Thanksgiving review

THANKSGIVING: 

ELI ROTH COOKS UP A DELICIOUS MEAL OF TURKEY, STUFFING, AND GORE! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

TRISTAR PICTURES

There Will Be No Leftovers in Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving

 

            A mysterious killer wearing a pilgrim mask is on the loose on Thanksgiving Day in…Thanksgiving, the new film from Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel 1 and 2, The Green Inferno) based on a fake trailer from the 2007 Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino joint, Grindhouse. This is the fourth film based on a fake Grindhouse trailer to actually get a real movie after both Machete films from Robert Rodriguez and Jason Eisener’s Hobo with a Shotgun. 

            What a time we live in where movies that started off as joke trailers in another movie are now becoming legit, it’s only a matter of time before Scorcher VI: Global Meltdown, The Fatties: Fart 2, and Satan’s Alley from Tropic Thunder are coming soon to a theater near you. Anyway, I was onboard for Thanksgiving when I saw the trailer and thought it could be a really fun slasher movie that delivers the gore, but probably won’t take itself seriously either. 

            I’m no expert on Eli Roth as I’ve only seen a handful of his films and his work can be hit-or-miss at times. With this, he goes full-force and delivers a wildly entertaining Thanksgiving-themed slasher movie, I was surprised at just how much fun I had in the theater watching it. 

            After a brutal Black Friday massacre, the previous year that puts the one from South Park to shame, a mysterious Thanksgiving-inspired killer emerges and 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 much more sinister holiday plan with one specific group of teenagers at the center of it all. 

            It becomes a fight for survival as the teens and police sheriff, Eric Newlon (Patrick Dempsey-Grey’s Anatomy, Enchanted 1 and 2, Ferrari) try to uncover who the Thanksgiving killer is before they become guests at his dinner table. 

            The film also stars Addison Rae (He’s All That) as Gabby, Jalen Thomas Brooks (Rebel, Animal Kingdom, Walker) as Bobby, Milo Manheim (Zombies trilogy, Prom Pact, Journey to Bethlehem) as Ryan, Rick Hoffman (Jake in Progress, Samantha Who?, Suits) as Thomas Wright, Gina Gershon (Bound, Killer Joe, Blockers) as Amanda Collins, Karen Cliche (Heist, Flash Gordon (2007), Saw VI) as Kathleen, Jeff Teravainen (12 Monkeys, The Christmas Chronicles, Utopia Falls) as Deputy Bret Labelle, Ty Olsson (X2: X-Men United, Supernatural, Rise of the Planet of the Apes) as Mitch Collins, Tim Dillon (Above Average Presents) as Manny, and Amanda Barker (88, Odd Squad, The Handmaid’s Tale) as Lizzie. 

            Overall, Thanksgiving is a delightfully bloody feast of gory kills and twisted humor that could easily become a new holiday horror classic among the likes of Halloween, Black Christmas, and My Bloody Valentine. Lots of creatively brutal kills mixed with tongue-in-cheek humor and even some moments of intelligence. 

            The fact that the film’s events were caused in the aftermath of a gruesome Black Friday incident from the year prior reminiscent of a zombie attack I thought was an ingenious setup for the plot. I’ve never witnessed Black Friday riots in-person, but I’ve seen footage of them, and they really do bring out the worst in people so having that be the motivation behind this Thanksgiving killer was a bold decision and audiences can connect it to real life minus the killer with the pilgrim mask. 

            The kills in the movie are extremely gory and over-the-top to the point where some of them are so absurd they’re comical. You’ll have characters get stabbed by electric carvers and they’re heads sliced off with a wire, heads smashed open with a meat tenderizer, disemboweled with a buzzsaw, roasted alive in an oven, a dinner scene that almost rivals the one from the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and one involving a freezer door, a car, and a dumpster (The freezer door bit shown in both this, and the trailers actually made me wince every time I saw it), many of these are gruesome, but I never felt disturbed while watching them as crazy deaths is part of the fun. 

            The film is essentially a throwback to 90s slasher films, so the characters aren’t exactly something to write home about. They either range from fine, obnoxious, or just there to die though the lead girl protagonist does have the most depth (Even if it isn’t much) so I at least kind of cared about her. 

            Much like Michael Dougherty’s holiday-themed horror films, the production-design embraces the feeling of the Thanksgiving season especially during a sequence involving a Thanksgiving Day parade. Aside from that, all the houses and businesses have Thanksgiving decorations up, snow is on the ground, and there’s some appealing fall colors during the film so even though it is very different and unconventional from usual Thanksgiving fare, it still celebrates the holiday. 

            For the first two acts I was invested and having a great time, but I’ll admit the third act I found a tad underwhelming (and the reveal is pretty obvious). It isn’t bad nor does it ruin the film, but when it’s revealed who the Thanksgiving killer is the film loses some of its energy from before aside from one delightfully cheesy scene involving a turkey balloon. 

            Thanksgiving isn’t a perfect film, but I had a blood-covered blast watching it and I look forward to future viewings of it every year. I haven’t seen every film from Eli Roth, but this one I easily had the most fun with, grab your carving knife and dig in.