Thanksgiving (18)

A mysterious killer terrorises the residents of Plymouth, Massachusetts - the birthplace of the Thanksgiving celebration - following a tragic Black Friday riot. As the body count slowly rises, Sheriff Newlon (Patrick Dempsey) tries to reassure the locals that he has everything under control.

LondonNet Film Review

Thanksgiving (18) Film Review from LondonNet

The origins of America’s Thanksgiving celebration – a national holiday on the fourth Thursday in November endorsed by a 1941 congressional bill bearing the signature of President Franklin D Roosevelt – are attributed to a 17th-century feast in Plymouth, Massachusetts, between Pilgrim settlers and Native Americans to mark a bountiful harvest. More than 400 years later, Thanksgiving is still a time for families and friends to express gratitude, but unabashed consumerism now has a seat at the dinner table with an onslaught of Black Friday discounts and promotions. Director Eli Roth, ringmaster of the Hostel torture porn circus, orchestrates a stampede at one holiday sales event as the blood-soaked prologue to a slasher film that gleefully disembowels residents of Plymouth, Massachusetts, at the hands of a killer wearing a mask of Pilgrim governor John Carver…

The stomach-churning make up and prosthetics begin early in this gore-slathered Thanksgiving – fair warning that scriptwriter Jeff Randell will be heavy-handed with the splatter. Characters’ innards rarely remain where human anatomy intended and Roth’s camera lingers on the sickening aftermath of slaughter. Steely nerves and strong stomachs are required. Once you excise the expertly staged carnage, Thanksgiving is a Scream-lite exercise in punishment that invites the audience to guess who lurks behind the plastic Carver mask before a grand reveal confirms the most logical suspect (and correlates with one killer of the Ghostface saga).

Thomas Wright (Rick Hoffman), owner of the RightMart store in Plymouth, celebrates Thanksgiving with new wife Kathleen (Karen Cliche) and family while his hard-working staff prepare to open the store at 6pm for an early Black Friday sale promising free waffle irons to the first 100 customers through the door. His daughter Jessica (Nell Verlaque), her boyfriend Bobby (Jalen Thomas Brooks) and close pals Gabby (Addison Rae), Evan (Tomaso Sanelli), Yulia (Jenna Warren) and Scuba (Gabriel Davenport) access the store through a staff entrance and contribute to a fatal crush that casts a shadow over the community.

One year later, a masked psychopath targets the Wright family and people involved in the stampede, using utensils found on a Thanksgiving table. As the body count rises, Sheriff Newlon (Patrick Dempsey) and Deputy Labelle (Jeff Teravainen) struggle to reassure locals they have everything under control. “We let the police handle it, we’re all going to end up 50% off,” growls football jock Evan.

Based on a tongue-in-cheek fake trailer created by Roth for Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s 2007 Grindhouse collaboration, Thanksgiving abides by familiar horror tropes and garnishes glistening viscera with campy one-liners. Aside from Verlaque’s level-headed prodigal daughter, potential victims have perfunctory back stories to convince us to care about their wellbeing. Audiences can be thankful Roth contains the gratuitous bloodletting to under two hours.

– Kim Hu