<Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> Music video </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> "Thriller" on YouTube </Td> </Tr> <P> Michael Jackson's Thriller is a 14 - minute horror - themed music video for the song of the same name, released on December 2, 1983 . Directed by John Landis, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Jackson, the song was released from Jackson's sixth studio album of the same name . It was MTV's first world premiere video . In the United Kingdom, the video was aired on Channel 4 late at night . Voted as the most influential pop music video of all time, Thriller proved to have a profound effect on popular culture, and was named "a watershed moment for the (music) industry" for its unprecedented merging of filmmaking and music . Guinness World Records listed it in 2006 as the "most successful music video", selling over nine million copies . In 2009, the video was inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, the first music video to ever receive this honor, for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant . The track was also listed at number one on "The Top 10 Halloween Songs" by Billboard . </P> <P> Co-starring with Jackson was former Playboy centerfold Ola Ray . The video was choreographed by Michael Peters (who had worked with the singer on his prior hit "Beat It"), and Jackson . Jackson contacted Landis after seeing his film An American Werewolf in London; make - up artist Rick Baker and composer Elmer Bernstein (who composed incidental music for the video) were also brought from the film to work on the video . The video (like the song) contains a spoken word performance by horror film veteran Vincent Price . "Thriller" was the third and final video for the Thriller album . The red jacket that Jackson wore was designed by Landis' wife Deborah Landis to make him appear more "virile". </P>

When was thriller video first shown in uk