"No one's gonna save you from the beast about to strike"
Michael Jackson's Thriller - Movie Quotes
Memorable Quotes
Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses a belief in the occult.
— Disclaimer Text
Context:
This text appears on a title card at the very beginning of the short film, before any action takes place.
Meaning:
This opening disclaimer was added by Michael Jackson to appease leaders of his Jehovah's Witness faith, who were concerned that the video promoted demonology. It creates a fascinating layer of meta-commentary before the film even begins, highlighting the real-world conflict between Jackson's faith and his artistic expression.
I'm not like other guys.
— Michael
Context:
Spoken during the 1950s film-within-a-film sequence, right after Michael gives his girlfriend a ring and just before the full moon appears, triggering his transformation.
Meaning:
This line serves as a classic piece of foreshadowing and a massive understatement. It's delivered with an air of innocence, but it ominously precedes his monstrous transformation into a werecat. The line encapsulates the film's central theme of hidden duality—the idea that something monstrous can lurk beneath a seemingly normal exterior.
Darkness falls across the land, the midnight hour is close at hand. Creatures crawl in search of blood, to terrorize your neighborhood.
— The Narrator (Vincent Price)
Context:
This narration begins as Michael and Ola walk past the graveyard, just before the corpses begin to rise from their graves.
Meaning:
This is the beginning of Vincent Price's iconic spoken-word performance. It functions as a classic horror trope, with a "voice of God" narration that sets a gothic, terrifying scene. Written by Rod Temperton, the rap is a perfect homage to classic horror and elevates the short film from a simple music video to a cinematic event. It explicitly signals the shift from a playful, romantic evening to a full-blown supernatural nightmare.