Forty-three years ago this month, Michael Jackson spent four days around Los Angeles making the short film that would change music videos forever. “Thriller.” Most of it is burned into memory, especially those dancing zombies and that last grin at the camera.
But the very last scene, the one where Michael walks his date home and something isn’t quite right, was filmed at a real house. Not a movie set. A real home where real people have lived.
And it’s still there today.
The house sits on Carroll Avenue in the Angelino Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. It’s a grand old Victorian, built all the way back in 1887 for a warehouse owner. His name, oddly enough, was Michael. Michael Sanders. That makes the place almost 140 years old, and it has aged into one of the most photographed houses in the city.
Here’s the first thing to watch. The official “Thriller” video below ends right at that house, so you can see how it looked when the cameras rolled in 1983.
The official “Thriller” video, ending at the real house
Now for the fun part. That same house didn’t retire after “Thriller.” It went on to a whole second career in spooky stories. It showed up in the 1989 teen movie “Teen Witch,” about a high school girl who discovers she has magic powers. And years later it appeared again in the hit show “Charmed,” about three sisters who happen to be witches.
Fans still drive by just to see it. These two walk-by videos show what the house looks like now, all these years later, sitting quietly on its corner.
A close-up look at the “Thriller” house today
A neighborhood walk past the house on Carroll Avenue
One thing surprises almost everyone. Those creepy rooms inside the house, the ones that feel so haunted in the video, were never filmed inside this home at all. The crew built those interiors on a soundstage at Raleigh Studios across town. The house itself has since been divided into duplex-style homes.
If you ever go looking for it, please be kind. It’s a private residence and people live there, so admire it from the street and let the folks inside enjoy their famous address in peace.
More than four decades on, that quiet Victorian is still giving fans a little thrill. Watch the videos, then see if you can pick out the exact spot where Michael’s walk home turned into the most famous ending in music video history.