It’s that time of year again – when the King of Pop and his dancing ghouls rise triumphantly from the grave to top music and video streaming charts around the world.
It’s no secret that Michael Jackson loved Halloween. From the light-hearted thrills to disguising himself in costumes and even the candy – Halloween was tailor made for Jackson.
“I love to trick or treat,” revealed the pop star in a 2001 interview.
“I love dressing up like some kind of monster… and knocking on doors. Nobody knows it’s me and I get candy!”
But Jackson says that it wasn’t until later in life that he was able to fully embrace the spooky season:
“I missed out on Halloween for years, and now I do it. It’s sweet to go door-to-door and people give you candy. We need more of that in the world. It brings the world together.”
“I always thought Halloween and Thriller fit each other like a glove,” said Jackson in a 2008 statement about Thrill The World – an annual event in which people around the world dress as zombies and simultaneously perform the dance routine from Jackson’s legendary 1983 short film.
According to ChartMasters.org – whose formula calculates an overall ‘sales’ figure based on physical sales, digital downloads, YouTube views and audio streams – “Thriller” is by far the biggest selling Halloween-themed song of all time, having sold 23,430,000 copies to date (updated October 26, 2021).
As of October 31, 2021, the “Thriller” short film has been viewed 950 million times on Jackson’s official YouTube channel – 800 million for the full 13-minute version, and 150 million for the shortened version.
Not bad for an early 80s music video which has never been commercially released in restored quality.
Needless to say, Halloween wouldn’t be the same without “Thriller,” and “Thriller” has has certainly benefitted from annual sales boosts afforded to it by Halloween.
Like Jackson said, they fit each other like a glove.
Halloween Television Special
When Michael Jackson agreed to perform a 50-date concert series at London’s O2 Arena, his agreement to do the shows came with a specific requirement – that the tour’s promotor, AEG Live, would also help Jackson pursue his dreams in the film industry.
One of the first projects that Jackson wanted to bring to fruition was a Halloween television special centred around his 1996 short film called Ghosts.
To do this, AEG boss Randy Phillips set up a meeting between he, Jackson, and Grammy Award show producer Ken Ehrlich.
AEG’s Tim Leiweke and Jackson’s manager Frank Dileo joined Jackson, Phillips and Ehrlich for the meeting, which took place at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles on June 24, 2009 – the day before Jackson’s death.
“When I saw him the night before he passed, we were having a meeting about a Halloween project that Michael wanted to do with CBS,” Ehrlich recalls.
When I asked Randy Phillips about it, he told me that Jackson was excited to bring his masterpiece to the masses, adding that Jackson was going to host the show himself.
“Ken Ehrlich was to produce the show for Michael,” said Phillips via email. “It centered around the Ghosts footage Michael had personally financed. The intent was to create a yearly Halloween television special. Michael was going to host and perform on the show.”
With the This Is It tour expected to bring the public’s focus back to Jackson as an artist, October 2009 loomed as the perfect moment for the reintroduction of Ghosts, portions of which were to feature in the This Is It concerts themselves.
Ghosts is a 40-minute film co-written by Jackson with legendary horror writer Stephen King, and directed by Stan Winston. Jackson plays the roles of several characters in the film including the fun-loving yet eccentric ‘Maestro,’ the bigoted town ‘Mayor,’ and the ‘Skeleton’.
At face value, the characters are very different. But they all have one thing in common – they can dance like the King of Pop!
“The video contains some of the best, most inspired dancing of Jackson’s career,” said Stephen King in a moving piece published shortly after the entertainer’s death. “If you look at it, I think you’ll see why Fred Astaire called Jackson ‘a helluva mover’.”
Jackson’s planned Halloween special was set to be broadcast by CBS on October 31, 2009. This was perfect timing for all parties.
By Halloween 2009, Jackson would have been one month into a three-month break from the This Is It tour.
Jackson’s final show of the tour’s first leg was scheduled for September 29. The pop star was not scheduled to return to the stage until January 7, 2010, for the commencement of the second leg.
AEG’s Phillips told me that Jackson’s ‘performance’ for the special would have been sourced from footage of Jackson performing a medley including “Thriller,” “Ghosts” and “Threatened.”
The footage would have been captured during the first set of This Is Is concerts.
Jackson’s manager, Frank Dileo, echoed Phillips’ sentiments that Jackson was excited about the project.
“Michael was very happy. I solidified [the] Halloween special that he wanted,” explained Frank Dileo in an interview.
“We laid out what we wanted to do with the film, Ghosts, and what his participation was. He was extremely happy.”
Tragically, plans for both the This Is It tour and Halloween special came to an end when Jackson died on June 25th, 2009 – the day after Dileo ‘solidified’ the deal for the special.
Several Halloweens have come and gone since Jackson’s death, and his planned Halloween special has never been brought to fruition.
However, many of Jackson’s fans believe it should be.
Despite being relatively unknown by the general public, Michael Jackson’s Ghosts – which would have been at the centre of the CBS broadcast – is arguably among Jackson’s finest work, and Jackson’s legions of loyal fans around the world have made it clear that they’d love for the film be officially released in high-definition by the pop star’s estate.
And not only the film itself, but an extensive ‘making of’ documentary to go with it.
In a 2001 interview, Jackson was asked whether he had any plans to release Ghosts.
“Yes,” he answered, adding:
“It will be released as a DVD in its entirety, and some of The Making of Ghosts. That was one of my most favourite things I’ve ever done, because it’s been a dream of mine for a long time to do something scary but comical at the same time. It’s all the elements. It’s just fun. Because I don’t want to scare people to the point where they’re afraid to go to sleep. I want it to have a little twist of humour. And within the laugher, there is a tear, you know? It’s fun.”
There’s no question as to whether or not Jackson would approved of its release, yet his wishes have never been brought to fruition.
NOTE #1: Since the publication of this article, Jackson’s estate and Sony released Scream – a compilation album containing some – but not all – of Jackson’s spooky songs, along with a number of thematically irrelevant tracks to make up the numbers.
Jackson’s estate also produced an animated film, called Michael Jackson’s Halloween, using Jackson’s music. This film is in no way connected to Jackson’s vision for the Ghosts Halloween special.
The below review sums up the estate’s version of the Halloween special:
NOTE #2: In the lead up to Halloween in 2020, Jackson’s estate released the full 40-minute version of Ghosts on YouTube in a seemingly improved quality… for four days only. It did not reappear in 2021.
NOTE #3: A ‘Halloween remix’ of Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me” produced by Syzz – which highlights Jackson’s chorus vocals – was released by Universal Music Group on October 15, 2021.
Jackson’s estate and record label could easily do something like the “Somebody’s Watching Me” remix for any number of Jackson’s Halloween-friendly songs, which include Thriller, Ghosts and Is It Scary.
Mashups and mega-mixes could also be done using all of them.
Another thing Jackson’s estate could do is revisit one of the tracks that Jackson wanted to release as a single, but was never able to.
During an online interview with Get Music and Rolling Stone in 2001, Jackson was asked if there were any tracks on his Invincible album that he wanted to create music videos for.
“Absolutely,” responded Jackson.
“I can’t wait to do Threatened. It’s a kind of scary one with Rod Serling from The Twilight Zone. I can’t wait to get my hands on that one.”
Alas. Just like the Halloween TV special for CBS, the “Threatened” short film Jackson was so eager to produce never came to fruition.
But it could! And so could the Halloween special. But whether they will is another story.
I’ll leave you with a fantastic fan-made video for Threatened”. Happy Halloween!
Damien Shields is the author of the book Michael Jackson: Songs & Stories From The Vault examining the King of Pop’s creative process, and the producer of the podcast The Genesis of Thriller which takes you inside the recording studio as Jackson and his team create the biggest selling album in music history.
