Happy Halloween!
Oct. 31st, 2010 04:25 pmHere's a strange little hiccup on the pop culture front: MICHAEL JACKSON'S GHOSTS (1996.) Everyone knows from THRILLER, even dancing convicts in China know THRILLER, but nobody knows this one; I only learned of it through one of Stephen King's column for Entertainment Weekly. Yes, he's the co-writer! If you're interested on how this scaaary mini-musical came to be, read here:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20289166,00.html
I suspect the video's lack of popularity is due to the fact that it's incredibly self-indulgent, ham-fistedly scripted (I don't blame King), and tedious as hell at 40 minutes long, despite having little gem-like bits of wonder, terror, and dance scattered throughout. The Guinness Book of World Records pegs Michael Jackson's Ghosts as the Longest Music Video in history.
Fortunately, I found an edited-down music vid that manages to cover most of the really imaginative bits and makes its point in just under four minutes:
Hooray, brevity! That's pretty awesome! But if you really feel the need to see the whole thing, do a search on youtube for mjghostmovie1, they have five parts up, linked together. You know how MJ yells, "AAAaaaaauugh!" about halfway through? He does that over and over again for, like, ten minutes in the long version, and it gets old really really quick. So good luck with that. I'd love to see a 20+ minute version of the long film, done by an editor with a machete and an ear for music -- one of our own talented fannish vidders for choice! -- I think that's the optimum length for something like this.
Please note: the ringleader of the crowd of townspeople who have come to evict MJ's character from his castle due to their extreme prejudice against his extreme weirdness, the fellow who looks a bit like Keith Olbermann? He's Michael Jackson under a ton of makeup! Now *that's* a special effect!
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20289166,00.html
I suspect the video's lack of popularity is due to the fact that it's incredibly self-indulgent, ham-fistedly scripted (I don't blame King), and tedious as hell at 40 minutes long, despite having little gem-like bits of wonder, terror, and dance scattered throughout. The Guinness Book of World Records pegs Michael Jackson's Ghosts as the Longest Music Video in history.
Fortunately, I found an edited-down music vid that manages to cover most of the really imaginative bits and makes its point in just under four minutes:
Hooray, brevity! That's pretty awesome! But if you really feel the need to see the whole thing, do a search on youtube for mjghostmovie1, they have five parts up, linked together. You know how MJ yells, "AAAaaaaauugh!" about halfway through? He does that over and over again for, like, ten minutes in the long version, and it gets old really really quick. So good luck with that. I'd love to see a 20+ minute version of the long film, done by an editor with a machete and an ear for music -- one of our own talented fannish vidders for choice! -- I think that's the optimum length for something like this.
Please note: the ringleader of the crowd of townspeople who have come to evict MJ's character from his castle due to their extreme prejudice against his extreme weirdness, the fellow who looks a bit like Keith Olbermann? He's Michael Jackson under a ton of makeup! Now *that's* a special effect!