Back in 2007 after the collaborative efforts of Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez known as “Grindhouse” flopped, one of the popular elements of the double feature that lingered on was the mock trailers during intermission. After delivering a very popular faux trailer with “Thanksgiving,” director Eli Roth finally gives us what we’ve been begging for almost twenty years later. Thankfully while the whole faux grindhouse aesthetic has fallen out of favor with mainstream cinema, “Thanksgiving” ends as a pretty great slasher film with its own merits to offer the horror genre.
An axe-wielding maniac known as “The Carver” terrorizes residents of Plymouth, Mass., after a terrible Black Friday riot ends in tragedy. Picking off victims one by one, the seemingly random revenge killings soon become part of a larger, sinister plan involving the town’s wealthy business, and the seedy residents.
While director Roth ditches the whole grindhouse gimmick, skipping film stock and all, he remains true to the core of what made his original short so entertaining and unique. I was originally worried about him ditching the whole shtick, but “Thanksgiving” coasts by thanks to its solid revenge story, creepy new slasher, and subtle commentary about consumerism. While “Thanksgiving” will get compared to many movies, and goodness knows Eli Roth owes a debt to a ton of eighties slashers, Roth’s film works a lot more in the vein of Steven C. Miller’s “Silent Night.”
It’s a campy, in your face, unsubtle, and vicious slasher film that sticks to the basics of what makes this sub-genre such a blast, and compensates with some pretty great kills and splatter. After many years with a lot of high concept slasher films, it feels great to back to the basics, with a classic revenge story, a slick whodunit, and really dark comedy. While Roth is always at risk of falling victim to fan service (a la his original faux trailer), Roth powers through with a narrative that’s thankfully never too convoluted or ridiculous.
I also loved how the killer “The Carver” has a lot of motivation as Roth stages a prologue revolving on a horribly violent Black Friday incident that sets off the entire film. Punctuating the sheer horrendous violence, “The Carver” is a competently creepy and unpredictable slasher who is never in short supply of creative ways to slay their victims. Adding to the film is the solid cast including Nell Verlaque, Milo Manheim, and Patrick Dempsey, respectively. I was never really a fan of Roth in the past, but “Thanksgiving” delivers to the fans what they’ve been begging for, while also setting the stage for a slasher that has huge franchise potential.