Thanksgiving Review | Patrick Dempsey Leads Eli Roth’s Good Ol’ Fashioned Slasher Flick

Summary

• Thanksgiving, directed by Eli Roth, is a horror film set in Plymouth, MA during the Thanksgiving holiday and features Patrick Dempsey in a surprising performance.
• The film combines dark humor, gore, and classic slasher elements, drawing inspiration from exploitation flicks of the 1970s and slashers from the 1980s and ’90s.
• A serial killer stalks the town in a gloriously blood-soaked whodunit, with the killer delivering campy one-liners. The film sets up the potential for a sequel and promises plenty of pop-out scares. Fans of the classic Grindhouse trailer won’t be disappointed.

First off, no, this isn’t any sort of feel-good Thanksgiving family film. Remember Eli Roth’s infamous fake trailer that was showcased before Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse double-feature? My friends and I still watch the short clip every year as Turkey Day arrives. Hard to believe it’s been 15 years since the faux commercial debuted, and here we are. Thanksgiving is now a feature film from the acclaimed Hostel and Cabin Fever director, who has also dabbled in on-screen appearances on both the big and small screen — Inglourious Basterds, The Idol, and more.

It’s too bad Roth doesn’t appear in his latest project (he’s a fun actor), but that’s not to say Thanksgiving doesn’t have its fair share of solid performances from others. Enter Patrick Dempsey, who was just recently named People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive, gives a very surprising and wide-ranging performance that’s just one of the highlights from Roth’s new B-movie that will surely fill the seats this holiday season.

Tragedy Strikes a Town of ‘Massholes’

Thanksgiving

Release Date November 17, 2023

Director Eli Roth

Cast Rick Hoffman, Gina Gershon, Patrick Dempsey, Milo Manheim, Addison Rae, Nell Verlaque

Main Genre Horror

Dempsey sports his native New England accent for Roth’s story, which is aptly set in Plymouth, Massachusetts (though it was shot in Canada). The film kicks off, cleverly, in the later hours of the Thanksgiving holiday, which means it’s an epic countdown to Black Friday. Are you aware of the chaos that ensues on this follow-up day of shopping deals and price slashes (no pun intended)? If you live in the U.S., this is no surprise, so it’s a funny opening sequence seeing angry “Massholes” (Roth’s words, not ours) lining up outside a Rite Mart department store in town that won’t open its doors till midnight strikes. No, everyone does not wait patiently. Roth leans into certain New England stereotypes to humorous effect — though things soon turn tense, violent, and terrifying.

Related: The 10 Most Delicious Looking Thanksgiving Dinners in TV and Movies

Then, as Sheriff Newlon protecting his town, Dempsey fires his gun inside the store, and the infamous title card (perhaps ripped straight from the 2007 faux trailer) is cued. From there, Roth’s holiday-laced slasher becomes a murder mystery mixed with dark humor and his signature gore galore. Remember that horrific moment in Hostel when the kids literally beat the bad guys’ brains in? Let’s just say the violence in Roth’s new feature is on par, if not more violent.

And for folks who can basically recite the fake trailer from memory, you’ll be pleased to know the outrageously violent moments are brought back for this feature adaptation. It’s B-movie, adults-only fun that Roth really leans into. Dempsey gives it his all, along with Roth regular Rick Hoffman as the department store’s conflicted owner, but the performances from the younger stars here aren’t exactly award-caliber. And that’s OK; we don’t exactly need them to be for a project like this.

TriStar Pictures 

The Grindhouse movie from 2007 was solely created to call back to those infamous exploitation flicks from the 1970s. With Thanksgiving (2023), Roth not only does the same, but he also seems to draw inspiration from classic slashers from the 1980s and even the ’90s to thrilling effect. The theater where you’ll experience Thanksgiving will surely turn rowdy both during and soon after the terrifying opening sequence plays out, setting the stage for events that shake up the town exactly one year later. Interestingly, “the killer” isn’t exactly the one responsible for this introductory Black Friday chaos that leads to certain characters’ shocking deaths. However, when the holiday returns the following year, someone may or may not be out for blood. Revenge? Or maybe just a desire to continue seeing locals perish? You’ll just have to see.

Related: 10 Forgotten Thanksgiving TV Specials That Give Us Nostalgia

A Gloriously Blood-Soaked Whodunit

 TriStar Pictures

Speaking of the ’70s, we even catch Jaws vibes here, with the department store subbing in for Amity Beach. As the store owner, Hoffman wants to keep it open despite the fatal chaos that ensued a year ago, sparking mixed reactions from the residents of Plymouth — especially when certain principal characters start dropping like flies courtesy of an actual serial killer, instead of an unfortunate trampling accident like the year before. Dressed by famed pilgrim John Carver, the killer looks a bit like the notorious vigilante from V for Vendetta, but correct me if I’m wrong.

“Return home for the holidays…in a bodybag!” is just one of the hilarious one-liners provided by the deep-voiced narrator of Roth’s original fake trailer. The feature film adaptation also leans into such cheap and campy thrills, with the killer belting out zingers like, “There will be no leftovers!” as they chase down their victims. It’s a celebration of classic slashers while also effectively getting with the times; in this digital age, basically everything in life is filmed, and the Thanksgiving killer is apparently well-versed in Gen Z-type hobbies, such as livestreaming… their own murder spre. As the group of high schoolers — led by the likable Jessica (Nell Verlaque) — who experienced last year’s Black Friday catastrophe try to crack the whodunit case around town, Roth gives us a series of red herrings, like any great slasher filmmaker might. Here’s looking at you, Scream director Wes Craven. Rest in power.

And like any good slasher, Roth successfully sets up the potential for a sequel, which many would certainly tune in for. This first feature wastes no time in thrusting us into a town in distress, in more ways than one (to put it mildly). There were only a few sequences that seemed to drag on unnecessarily, but those can be forgiven thanks to the blood-soaked pop-out-scary moments that fill up the rest of the movie. Is it an instant classic, especially for those whose favorite holiday films are Die Hard and Violent Night? It might just be.

Tristar Pictures and Spyglass Media Group present a Dragonfly Entertainment / EMP Productions film, Thanksgiving, which hits theaters Friday, Nov. 17, courtesy of Sony Pictures. You can watch the trailer below:

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