Verdict
Summary
Thanksgiving features some good gore and a completely bananas retail store scene that was utterly hysterical and terrifying – other than that, same old same old.
Plot: A masked killer stalks people connected to a tragic Thanksgiving event in a retail store the previous year.
Review: Thanksgiving is the third of the trailers in the Grindhouse flick that ran between Planet Terror and Death Proof and got its own feature film – the others, of course, being Machete and Hobo with a Shotgun. If you haven’t seen either of those films yet, I highly recommend both – they’re both incredibly entertaining. Hopefully, someday, we will see Werewolf Women of the SS and Don’t hit the big screen as well.
Near the beginning, the action in the movie switches from a nice Thanksgiving dinner to a retail store preparing to open on Black Friday. I won’t spoil what happens in this scene, but you have to see it to believe it. It’s so over the top, so completely ridiculous and insane, I was laughing at the pure banality of it. At the same time, it’s kind of scary in its depiction of modern consumerism and the absurd lengths some people will go to.
Unfortunately, the movie can’t live up to that one scene. After it’s over, it’s a pretty standard slasher flick. Nothing wrong with that, and I’m not saying that the movie sucks because of it, but man, that scene is hard to live up to.
That being said, this film has a decent amount of gore and should please those who love the visceral. I especially enjoyed the table saw, and the trampoline kills – both were shot extremely well and maximized the damage to the individual victims. There’s also a kind of hilarious death of a wooden stake through a victim’s head while two screaming children look on – it’s these little touches that elevate the film a bit.
As for the characters, they’re the usual assemblage of bland “nice” characters sprinkled with douchebags who you want to see dead. I’m happy to report that every extremely annoying character in the movie gets their comeuppance in particularly brutal fashion. So, no complaints there.
Spanning 106 minutes, the movie probably could have been trimmed down to the 80–85-minute range. The mystery of the killer is not that great, and I called it who it was about 45 minutes in. Yet, the movie does the general “red herring” plot devices that ring false. Unless this is your very first slasher movie, you’ll quickly know who the killer is, so it ends up being a waiting game for the big reveal, which is still entertaining but somewhat unnecessary.
The setting of the film was perfect for the movie. Not only due to New England’s rich history related to the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock, but the small-town feel fits the story. The movie wouldn’t have worked if it had been set in a major city. The story and the film demanded a modern feel with intimacy, and Eli Roth perfectly struck that balance. I loved the look of the killer, dressed like a pilgrim, running around killing people in this historical-looking small town where the residents are still trying to impress with how modern they are. It was an interesting clash of styles.
The soundtrack was the usual ominous stuff you hear all the time nowadays associated with horror movie soundtracks and didn’t stand out. I guess, though, at least it didn’t annoy me. Still, the song over the final credits was not the greatest.
Thanksgiving is a movie for slasher fans tired of most modern horror filmmakers’ bloodless, jump-scare approach. There’s gore galore, and it truly stands out at certain points. Besides those highlights, it’s a generic slasher film with a villain with a cool look and a mystery that barely registers. I still recommend a watch, though, especially for those who like a little blood mixed in with their turkey.