MOVIE INFO VIA ROTTEN TOMATOES:
After a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy, a mysterious Thanksgiving-inspired killer terrorizes Plymouth, Massachusetts — the birthplace of the holiday. Picking off residents one by one, what begins as random revenge killings are soon revealed to be part of a larger, sinister holiday plan. Will the town uncover the killer and survive the holidays… or become guests at his twisted holiday dinner table?
REVIEW:
The origin for Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving came as a faux trailer (which can be seen below) he made for the B movie revival anthology Grindhouse– featuring sleazy thrillers done by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. Of the four contribution trailers made by other filmmakers (Robert Rodriquez’s Machete was expanded as a showcase for Danny Trejo and Jason Eisener’s Hobo With a Shotgun became a film festival midnight pleaser that featured a wizened Rutger Hauer) Roth’s is the third to be granted feature treatment. The other two, Edgar Wright’s Don’t died in Shaun of the Dead zombie overexposure, and Rob Zombie’s Werewolf Women of the SS couldn’t beat out the more cultish Frankenstein’s Army for movies nobody asked for.
The better kills in Thanksgiving get expanded encores. The gore is undercut by Roth’s playfully witty additions which rely on subverted sexual innuendo and misdirection from standard horror kill tropes. Keeping it lively is an anti-consumerist theme stolen from George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. The Black Friday stampede that starts the film is pure Romero homage that maybe exceeds the master in gore and execution. The rest of Thanksgiving is basically a cross between Texas Chainsaw Massacre and John Carpenter’s Halloween. Add John Carver masks, (the first governor of Plymouth Colony with the perfect serial killer name and Indian genocide historical resonance) and you’re getting a passable horror spoof with some serious historical subtext.
Roth is not particularly a great horror stylist. No fancy atmospheric shit here. Calm for Roth exists to setup jump scares. Horror for him is a blunt hammer to the head, a knife in the stomach, a corpse fricasee and served up with Hannibal Lecture’s favorite sauce and sides. Roth is the consummate horror technician adept at true gross-out and suspense. His specialty is lacerations to the body done with a wicked wit, a funny kind of sadism that exploits parts of the human body that the psyche least likes to have wounded.
There are the usual smart and dumb teens waiting to be killed. In a twist it’s the rich teen (Nell Verlague) who has the conscience and the heroic smarts. There is even a bit of commentary on how both the lower and upper classes see each other as murderous. Patrick Dempsey, recently designated People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive, takes the role of the town sheriff, and Thanksgiving’s McGuffin and manages to do some nice work with a usually thankless role.
Thanksgiving gets a 3/5 or a B. It’s streaming on Netflix.
CREDITS:
Directed by
Screenplay by
Jeff Rendell
Story by
- Eli Roth
- Jeff Rendell
Based on
- Eli Roth
- Jeff Rendell
Produced by
- Eli Roth
- Roger Birnbaum
- Jeff Rendell
Starring
- Patrick Dempsey
- Addison Rae
- Milo Manheim
- Jalen Thomas Brooks
- Nell Verlaque
- Rick Hoffman
- Gina Gershon
Cinematography
Milan Chadima
Edited by
- Michele Conroy
- Michel Aller
Music by
Brandon Roberts
Production
companies
- Spyglass Media Group
- Dragonfly Entertainment
- Electromagnetic Productions
Distributed by
Release date
- November 17, 2023
Running time
106 minutes[1]
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$15 million
Leave a Reply