Thanksgiving came out in 2023.
Full disclosure, I had the chance to attend a free screening a week prior to its release while attending a horror convention in the UK.
We had a special message from Eli Roth asking us to keep quiet and got a nice killer-faced fan picket as a souvenir.
That being said, and while the event was super fun, the movie was so-so for me.
It has a classic Eli Roth style, that either works foryou or doesn’t.
It worked in Cabin Fever, Hostel, and in some capacity in Green Inferno, but here it felt « too much Roth » here if that makes any sense.
From Grindhouse trailer to slasher feature
The characters often don’t feel like real people, and some of the dialogue is questionnable at best.
But on the other hand, some things were very well handled, the gore was great, and the deaths are always a highlight in his movies. The oven one is awful and great at the same time. She was almost home free.
I’ll give it some leniency as it all came from a Grindhouse short shot 10+ years prior.
And it gave us a new holiday slasher, that easily dethrones Thankskilling‘s turkey mayhem. So there’s that.
Besides, coming up with something big that’s holiday themed is hard. Not everything can be Terrifier 3.
Sadly, the killer was foreseeable from a mile away, and the reasonning was kind of dumb ? Just a plain revenge plot. That lasted a year. That’s it.
But at least it’s acted decently by Patrick Dempsey, who really stands out.
A great whodunit nowadays is hard to pull off… Even Scream fails at its own game most of the time.
But the puns were too on the nose « I’m sure you’ll make a great dinner Kathleen. »
Come on. I’m surprised he didn’t wink at the camera right then and there.
At least we can root for him, some of the characters are just horrible human beings.
And besides, he fed the cat (after murdering its owner, yes, but still…)
The killer’s logic & plot holes
Now some questions arise. How would a killer clown costume be allowed at all at a Thanksgiving parade without anyone being surprised ?
How would the killer know how long to cook a human being for ?
Were there supposed to be 2 killers ? Because sometimes it feels like one wouldn’t be possible.
Like, literally impossible timing-wise.
Also, the many feet shots, does he share a fetish with Tarantino ?
Among the many over-sexualisations of women in their movies, that is.
And has Eli Roth ever considered a redneck easter bunny killer version of this ?
The message about consumerism and the sick and perverted way humans act is decent, and comes from a good place to point it out, but…
Look, I really wanted to love this movie. It had everything going for it, but it fell a bit flat.
Kudos for the efforts, but it didn’t become the classic I hope it’d be.
And the I know what you did last summer ending ? Eye roll.
My rating: 3/5 bats
🦇🦇🦇🦃🦃
I do not own it.