Rent Thanksgiving (2023)

Thanksgiving (aka Bloody Thanksgiving) review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

It feels like there should have been a Thanksgiving horror film decades ago, not simply because of Eli Roth’s mock trailer for Grindhouse. The chaos of the holiday is primed for a horror movie, with the tension that oozes into everything from the awkward family conversations at the dinner table to the chaos that unfolds for the coming of Black Friday sales. Couple this with the dark history of America’s past, highlighted during this time of year, and there’s a potent mixture for great terror. Director Eli Roth would only have to use some slasher elements and great gore to make this concept work. Thankfully, Roth is skilled at both and delivers what may be his best film for playing to his strengths.

The framing for this film is immediately interesting for its I-Know-What-You-Did-Last-Thanksgiving setup. Plymouth, Massachusetts turns violent when a superstore’s Thanksgiving evening sale turns into a massacre. The many rushing shoppers turn the story into a brutal scene of grotesque injuries and even more grotesque kills. One year later, Plymouth finds itself still recovering from the horrors of the holiday. Protests are raised against the store for not handling the situation well. The teenage ensemble has lingering despair, especially for football star Bobby (Jalen Thomas Brooks), who injures his arm, which leads to him distancing himself from his friends. Adults are bitter as well, with the store manager Mitch (Ty Victor Olsson) feeling horrible about his wife being murdered during the sale.

Plymouth is rocked with a new threat when a costumed serial killer terrorizes the community. Seeking vengeance for the chaos of last year, the killers dress up as Pilgrim John Carver and carve up those with relation to the store massacre. A mystery exists for who wants revenge the most to kill for it. This results in the most vicious brutality that can be had on the holiday. There’s a strong opening with the murder in the diner, where the skin is peeled in more ways than one. Decapitations follow, as do gory displays to shock the community. For those who have seen Roth’s original horror trailer for Thanksgiving and hoping he’d make good on that scene where a human is cooked like a turkey, you should be satisfied with the finale.

Even after so much time between Roth’s trailer (way back in 2007) and the movie itself, Thanksgiving does well with what it promises in the vulgar promo. The scene of a parade turkey being decapitated in front of a crowd? That’s there. The sexual kill where a naked cheerleader on a trampoline lands on a knife? That’s there as well. I mentioned the turkey-cooked human, but that scene goes on even longer with more themed kills, including treating a person as a wine bottle. But despite how exploitative Roth framed the trailer to match the gritty vulgarity of the Grindhouse style, Thanksgiving still feels like a clever horror film. Perhaps it’s the time that it took the director to get this project off the ground. Still, the mystery is compelling, and the dialogue is solidly written, walking that fine line between absurdity and genuine terror.

Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving doesn’t just serve up what the director promised but goes further with its creative stuffing to be an exciting holiday horror. It might not be the highest bar to cross, considering the other notable Thanksgiving horror film is a low-budget B-movie called Thankskilling (complete with a killer turkey puppet). However, it still feels like a compelling tale and has a lot of fun with its slasher setting. While it might have been more provocative for a film like this to comment on the holiday’s history and how it’s viewed, Roth stays well within his lane to make what is sure to be a gold standard for anybody who wants to stage a horror flick on Thanksgiving.