Review | Thanksgiving movie review: Eli Roth’s utterly gruesome slasher horror feature, built on his fake trailer in Grindhouse, may well kick off a series
- A Black Friday stampede at a New England superstore leaves several shoppers dead. One year later, a killer in pilgrim garb appears, causing Thanksgiving carnage
- A series of grisly murders, laced with sadistic wit, ensues in Eli Roth’s film, which began life as a fake trailer and could spark a new horror franchise
3.5/5 stars
Holiday-themed slasher films have long been a staple of the horror genre, as Halloween, Black Christmas, My Bloody Valentine and countless others add a shot of festive fear to an otherwise celebratory season.
Director Eli Roth adds to the calendar of carnage with Thanksgiving, which sees the residents of a small New England town at the mercy of a knife-wielding killer dressed as a pilgrim, who carves up his victims with as much ravenous gusto as revellers would a freshly roasted turkey.
Thanksgiving first took flight as a fake trailer, directed by Roth, which was included in Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s experimental 2007 exploitation anthology Grindhouse.
Sixteen years on, the concept has been expanded into a fully fledged feature, which pays loving tribute to a host of beloved horror classics, from Scream to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, as Roth continues his own extended foray in the genre, which began with films such as Cabin Fever and Hostel.
The film opens with a horrifying Black Friday riot, as a frenzied mob of delirious shoppers storms the local RightMart superstore in a hunt for holidays bargains, leaving a number of people dead in their wake.
One year later, a string of grisly murders shatters the community just as they are preparing for the holiday.
