Jackson's album Thriller was released in November 1982 on Epic Records and spent months at the top of the Billboard 200. It was backed by successful music videos for the singles "Billie Jean" and "Beat It", which are credited for raising creative standards for music videos and demonstrating their promotional power.

In June 1983, Thriller was displaced from the top of the Billboard 200 chart by the Flashdance soundtrack. It briefly regained the position in July, before being displaced by Synchronicity by the Police. 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.

The horror-themed "Thriller" had not been planned for release as a single. Epic saw it as a novelty song; Yetnikoff asked, "Who wants a single about monsters?" Jackson's manager, Frank DiLeo, suggested making a music video, and recalled telling Jackson: "It's simple—all you've got to do is dance, sing, and make it scary." 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".

In early August, after seeing his horror film An American Werewolf in London (1981), Jackson contacted the director John Landis. At the time, commercial directors did not direct music videos, but Landis was intrigued. He wanted to make a theatrical short rather than a standard music video, and hoped to use Jackson's celebrity to return theatrical shorts to popularity. Landis and Jackson conceived a short film shot on 35mm film with the production values of a feature film, with a budget of $900,000, much larger than any previous music video.
According to Landis, when he called Yetnikoff to propose the film, he swore so loudly he had to remove the phone from his ear. Epic had little interest in making another video for Thriller, believing it had peaked, and agreed to contribute only $100,000. Initially, television networks refused to finance the project, sharing the view that Thriller was "last year's news". MTV, which had found success with Jackson's earlier videos, had a policy of not financing music videos, instead expecting record companies to pay for them. However, after the new channel Showtime agreed to pay half the budget, MTV agreed to pay the rest, justifying the expenditure as financing for a motion picture and not a music video.

To help finance the production, Landis's producer, George Folsey Jr., suggested a making-of documentary that, combined with the "Thriller" video, would produce an hour-long film that could be sold to television. The documentary, Making Michae…

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Jackson wanted to make a video in which he transformed into a four-legged beast, similarly to the transformation scene in An American Werewolf in London. This idea was replaced with a two-legged monster, as this made it easier for him to dance. Landis felt Jackson should become scary and creepy, but not ugly. He suggested that Jackson should become a werewolf in a 1950s setting, inspired by the 1957 film I Was a Teenage Werewolf. The makeup artist Rick Baker decided to turn Jackson into a werecat as he did not want to create another werewolf. He initially imagined the werecat would resemble a black panther, but added a longer mane and larger ears.

According to Landis, the production involved the largest makeup team in film history up to that point, with 40 makeup artists. 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 dressed Jackson in "hip", casual clothes that would be comfortable to dance in. 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.
Thriller was the first time Jackson had interacted with a woman in a video, which Landis described as a "breakthrough". Jennifer Beals turned down an offer to play Jackson's girlfriend. According to Landis, Ola Ray, a former Playboy Playmate, was cast as she was "crazy for Michael" and had a "great smile". Landis encouraged Jackson and Ray to improvise during their scenes, and urged Jackson to act "sexy" and "show virility" for his female fans. According to Ray, the chemistry between them was real and they shared "intimate moments" during the shoot.
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). The director of photography was Robert Paynter, who had worked with Landis on Trading Places. The zombie dance was choreographed by Michael Peters, who had choreographed the "Beat It" video.

Landis said directing Jackson was "like dealing with a gifted 10-year-old". He described Jackson as "emotionally damaged ... He was tortured, but he was happy-go-lucky for a lot of it. He worked very hard. He really was childlike." Entertainment figures including Marlon Brando, Fred Astaire, Rock Hudson and Jackie Kennedy Onassis visited the set, along with Jackson's parents, Joseph and Katherine Jackson. According to Landis, Michael asked Joseph to be removed, but he refused and was escorted off the set by police; Joseph denied this.
Weeks before the premiere, Jackson, then a Jehovah's Witness, was told by organization leaders that the music video promoted

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On November 14, 1983, Thriller was shown to a private audience at the Crest Theater in Los Angeles. In attendance were celebrities including Diana Ross, Warren Beatty, Prince and Eddie Murphy. Jackson stayed in the projection booth, declining Ray's invitation to join the audience. The audience gave the film a standing ovation. At Murphy's insistence, it was played again.

The video debuted on MTV alongside the documentary Making Michael Jackson's Thriller on December 2, 1983. After each broadcast, MTV advertised when they would next play it, and recorded audience figures ten times the norm. Showtime aired the video six times in February. Within months, Making Michael Jackson's Thriller sold a million copies on VHS, more than any prior video release. It went on to sell up to 10 million copies worldwide on VHS and DVD.

As films required theatrical screenings to be eligible for Academy Awards, Landis had the video played before screenings of Fantasia (1940) at a Los Angeles cinema, though it was not nominated. The film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert both gave the video a "thumbs down", criticizing its horror tropes.

The video doubled sales of the Thriller album, which sold a million copies a week following the video debut and became the bestselling album of all time. At the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards, Thriller won the awards for Viewers Choice, Best Overall Performance and Best Choreography, and was nominated for Best Concept Video, Best Male Video and Video of the Year. The success transformed Jackson into a dominant force in global pop culture, and cemented his status as the "king of pop". According to Landis, the response was "a surprise to everyone but Michael".

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?'"
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. Gil Kaufman of MTV described it as iconic and one of Jackson's most enduring legacies. 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".

The director

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