The ‘Thriller ‘ video by Michael Jackson uses generic codes which follow the conventions of the pop video genre . These include typical boy meets girl storyline -they go on a series of dates and eventually fall in love. Unconventionally this video ‘Thriller’ video incorporates a film within a film as the two main characters are seen watching themselves at the movie theatre. The conventions of pop videos included in ‘Thriller’ are in quick cuts between scenes which runs in sync with the music and images e.g zombies arise from the graves as Jackson sing of “evil rising” as the commentator speaks of zombies and erosion of bodies . The music then gets lower as the zombies creep and drag themselves towards the couple completely surrounding them as we see close ups of their rotting flesh and shrivelled body parts.

The Mise-en-scene within the video runs in relation to the horror film themes and motifs which feature in the video. The isolated area and decaying building in the background as well as zombie costumes relate to the spooky atmosphere the song itself is trying to promote. The couple dressed fashionably in leather jackets, sneakers (the boy-Jackson ), high –heels (the girl-Ola Ray) relate to the pop genre audience, teenagers and young adults. The zombie costumes and smoke machine effects , the mid shot of Ola Ray in shock as Michael turns into a Zombie and the background moves in and out then eventually fades all follow the horror movie conventions which pop videos with a narrative stereotypically encourage.

Shot size and camera angles within the video all help make ‘Thriller’ the most impressionable and unique video of its time. With a variety of long shots to establish the surroundings the couple is in, mid long shots to capture the emotions of the two main characters ,high angle close-ups of zombies to emphasize their hideousness and long-shot of zombies performing with Jackson all effectively follow the pop convention of an obvious relationship between sound and images .

‘Thriller’ references to intertexuality via the half boy half werewolf myth evident in the film ‘American Werewolf in London’ which is incorporated to advance the viewing pleasure of the audience and evidently relate to fans of the horror film genre. It also made the film at the time very unique because of its referencing to other films as it was the first time a music video had use this method of filming.