Thanksgiving

Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving began as one of the parody trailers in Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s 2007 film, Grindhouse. Epitomizing the “grindhouse” vibe, the trailer looked and sounded low-budget and tasteless, all sex and garish kills, with a closing shot so shocking that it was literally only visible for seconds. In other words, it was perfect. Sixteen years later, director/writer Roth and co-writer Jeff Rendell expanded out the tasty morsel that was the trailer into the full feast of a feature film. I shouldn’t be so shocked that it’s actually good, but it really is.

One Thanksgiving day, the owner of a big box store, RightMart, decides to open on the holiday itself to beat Black Friday competition to the punch. His daughter, Jessica (Nell Verlaque), and her teen friends, manage to sneak into the store before it officially opens, which enrages the mob of crazed consumers outside. They crash into the store and riot, bashing each other with waffle iron boxes, causing several deaths. One year later a masked killer starts picking off various people deemed responsible for the riot in gruesome ways, beginning with a person cut in half and their lower half seated upon the star in the large RightMart sign. Sheriff Eric (Patrick Dempsey) and the police department are put to the test as the deaths rapidly accumulate.

Verlaque, Dempsey and the rest of the cast know what their job is here, and everyone delivers nicely. My only criticism is that in terms of plotlines and characters, the movie is a tad (you’ll forgive me for this) overstuffed; the veritable school of red herrings can sometimes be a bit confusing. That being said, otherwise the film is a cornucopia of frightful fun. Roth knows his way around the slasher genre, and Thanksgiving is a terrific addition to the field, a thoroughly assured and effective piece of horror filmmaking. For examples of why this film works, please continue reading below, but SPOILERS FOLLOW.

For those who enjoy slasher films due to the many creative depictions of how one could possibly meet their maker, this movie doesn’t disappoint. To wit: cut in half by a dumpster, throat inadvertently cut by broken glass in a door, scalping via dueling grocery carts (!), trampling by greedy mob, decapitation via garrote, trampoline stabbing (less graphic than original trailer), corn cob holders jammed into someone’s ears, a very bloody table saw death, a guy in a turkey suit beheaded in public at a Thanksgiving parade with an axe, cooking a woman as the Thanksgiving turkey, “uncorking” a cheerleader for use as a wine bottle, and last but not least, lighting a giant Thanksgiving turkey parade balloon on fire so it explodes massively. Let it be known that I left some killings out of this list because they were less creative. 

Roth is clearly having fun directing this movie (but maybe not as much fun as in the Grindhouse trailer – he was murdered receiving oral sex in that one), and Milan Chadima’s cinematography exudes wintry ambience. The opening set piece of the riot is beautifully constructed and shot, one of the best scenes Roth has ever created. It’s not the scariest slasher film, but it may be the wittiest. Upon noticing one of the killer’s victims cut in two, one of Jessica’s friends opines, “If we let the police handle it, we’re all gonna end up 50% off.” The killer, raging at his prospective victims, proclaims: “There will be no leftovers!” Or there’s the grisly little details of the killer preparing the woman to be put in the oven, dashing salt and pepper on her, then sticking her with a meat thermometer, which pops up after she’s been fully cooked. And finally, the killer stops to feed a cat after murdering its owner – I mean, he’s not a monster.

Perhaps the best thing about the film, however, is the identity of its killer, the guy wearing the John Carver mask and pilgrim hat. Roth and co-writer Rendell do an excellent job of keeping his identity hidden up until the last fifteen minutes of the story. It’s McDreamy himself, and Dempsey does a fantastic job of not giving the game away. If you watch the film a second time, however, they’re positively daring you not to notice him. In the opening scene, the camera approaches a house in standard slasher POV, complete with heavy breathing – it’s him. In the first shot. 

He also gets the best lines, although their meaning won’t be appreciated until a second viewing. “For a single guy, I know my way around the oven,” says the character who’ll be cooking a woman later on. He says to that same woman, earlier when she’s discussing her plans for Thanksgiving, “I’m sure you’ll make an excellent dinner, Kathleen.” And when Eric has all his living captives around the dinner table and presents the cooked woman, trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey to the horrified lookers-on, he chastises, “Is that any way to thank Kathleen? She’s been cooking all day!” To continue this metaphor properly, Dempsey doesn’t just revel in his role, he makes a meal of it.

There hasn’t really been a good Thanksgiving horror movie up until now, so that box has now been checked with Thanksgiving. It’s well-made, brutally humorous and most of all, it’s fun. Whether its sequel, Thanksgiving 2, scheduled for 2025, will be equally entertaining is anyone’s guess.