17 Most Spooktacular Moments From Michael Jackson's Thriller

It’s Halloween, which means that you’re probably hearing Michael Jackson's seminal pop classic Thriller everywhere. It’s the unofficial Halloween carol, along with the Monster Mash and the Ghostbusters theme song (original, not that God-awful Fall Out Boy monstrosity). But the thing about Thriller is that hearing it is only half the fun, it has to be seen to be fully appreciated.

The song comes with a video that is arguably even more famous, and it's precisely because of the richness of its watchability factor. Every year, I watch the Thriller video almost every day during the month October: it camps among the open tabs permanently. So it would be fair to say that I consider myself somewhat of a Thriller scholar – a Throllar, if you will.

And trust me, that sort of viewing experience is entirely welcome when it comes to the award-winning video, because it is so dense and rewarding that multi-viewing is the only way to discover all of its secrets and enjoy all of its best moments. It is a music video after all, and there has to be some incentive to make it viral even years before that was even a term.

So in hour of the yearly spook-fest, I’ve picked through every spooky frame, every rotting corpse, every funky move and freaky detail of this video. So here, hold my shovel, and let me show you what I’ve dug up...

Who knows what “Strong personal convictions” made Michael feel compelled to put this forward right at the beginning of his video about dancing zombies, but it comes off equal parts creepy and hilarious.

However you choose to interpret this disclaimer, it perfectly sets up the film and reminds you that you are in for something extremely weird.