This 1988 Michael Jackson Movie Was Nightmare Fuel For Kids (And Adults)
Michael Jackson was a brilliant musician with a slew of hits that remain unmatched. But if you move past the catchy choruses, his music often holds a much larger message. Even during his Jackson 5 days, songs like "Can You Feel It" featured lyrics that would bring anyone to tears. Still, he was constantly trying to turn his music into something bigger.
That instinct is exactly where Jackson's fascination with film came from, because once you start thinking that way, a standard music video stops being enough. His 1988 movie, Moonwalker, which is streaming on Prime Video, is the perfect example of his attempt to share his vision with the world. But the more ambitious Jackson's ideas became, the harder they were to understand
Moonwalker presents itself as a feature film, but once you start watching it, that idea begins to fall apart. Structurally, it's much closer to an anthology, made up of performances, retrospective footage, and extended music videos that are loosely connected by an underlying concept about fame and how people perceived him. What Jackson probably didn't plan to do was creep out his younger fans.
'Speed Demon' Feels Way Stranger Than It Should
A big part of Moonwalker's nightmare fuel factor comes down to Jackson's stylistic choices, especially during the "Speed Demon" segment. On paper, this is meant to be one of the lighter sections of the film, using claymation techniques from innovator Will Vinton to create something playful and exaggerated. But the end result landed in a very different place.
Claymation is something you'd usually associate with 1989's Wallace and Gromit, but the characters don't move naturally, their expressions stretch just a little too far, and there's a stiffness to the world that makes everything feel slightly artificial. It's not outright scary. Though if you're six years old, the whole thing is going to make you uncomfortable at best.
What makes it worse is that the sequence doesn't follow any consistent internal logic. The environment keeps changing, the tone is all over the place, and the story has no real anchor. While it doesn't necessarily register as "horror" in the moment, that slightly off, almost lifeless quality is exactly what made it feel so strange.
'Smooth Criminal' Spirals Into Complete Chaos
Even if you somehow manage to look past the weird claymation, the "Smooth Criminal" segment, which starts with a more grounded narrative that features an actual villain, will probably melt your brain. Joe Pesci is introduced as the baddie, Mr. Big, who kidnaps a kid, which is part of a bigger plan to take over the world. So it's up to Jackson, who is positioned as the hero, to save the day.
From there, the story becomes increasingly surreal. Yes, he saves the kidnapped kid, but Jackson also turns into a car to escape. This odd creative choice is still sort of manageable within the logic of the film, but then it keeps going. To defeat the bad guys, Jackson turns into a robot droid that looks like a 2007 Transformers character or a 1993 Power Rangers-style Zord, before becoming a spaceship.
None of these things really build toward anything. They just happen, one after the other, for no apparent reason at all. That constant escalation, coupled with the fact that there's a real threat involving world domination, creates a strange contrast where the stakes feel serious but the world still doesn't follow any consistent logic.
'Moonwalker' Didn't Work But 'Thriller' Did
While Jackson's fans seemed to enjoy Moonwalker, as evidenced by its 69% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, critics were not impressed. Still, the film hit cinemas in Australia, Europe, and South America, to coincide with Jackson's Bad album and tour. However, in the United States, Warner Bros. opted to scrap plans to release Moonwalker during the Christmas of 1988.
While a lot of people would argue that Jackson should've just stuck to songs, "Thriller" remains one of the most effective examples of what happens when a music video fully commits to storytelling. Directed by John Landis, the video is filled with classic horror influences, with a werewolf transformation featuring Jackson before moving into its now-iconic zombie narrative.
What really makes "Thriller" brilliant, though, is how confidently it balances everything. It's genuinely eerie in places (the glowing eyes, the stiff, decaying movements of the undead), but it never loses its sense of fun. And the choreography centerpiece turns what should be terrifying creatures into something oddly joyful.
