A year after a tragic riot at a Black Friday sale, the small town of Plymouth, Mass is trying to move on.
Until someone dressed as a pilgrim decides that cutting off heads is a better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than cutting prices...
Based on the faux trailer from 2007’s exploitation tribute Grindhouse, Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving does exactly what it says on the tin.
It hits all the money shots from the trailer, but the best compliment I can give the film is that it manages to avoid feeling like it is trying to string those images together.
The cast are solid, the script is functional, and even the gore and the edge of nihilistic glee carries a certain familiarity. The opening scene - the initial Black Friday sale-turned-crowd crush - gets close to raising temperatures - packing a frenzy, energy and mean streak that the rest of the film cannot quite match.
The killer’s look is effective, and the film makes some effective use of Thanksgiving iconography.
The original trailer attempted to echo the aesthetics of early 80s slashers. Its film adaptation does not go for that level of verisimilitude - Instagram plays a key role - but in its unpretentious efficiency, it feels more spiritually aligned with that era of slashers.
If you are a fan of The Prowler or any slasher from 1981, Thanksgiving will feel like comfort food.
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