‘Thanksgiving’ Review
Stars: Patrick Dempsey, Nell Verlaque, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Rick Hoffman, Gina Gershon | Written by Eli Roth, Jeff Rendell | Directed by Eli Roth
Director Eli Roth returns with this entertaining holiday-themed slasher based on the mock trailer he created for 2007’s Grindhouse. As such, the tagline is so good, it makes it into the movie as a line of dialogue: “This Thanksgiving, there will be…no leftovers.”
Set in Plymouth Massachusetts, the film opens with a horrific Black Friday tragedy, when customers go crazy at a Right-Mart store sale, leaving multiple people trampled to death. One year later, with Thanksgiving approaching again, high school student Jessica (Nell Verlaque) and her friends (who were all in the store on the night of the massacre) start getting tagged into creepy posts on Instagram, by someone calling himself “John Carver”.
Sure enough, it isn’t long before various Plymouth residents – all clearly visible in the only surviving footage of the massacre, a viral YouTube video shot by cocky Evan (Tomaso Sanelli) – start getting brutally murdered, in a way that suggests Carver is targeting everyone responsible for the massacre. Since Jessica’s dad (Rick Hoffman) owns the store, she and her friends figure they are top of the list, so they try to whittle down the list of suspects and stop the killer, aided by local cop Sheriff Newlon (Patrick Dempsey).
Eli Roth made his name on delivering buckets of gore, so his name is practically synonymous with the red stuff. Accordingly, Thanksgiving serves up plenty of grisly kills, as well as a queasy central set-piece that will likely have you reconsidering Christmas dinner this year.
The film also gives us a new cinematic boogieman, in that the murderer’s “John Carver” costume is a pilgrim outfit, a mask and an axe, meaning that anyone could become the killer in a potential sequel, just like in the Scream movies.
The script, written by Jeff Rendell from a story by Rendell and Roth, takes some well-aimed swipes at greed and capitalism, as well as people exploiting misery and pain for a social media following. In addition, Roth nails the conventions of the slasher genre, ensuring a steady stream of wincingly nasty kills, a line-up of suspects (you’ll likely guess the actual killer, but that scarcely matters), significant tension and exciting chase / action sequences.
The younger actors do a good job of making their characters distinctive, especially since the script doesn’t give them a lot of help in that department. To that end, Nell Verlaque deserves singling out, as she makes Jessica easy to root for, despite her slightly obnoxious friends and her connection to the initial tragedy.
If there’s an issue with Thanksgiving, it’s only that it could have used a dash more humour. There are occasional jokes (such as a “50% Off” gag) and flashes of dark humour, but in general, Roth opts for a rather more serious tone than is strictly necessary.
In addition, after the reveal of the killer, it really feels like there was a second twist that was planned and abandoned – one key plot conflict goes unresolved (unusual for this sort of film), while another character is conspicuous by their absence in the finale. Maybe they’re saving something for the sequel?
**** 4/5
Thanksgiving is in cinemas now.
