Thanksgiving (2023)

Score: 4 / 5

Just in time for the titular holiday, Thanksgiving is Eli Roth's love letter to '80s slashers that center on "other" holidays than Black Christmas and of course Halloween. The trend bled out -- so to speak -- during the decade, from Mother's Day and New Year's Evil through My Bloody Valentine to Graduation Day and Prom Night, encompassing the likes of Silent Night, Deadly Night and April Fool's Day among many, many more. Few are remembered or regarded well, but those of us in the know usually bust one or two out every year during its respective season. I have a whole list of Christmas horror movies I bust out in December to usher in the festivities! But this is the first Thanksgiving slasher I've seen, and it feels a lot like those '80s ones in the best ways.

It's clear Roth eschews both "elevated" horror (a la A24 titles and their ilk) as well as exclusive jump-scares (and often supernatural tactics, a la Blumhouse), preferring instead to lean into bloody violence while following a classic whodunnit plot. Longtime fans will remember his fake trailer for a Thanksgiving slasher in the middle of Tarantino/Rodriguez's Grindhouse in 2007, and this film definitely remembers that promise, even using title text that feels ripped from exploitation films of the time. To reassure those (like me) who tire of some of Roth's previous bloodbaths: this film isn't simply a gorefest and actually exhibits some admirable restraint on that front. Roth isn't going for heightened themes here, either, and has crafted a hyper-focused thrill ride of suspicion and fear along with geographical and cultural specificity that makes Plymouth, the home of the holiday, an interesting and dynamic character itself. 

It helps, too, that films like this just work. They are tailor-made to be crowd-pleasers, generating dread, cultivating frisson, and allowing catharsis in palatably brief runtimes and reliably paced beats. The closest this film gets to making broader statements is in its opening, a deliciously bleak sequence that depicts a Black Friday sale -- on Thursday night -- that turns into a violent mob and results in multiple deaths. It's horrifying and grimly funny, not unlike the opening sequence of Krampus but with Roth's flair for blood. A year later, a killer dressed up as the aptly-named John Carver (first governor of Plymouth) begins murdering the primary instigators of the previous year's tragedy, who were recorded on security camera footage that had since been deleted mysteriously.

The whodunnit aspect kicks into gear when the group of teenage friends -- led by Jessica (Nell Verlaque) whose father owns the store -- all receive creepy notifications on social media from the killer with pictures of a dinner table with their names set at seats. While the sheriff (Patrick Dempsey) works to investigate, Jessica and her friends piece together the killer's MO and targets pretty quickly, much like in a Scream story. Not all the characters are well rounded, but you don't expect or even want that in movies like this, and frankly it helps keep energy up and humor up when you don't get too attached to the characters who will invariably end up on the, well, cutting room floor. On the other hand, the killer is more than effectively scary, because of both his cold confidence and frankly disturbing literal reminder of colonialism, fundamentalism, and the power of traditions that are perhaps problematic. Which makes this film a pretty great way to serve a sadistic and sardonic dish to anyone with a taste for it.