‘Sing: Thriller’ Review: Vibrant Musical Horror Done Right

Illumination’s latest short, Sing: Thriller, has just debuted on Netflix, and with it a solid and enjoyable time rooted in horror music. Read further for the full Sing: Thriller review.

The first follow-up to 2021’s highly successful Sing 2, has just been released. Sing: Thriller is a ten-minute short film, that continues the journey of Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) and the Sing crew, comprising of Ash (Scarlett Johansson), Johnny (Taron Egerton), Meena (Tori Kelly), Gunter (Nick Kroll), and Crawly (Garth Jennings). 

The special follows the team as they perform Michael Jackson’s classic “Thriller”, complete with the matching dance numbers from the original 1983 music video, which was directed by An American Werewolf In London director John Landis. The team then wraps the performance and soon goes to a Halloween party hosted by Clay Calloway (in a non speaking role, he was previously played by Bono). Soon, the team finds the party guests have been turned into ghouls by a mysterious slime, and now “Thriller” may not seem as fictitious as first envisioned. 

While this special lacks depth, it is still incredibly fun. From the loaded cast to the infectiousness of “Thriller”, I can’t see anyone not enjoying this. “Thriller” as a song and music video is the perfect combination of beat, memorable lyrics and an incredibly memorable visual style. This special mimics that well, but fails to encapsulate the same worldbuilding and storytelling present in the source material. 

That’s not to say the visual style is bad here, when it’s quite in fact the opposite. Sing: Thriller is appropriately dark, highlighted by vibrant and striking ooze littered throughout the ten minute runtime. This coupled with some solid animation and some cool choreography really does solidify the high level of enjoyability one could get from this special. If only the writing matched the passion the animators had for the special. 

Sing: Thriller is directed by Garth Jennings and stars Matthew McConaughey as Buster Moon, Scarlett Johansson as Ash, Taron Egerton as Johnny, Tori Kelly as Meena, Nick Kroll as Gunter, and Jennings as Crawly. The Illumination-produced special is now streaming on Netflix. 

Thanks for reading this Sing: Thriller review. For more reviews, stay tuned here at Feature First.