The holidays can be hell. Behind the presents, the lights, the decorations, and the food lies a sickening greed and consumerist message being broadcast through the airwaves every time a department store blasts “All I Want for Christmas is You.” The ideals of being thankful and appreciating what and who you have get lost as Black Friday sales begin earlier and earlier every year, bleeding into the days and nights before. The fact is the holidays can be really f*cking scary. Enter Eli Roth’s THANKSGIVING.
The film is an extended feature based on a spoof trailer Roth directed as part of 2007’s double feature, GRINDHOUSE. The trailer, shot in a grimy, grainy, grindhousy style, showcased a slew of over-the-top and bizarre deaths that lovingly poked fun at such holiday-based slasher classics as HALLOWEEN, BLACK CHRISTMAS, SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT, MOTHER’S DAY, APRIL FOOL’S DAY, and even special event-based flicks like PROM NIGHT and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME. The trailer was such a hit that fans have been begging Roth to turn it into a full-on feature.
The time has finally come.
Set in the Thanksgiving-obsessed hamlet of Plymouth, Massachusetts, the film follows a group of high school students, including the popular Gabby (Addison Rae), her golden-armed beau, Bobby (Jalen Thomas Brooks), their friend, Jessica (Nell Verlaque), jocks Evan and Scooba (Tomaso Sanelli & Gabriel Davenport), and total wet blanket Ryan (Milo Manheim). Despite these characters being updated versions of tired slasher stereotypes, they feel decidedly fleshed out for a movie about a murderous, ax-wielding pilgrim. Aside from directing, Roth shared writing duties with childhood friend Jeff Rendell took care to make these potential victims as rooted in our modern real world as possible, and it pays off. Patrick Dempsey as Sherrif Newlon brings a bit of cred, and Gina Gershon is always a delight.
The entire film feels fresh and updated, avoiding the tropes we’ve all come to expect (and in some cases, love) and replacing them with better-made decisions and more realistic circumstances. This grounding in reality, though, seems to tame the more shocking and controversial style Roth has developed as a reputation. While aspects of his past storytelling have been met with criticism, here, some of Roth’s choices seem to be tiptoeing around a potential cancelation.
That’s not to say there’s no fun to be had. The film is packed full of delightful, messy kills with more gore than you could fit on your Thanksgiving table and boasts one of the best opening sequences of recent horror memory.
Will THANKSGIVING acquire a sturdy fanbase to merit repeat viewings in November after November? I’d say it’s at least worth going for seconds.
THANKSGIVING is now playing exclusively in movie theaters.
