Thanksgiving (2023)
Finally, a Thanksgiving Horror Movie!
Seriously, what took so long? Okay, technically it’s been done before. There was the ultra-low budget cheapie Thankskilling (2008), and the obscure slasher Home Sweet Home (1981), but this is the first major mainstream theatrical effort.
Frankly, I find that mind boggling. Thanksgiving has so much horror potential! This movie was well received, so hopefully there will be more turkey day horror coming our way!
Thanksgiving, which was directed by veteran horror filmmaker Eli Roth, is appropriately set in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The film opens on Black Friday.
After a retail business owner lets his buddies inside for some early shopping, a mob of enraged customers stampede into the Walmart-style superstore, overwhelming security and causing multiple deaths.
The story then flashes forward to nearly a year later. It’s a few days before Thanksgiving. The owner of the store, Thomas Wright (Rick Hoffman) has decided to keep his business open on Black Friday again, despite the carnage that occurred the previous year.
But someone isn’t happy with Thomas’s decision. A maniac in a John Carver pilgrim costume is slaughtering the people involved with the deadly incident. He will stop at nothing to prevent a repeat of the previous year.
Creative Deaths and Plenty of Slasher References
Thanksgiving’s final girl is Jessica (Nell Verlaque), Thomas’s daughter. She’s a cute and appealing heroine. Jessica and her friends are stalked by the killer, who livestreams some of his exploits.
Verlaque, who didn’t have many acting credits before this, gives a genuine, natural performance. Jessica seems like a real person instead of just a final girl caricature.
Suspects abound throughout the town. Jessica can’t trust anyone, not even her closest friends. Can she make it through Thanksgiving without getting ground up like mashed potatoes?
Thanksgiving deserves credit for its creative deaths. My favorite is when the killer puts a victim in an oven and cooks her like a Thanksgiving turkey. This scene truly disturbed me. Imagine being slowly baked to death. Brutal!
Roth, a longtime slasher movie buff, peppers Thanksgiving with fun references to classic slasher flicks. A full list of references would be too long to list in this review, but here are my favorites.
There’s a dinner scene that was inspired by the grotesque birthday party in Happy Birthday to Me (1981). There’s also an entertaining parade sequence that pays tribute to a similar scene in I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997). A third act twist involving the killer’s identity was likely taken from The Prowler (1981).
Rating
Thanksgiving is a fun retro-style slasher that hits all the right notes. It’s not super innovative (other than the Thanksgiving setting) but it is sure to please genre fans.
A sequel is set to be released in 2025. Perhaps Thanksgiving will become a long-running franchise like Halloween.
Rating from 1 (avoid at all costs) to 10 (masterpiece): 8
