What I think is one of the best songs, Michael Jackson has ever done. The short film starts with a disclaimer, which reads:
“Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses a belief in the occult” – Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson and an unnamed girl are together in a car. It’s a pitch-dark at night. He’s driving. They stop outside a forest, so they decide to walk together. He gives a ring to her, and she accepts it. Michael tells her that he’s not like any other guy. She says that that’s why she likes him. Michael insists that she doesn’t understand him, that he’s really different. At this moment a full moon appears from behind some night clouds. Michael feels sick and hides his face. She asks him what the trouble is, and he looks at her, his face changed like an animal: longer eyes, full of hair, wolf-like teeth: he’s become a werewolf. He cries out “GO AWAY” and she screams and runs for dear life. He chases her, and when he finally arrives up to her- she had tripped and stumbled down, – he’s a werewolf!
Action changes: suddenly, we are within a cinema, with an audience that crowds the place. Michael Jackson and his girlfriend are watching this werewolf film. She is too terrified by it, but he is enjoying himself. While voices from the screen make me think that some guys have discovered the werewolf, Michael’s girl leaves the place. Finally, Michael goes after her. Outside the cinema, Michael’s girlfriend doesn’t find it amusing that it’s a horror movie. Michael is much more relaxed. We can see that the title of the film was Thriller.
They walk around some abandoned streets at night, and they pass by a cemetery. Michael is kidding with his girl, singing to her that she was afraid because of the film. She replies back that she was not too afraid. He keeps on pulling her leg, dancing around. Zombies start emerging from their tombs in the cemetery.
Suddenly, gruesome zombies surround Michael and his girl. The creatures close in, many of them against just the pair of them. All of a sudden, the girl realises that Michael is on their side. Michael and the zombies perform an elaborate dance routine.
She runs away up to a neglected house. She goes in and flies upstairs, closing the doors behind her. The zombies had followed her, and they have no problem in breaking into the room she has locked herself in: the walls are made of wood, so it’s not a problem for the zombies to enter. They close on in her again. It looks as if there is no hope left for her!
The situation changes again. She wakes up, and realises it has only been a strange, realistic nightmare. She is in the same room of the same house as in her dream, but there is nobody there except for her and her boyfriend, Michael. Michael tells her that everything is all right, but they must leave. She gets up and they both leave the room. While they are doing so, Michael looks at the camera to show his outer-worldly yellow eyes.
The film ends with a clip of all the zombies slowly returning to their tombs in the cemetery. The most gruesome zombie scowls at the camera.