Long story, simple anecdote.
I was laying in bed thinking last night, and I started thinking about an indie movie I saw that I thought was just a horrible waste – The Item by Dan Clark. I was trying to classify what kind of movie it was; was it a comedy, a romance, or what? The best thing I could come up with was that it was a thriller. Again, a very horrible thriller.
So as it often happens as I’m halfway asleep, my train of thought spun off to an entirely different subject.
When I was in the 3rd grade, Michael Jackson’s video Thriller came out. I remember watching a “making of” video at a friends house, and thought it was one of the coolest things ever. The special effects at the time were cutting edge, and I was hooked. I didn’t care for Michael Jackson, but I was obsessed with that video. I’d watch it, and remember the techniques they used and was fascinated by the magic of it.
When I was kid my mom didn’t let us watch TV much, unless it was PBS. So I used to get a hold of the TV Guide, and I’d read it, almost cover to cover on a regular basis. I haven’t seen a TV Guide in a long time, but at the time, whenever a movie was listed, they’d indicate whether it was romance, a comedy, or a thriller. All I would see is the word thriller, and for the longest time I thought that Michael Jackson’s Thriller was playing on a regular basis on regular TV, and I was missing out.
So, last night I realized that my extreme interest in film, television, and MTV came from a huge misunderstanding in the 3rd grade. It obviously still has an effect on me, as just thinking about the word thriller makes me recall Michael Jackson’s Thriller video.