Jackson's sixth album, Thriller, was released in November 1982 and spent months at the top of the Billboard 200, backed by successful videos for the singles "Billie Jean" and "Beat It".

A making-of documentary, Making Michael Jackson's Thriller, was produced to sell to television networks.

In 2009, Michael Jackson's Thriller became the first music video inducted into the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

In the 1950s, Michael Jackson and a young woman (Ola Ray) run out of gas while driving in a wooded area.

Jackson embraces her and takes her home, but turns to the camera and grins, revealing his werecat eyes.

The metamorphosis of the polite "boy next door" into a werecat has been interpreted as a depiction of male sexuality as bestial, predatory and aggressive.

[4] Jackson's makeup casts "a ghostly pallor" over his skin and emphasizes the outline of his skull, an allusion to the mask from The Phantom of the Opera (1925).

[5] Jackson's album Thriller was released in November 1982 on Epic Records and spent months at the top of the Billboard 200.

Jackson urged the Epic executives Walter Yetnikoff and Larry Stessel to help conceive a plan to return the album to the top of the charts.

"[6] According to Vanity Fair, Jackson preferred "benign Disney-esque fantasies where people were nice and children were safe", which ensured the video would be "creepy-comical, not genuinely terrifying".

[6] In early August, after seeing his horror film An American Werewolf in London (1981), Jackson contacted the director John Landis.

[6] Initially, television networks refused to finance the project, sharing the view that Thriller was "last year's news".

[8] The makeup artist Rick Baker decided to turn Jackson into a werecat as he did not want to create another werewolf.

[12] He initially imagined the werecat would resemble a black panther, but added a longer mane and larger ears.

[9] His wife, Deborah Nadoolman, who had recently worked on the film Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), designed the costumes, including Jackson's red jacket.

She used red to contrast with the night setting and dark palette, and used the same color for Jackson's jeans to make him appear taller.

[6] According to Landis, Ola Ray, a former Playboy Playmate, was cast as she was "crazy for Michael" and had a "great smile".

[6] Thriller was filmed at the Palace Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, the junction of Union Pacific Avenue and South Calzona Street in East Los Angeles (for the zombie scene), and 1345 Carroll Avenue in the Angeleno Heights neighborhood of Echo Park (for the final house scene).

[6] Weeks before the premiere, Jackson, then a Jehovah's Witness, was told by organization leaders that the music video promoted demonology and that he would be excommunicated.

However, according to multiple sources, Jackson ceased actively participating in church in 1987 after extended controversy over the music video.

[6] The video debuted on MTV alongside the documentary Making Michael Jackson's Thriller on December 2, 1983.

[10][18] After each broadcast, MTV advertised when they would next play it, and recorded audience figures ten times the norm.

[6] Within months, Making Michael Jackson's Thriller sold a million copies on VHS, more than any prior video release.

[8] In 1984, the National Coalition on Television Violence reviewed 200 MTV videos and classified more than half as too violent, including Thriller.

The chairman, Thomas Radecki, said: "It's not hard to imagine young viewers after seeing Thriller saying, 'Gee, if Michael Jackson can terrorize his girlfriend, why can't I do it too?

'"[22] The Thriller video sealed MTV's position as a major cultural force, helped disassemble racial barriers for black artists, revolutionized music video production, popularized making-of documentaries, and drove rentals and sales of VHS tapes.

[23] He said it was the "mini-movie that revolutionized music videos" and "cemented Jackson's status as one of the most ambitious, innovative pop stars of all time".

[37] Thriller was also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival,[38] followed by a US premiere at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

[39] It was remastered in IMAX 3D for a limited engagement in 2018, preceding screenings of The House With a Clock in Its Walls in North America for its first week.