Film Review: "Thanksgiving" (2023).

"There will be no leftovers" in Thanksgiving. This slasher film directed by Eli Roth, and written by Jeff Rendell. After a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy, a mysterious Thanksgiving-inspired killer terrorizes Plymouth, Massachusetts – the birthplace of the holiday. Picking off residents one by one, what begins as random revenge killings are soon revealed to be part of a larger, sinister holiday plan. Will the town uncover the killer and survive the holidays…or become guests at his twisted holiday dinner table?

After director Roth created the fake movie trailer, Thanksgiving, for the film Grindhouse (2007), plans for a feature-length adaptation began. In 2010, Roth confirmed that he was penning the script with Rendell and that he hoped to complete it once he was done with press for The Last Exorcism (2010). By August 2012, Jon Watts and Christopher D. Ford were set to pen the screenplay with Roth and Rendell after they finished writing the Roth-produced Clown (2014). In June 2016, Roth revealed that the script still needed work in order for the film to live up to the trailer. In February 2019, reports indicated that Roth was slated to direct an undisclosed horror film for Miramax the next month in Boston, Massachusetts. It was speculated that the film could potentially be Thanksgiving but was unable to verify. By mid March 2023, Patrick Dempsey, Rick Hoffman, Gina Gershon, and Lynne Griffin were cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in late April. Filming took place throughout Ontario, Canada.

The film stars Dempsey, Hoffman, Gershon, and Griffin. It's completely goofball stuff, but engaging and, at times, exciting, giving a notoriously lazy genre a firm towel snap as it strives to turn a modest budget into a nail-biter, partly thanks to the performances.

The film is one of the best in the endless cycle of slasher flicks, largely because it arrived before the genre got set within its tired and overly familiar parameters. A well-made excursion into the bloody unknown, driven by characterization and modulated by a tone that knows when to amplify the scares and when to back away from them, usually at the service of a story with the morbid curiosity to investigate further. Like Carpenter, Roth avoids graphic gore, focussing instead on suggestion and using careful mise-en-scene, editing and use of music to build suspense. Even if it was aiming to cash in on the Thanksgiving setting, the connection to the holiday only heightens the absurd and entertaining horrors contained within its run time. While I have a great amount of love for the slasher subgenre as a whole, there's a real charm to the film that makes it a standout amongst its cinematic peers. An ideal weekend movie, the sort of entertaining modest-budget horror item that will work best for audiences looking to unwind and have fun after a long, busy work week. For a cheap cash-in (which this no doubt is), there's still a solid amount going on under Thanksgiving Day's hood, even as the bodies begin to pile toward the ceiling.

Simon says Thanksgiving receives:

Also, see my review for The House with a Clock on Its Walls.