Thanksgiving is directed by veteran horror director Eli Roth and stars Nell Verlaque, Patrick Dempsey, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Gabriel Davenport, Milo Manheim, Rick Hoffman, and Addison Rae. The film is based off of a fake trailer that accompanied Robert Rodriguez and Quention Tarantiono’s Grindhouse (2007) double feature. Fans of that film had been begging for the movie adaptation of Thanksgiving ever since. Although, this wasn’t the first fake trailer from Grindhouse to spawn a movie adaptation. Machete (2010), directed by Robert Rodriguez, opened to a sort of neutral reception, with fans continuing to wonder when they would instead see the film adaptation of Thanksgiving. After years in development, the day has finally come for horror fans to rejoice. Thanksgiving succeeds in being a funny, gory, and just plain mean slasher, but with a historically daring horror director like Eli Roth, I was hoping for something just a bit more against the grain.

The performances here are actually a bit stronger than I was expecting, with Nell Verlaque and Gabriel Davenport coming off as stars in the making. Patrick Dempsey plays the small town sheriff effectively while the rest of the cast function as believable suspects. Tik Tok star Addison Rae has surprisingly strong screen presence in her small role, making me interested to see what other roles she might take on in the future. That all being said, these characters are really let down by the occasionally juvenile and campy dialogue (an Eli Roth staple). Though, this doesn’t bother me as much as it would in other genres. I expect the characters to be this level of silly within a holiday-themed slasher film. It just fits the history and audience expectations of the genre so well. 

The kills here are extremely effective, making general audiences cringe while hardcore horror fans cheer at the sheer audacity of it all. The gore is almost never cut away from, delivering on the “carnage candy” that slasher fans undeniably crave. The film also uses red herrings really effectively, similar to Scream (1996). The killer reveal is somewhat predictable when retroactively considering the facts, but with so many red herring suspects to distract the audience, it sows seeds of doubt. The film is also really nicely paced in terms of the kills, there never really feeling like there is too much of a lull in the action. 

The film unfortunately is mostly hindered by the fact that this is an undeniably formulaic slasher film. Granted, audiences haven’t been graced by a film like this in awhile. It may seem new to general audiences, but seasoned slasher fans will feel like they’ve seen it countless times. This is especially disappointing when coming from the daring director of limit-pushing horror films such as the first two Hostel films and Cabin Fever (2002). Besides his arguably crappy flourishes to the dialogue, I wouldn’t have even been able to tell you it was directed by him. 

Overall, Thanksgiving is a fun throwback to 70’s & 80’s slashers while also taking a step up from those films in terms of production value. Where the film suffers is its desire to follow so closely to that genre that it can’t attempt anything new. It’s as if Eli Roth loves the slasher genre so much, he can’t see any of the inherent flaws the genre has historically had. If you don’t have a weak stomach, love the genre, and don’t mind some re-treading of popular tropes, you’ll most likely find Thanksgiving to be a bloody good time. B

This Thanksgiving, there will be NO LEFTOVERS. 

Arrive hungry, leave STUFFED