Why Michael Jackson's Thriller Became the Halloween Song: 7 Things to Know

2 hours ago

4 min read

A creaking door, a howling wolf, and a bassline nobody can sit still to. Every late October, Michael Jackson's Thriller rises from the grave again — at Halloween parties, in zombie-dance videos and on the US charts — even though it came out back in 1983. Here is how a song that was almost called Starlight became the anthem of Halloween (31 October).

Quick answer: Thriller was written by Rod Temperton and first titled Starlight. It features a spoken section by horror icon Vincent Price, and its 14-minute John Landis video premiered on 2 December 1983. Horror in both sound and picture made it a permanent Halloween song, and it re-enters the Billboard Hot 100 almost every Halloween.

1–2: It was almost called Starlight — and it didn't start as horror

English songwriter Rod Temperton, who had already written Rock with You and Off the Wall for Jackson, first wrote a song called Starlight with a celestial theme — no ghosts, no zombies. Midnight Man was tried next and didn't stick. Then the word Thriller suddenly came to him; he saw its chart potential at once and rewrote the lyrics within a couple of hours, with Quincy Jones producing the album.

The Thriller album arrived in late 1982 and became the best-selling album of all time. Worldwide sales estimates vary, from around 70 million to roughly 100 million copies, and it was the first album certified 30 times platinum in the US. The title track was the album's seventh and final single, released on 11 November 1983 in the UK and 23 January 1984 in the US, and it peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.

3: That spooky laugh came from a real horror-movie legend

The deep spoken passage and the chilling laugh at the end belong to Vincent Price, one of Hollywood's best-known horror actors. Actress Peggy Lipton suggested him, and Temperton wrote Price's lines on his way to the studio. That cameo is what gives a pop song its full horror-movie flavour.

4–5: A 14-minute video that plays like a short horror film

Directed by John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), who co-wrote it with Jackson.
Premiered on MTV on 2 December 1983; Landis put the budget at about $500,000, roughly ten times an average video of the time.
The zombie choreography was by Michael Peters, who also choreographed Beat It.
The documentary Making Michael Jackson's Thriller sold over a million VHS copies within months.
In 2009 it became the first music video selected for the US National Film Registry, and the official video passed one billion YouTube views in 2024.

Want the bigger story? Michael Jackson: From Motown to Moonwalk (113 pages) by ChatStick Team follows his path from Gary, Indiana and The Jackson 5 to the making of Off the Wall and Thriller and the first Moonwalk. Available on Google Play Books.

Cover of Michael Jackson: From Motown to Moonwalk eBook by ChatStick Team — Michael Jackson: From Motown to Moonwalk – eBook on Google Play Books

Read a sample on Google Play Books

6–7: Why it charts every Halloween — and the zombie-dance records

When people everywhere queue up Halloween playlists at once, Thriller's streams surge. Billboard reported that it re-entered the Hot 100 at No. 21 in November 2023 — its sixth straight yearly return — with 14.5 million US streams in a single week. It reached No. 19 in 2021, and in November 2025 it climbed back into the Top 10 at No. 10, making Jackson the first artist with Hot 100 Top 10 hits across six decades (1970s–2020s).

The dance became a group activity too: the largest zombie dance drew 12,937 dancers in Mexico City, and in 2016 the White House played the song for children at a Halloween event.

5 Thriller-themed Halloween party ideas

Watch the full 14-minute video together, then the behind-the-scenes footage to see how 1980s zombie make-up was done.
Learn only the hook: zombie arms, dragging steps and shoulder snaps, eight counts at a time. Fun beats perfect.
Dress code: a red jacket and red trousers, or zombie make-up with white powder and dark eyeshadow.
Run a 7-question quiz from this article — what was the song's original title? whose voice is at the end?
Build a career-spanning playlist from The Jackson 5 to Thriller, and share a story between songs (the eBook above has plenty).

What's on your Halloween playlist?

Have you ever danced Thriller at school or at an office party, or is there another Halloween song you love more? Tell us in the comments and share this with a friend planning a party.