“Thanksgiving” Review: Eli Roth’s Holiday Slasher Trades Grindhouse Schlock For Gnarly, Gory Fun
2007’s horror throwback to grindhouse cinema double features, appropriately titled Grindhouse, featured four fake trailers from filmmakers such as Edgar Wright, Rob Zombie and Eli Roth, the latter of which offered up a Thanksgiving themed slasher flick that was deliberately cheesy, over the top and ridiculous. Regardless, it was a hit with horror fans, who immediately called for a feature length version. It only took 16 years, but Roth has finally unleashed Thanksgiving, which plays out less like the infamous trailer and more like a modern, energetic and much more grim take on the concept promised back in ’07.
One year after a Black Friday shopping frenzy ended in tragedy, the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts is ready for Thanksgiving- but so is The John Carver, a sadistic masked killer targeting those involved with the riot that fateful night, including Jess Wright (Nell Verlaque), her father Thomas (Rick Hoffman), and Jess’s tight knit group of friends, who band together with the town’s sheriff (Patrick Dempsey) to track down the killer and survive the holiday- if they can.
Fans of Roth’s fake trailer may notice that while the concept and several key scenes from the trailer are pretty much intact, the tone and style is radically different. This feature length reimagining is less like a cheesy 80s shlock fest and more like what would happen if that film was rebooted by a horror filmmaker who respects the craft of freaking people the hell out. Thanksgiving takes pages from the playbooks of the recent reboots of Halloween and Scream, in terms of featuring a whip smart cast of realistic teenagers dealing with a masked menace, but adds Roth’s signature ruthlessness and creative, gore heavy kills that will certainly elicit a visceral reaction from your audience.
Even seasoned horror viewers will be wincing and squirming once The John Carver unleashes his full bloody might. Some kills are lifted straight from the trailer albeit with modern updates here and there, while others will shock the crowd with how gnarly and gory Roth and company can get. The highlight is a Thanksgiving dinner gone horribly wrong that will not only go down as a horror classic set piece, but might just make the upcoming family dinner much more fearful and awkward.
The drawback is that while the kills are gruesome and shocking and the execution taught, the actual storyline falters. The film’s setups that ultimately payoff by act 3 are not subtle to the point that Roth might as well flash a sign onscreen reading, “This is important!” You could show this film in Screenwriting 101 and it would still be screamingly obvious. The other main weakness is the final set piece; My pre-screening guess of the killer’s identity was right on the money, but even worse, after a mile a minute ride up to this point, the final act is underwhelming and not that thrilling.
Even so, Thanksgiving is an entertaining, violent and nail biting holiday horror flick. It’s not revolutionary, but it’s not supposed to be, throwing back to old school slashers with a few new tricks in play expertly. And hopefully, your Thanksgiving dinner will be far less stressful.
Thanksgiving is now playing in theaters.