The production crew must have cut the film for Michael to change his appearance into a zombie. Clever choreography by Vincent Price brought the zombie’s and Michael alive. Ola is just standing there watching, which is a bit strange; I thought she would be more involved in the zombie dance.
Lots of SFX were used during the “Breaking and Entering” scene. Ola runs into the derelict house, a close-up to extreme close up on Ola. As the zombies close in on Ola, camera tilted up to show POV shot, through Ola’s eyes; shot develops to close up, then extreme close up on Ola’s eye. Dubbing of the sound effects, such as the windows, which were made of sugar glass; walls made from thin wood and cardboard; floor, the effect of the atmospheric music by Elmer Bernstein, builds to a crescendo. A jump cut happens, to Michael’s house and all is normal. Frozen picture on Michael, turning towards camera, slow zoom to close up/extreme close up on his yellow feline eyes; haunting laughter from Vincent Price, credits appear, there is a reprise of zombie dance and the zombies return to their graves.
Overall, I feel that this promotional video, “Thriller” by Michael Jackson is now rather dated; we’re talking of a 23-year-old movie. Some of the special effects are rather basic now and look fake, especially the metamorphosis. I did like Michael’s unchoerographed dance around Ola and how effective it was in the movie. The clothes were set the right era’s but now looking from this day and age, they look rather dated.
