Thanksgiving Review

 

Thanksgiving is a slasher movie based on Eli Roth's mock trailer for the 2007 movie, Grindhouse. This is now the third mock trailer to be turned into a feature film, after Robert Rodriguez's Machete and Jason Eisener's Hobo with a Shotgun. The movie's produced by Spyglass Media Group, Dragonfly Entertainment and Electromagnetic Productions and distributed by TriStar Pictures. Thanksgiving is written by Eli Roth and Jeff Rendell and directed by Eli Roth.

The story is during one Thanksgiving, a store has a huge Black Friday sale which quickly turned into a disaster resulting in people dying. One year later, a man dressed as a pilgrim seeks bloody vengeance to those he holds responsible for that day.

Initial Reaction

I've been begging for this movie since I saw the fake trailer in Grindhouse. So when I heard we were FINALLY getting it I was for it. Because we've had horror movies take place on Thanksgiving, Home Sweet Home comes to mind. But we've never had one where a filmmaker goes all in on the gimmick. Thankfully Eli Roth and Jeff Rendell took the challenge.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

The only slight issue stems from the characters. Now yes, I know typically with slasher movies you shouldn't expect strong characters, but you can at least make them entertaining. So some I did like, but others are only good if they're either A) Part of the body count or B) A suspect.

Pros

Now tell you the things the movie did right. One of those being the pacing. This was a movie that wasn't too slow or too fast. It was just a nice start to finish runtime, that just breezes by. Which brings me to the horror aspect. Since it's a slasher movie you can expect some gruesome and creative kills. But when that's not happening, there's some really good suspense going on as well. The opening Black Friday scene is a good example of this, what with its rising tension. There's also some bits of comedy. Eli Roth and Jeff Rendell knew there was no reason to take a horror movie called Thanksgiving 100% seriously. There's also some satire going on with social media, which thankfully didn't bring down the movie's quality. What I also liked about the comedy was it truly fit. It didn't feel like we got transported to a completely different flick. The last thing I'll say is this really did feel like an old-school 80's slasher movie, with how it's shot, edited, and the characterizations. Hell, even that "There will be no leftovers" tagline is something I'd expect from those movies.

While Thanksgiving is by no means perfect, it's still a very fun movie. Sure somethings were changed from the original fake trailer, but I still, for the most part, got everything I wanted from this movie.

My final rating is, Good.

Now all we need is for Rob Zombie to make Werewolf Women of the SS and for Edgar Wright to make Don't, and every fake trailer from Grindhouse will become an official movie. That's all for now. Come back on Monday, Nov 20th, for my Cinematic Disasters review of Titanic: The Legend Goes On. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.