In December 2009, the Library of Congress selected the video for the National Film Registry. It was the first music video to be selected.
Michael Jackson offered to finance the video himself, but John Landis refused, because Jackson "was still living with his parents in Encino, behind a supermarket."
In 2006, the Guinness World Records listed the film as the "most successful music video of all time".
John Landis brought in the same make-up and special effects wizards he worked with on An American Werewolf in London (1981).
Rick Baker: When the zombies begin to rise from their graves, the film's makeup artist can be seen as the zombie coming out of the mausoleum.
John Landis: [SYNW] "See you next Wednesday" spoken by someone in the movie that Michael and Ola are watching. It's written in blood on a wall. The phrase "see you next Wednesday" also appears by the theater marquee, and on a movie poster in a London Underground station passageway in John Landis' film An American Werewolf in London (1981).