While he was considered the "king of pop", I personally like to remember Michael Jackson as the guy who brought "zombies" (and horror in general) to the forefront of pop culture, a feat that no other artist in music before him had ever accomplished (or has since). Think about it - arguably his video for THRILLER is the most famous "zombie" movie ever made. It was the number 1 video in MTV's annual TOP 100 for as long as I could remember and it brought the terrifying concept of the living dead to households universally around the world.

To this day, I'm blown away by how many reenactments of the THRILLER dance still take place, whether it's in movies, prison cell or wedding parties. Hell, that video scared the crap out of me as a kid, especially the werewolf transformation, but I loved every second of it. And more importantly, I loved the making-of segment that was always shown on MTV prior to the airing of the video which essentially introduced me to the movie AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, director John Landis and FX legend Rick Baker.

Sure, I started out being fascinated by the black & white Universal monster movies as a little kid, and eventually by age 10 I discovered the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET flicks (which acted as my gate-way drug into the world of horror), but it was Michael Jackson's THRILLER that was one of the most influential things on me as a budding young horror fan. It was the one horror movie I could always trick my family members that didn't like horror into watching. And for that, I'm saddened that today, we lost Michael Jackson at age 50.

Rest in peace, Michael...