The New Movie of the Week: Thanksgiving 2023

In Plymouth, Massachusetts, on Thanksgiving evening, a mob forms outside the RightMart getting ready for the doors to open for their “Black Friday” sale. Amanda (Gina Gershon) drops by the store with some left-over food from Thanksgiving Dinner for her husband Mitch (Ty Victor Olsson) who was ordered to work that night missing the feast. Accompanying her is Sheriff Eric Newton (Patrick Dempsey), who was dining with Amanda and Mitch’s family but was informed that additional help may be needed for crowd control.  After having dinner with her family, Jessica Wright (Nell Verlaque), whose father owns RightMart, sneaks her friends into the store early as one of them needs a new phone.  They briefly taunt the people waiting in the line.  The incensed crowd pushes through the barricades and before a security guard can unlock the doors they break in, and a riot ensues and 3 people are killed and more are injured, including Jessica’s boyfriend Bobby (Jalen Thomas Brooks) whose arm is badly broken ruining his chances of a sports scholarship and professional career. A year later, RightMart is planning another Black Friday sale, swearing this year will have the needed security but one by one the most egregious offenders during the riotous rampage begin being killed by a figure wearing a John Carver mask.  John Carver is a historical figure, having made the 1620 voyage on the Mayflower resulting in the creation of the Plymouth Colony and became its first governor. Jessica and her friends begin receiving texts from the killer showing the bodies of his victims sitting around a Thanksgiving Dinner table warning them that they are also on the menu. But who could the killer be, is it Bobby, who disappeared after last years event; Deputy Bret Labelle (Jeff Teravainen) whose arrival in town corresponds with the murders; Jessica’s new boyfriend Ryan (Milo Manheim) who appeared to have been friends with one of the people killed in the chaos; Mitch, who also lost a loved one to the violent mob of shoppers. There is a virtual cornucopia of suspects and a plethora of potential victims.  Who is the killer and who will survive? Watch and find out.

Thanksgiving is a 2023 slasher film directed by Eli Roth and based on his fictitious movie trailer made for the Grindhouse (2007).  This is the third feature-length adaptation of a Grindhouse trailer the others being Robert Rodriguez’s Machete (2010) and Jason Eisener’s Hobo with a Shotgun (2011). Thanksgiving was written by Jeff Rendell and was released in theaters on November 17, 2023 with the film receiving generally positive reviews and was a moderate financial success, grossing $46 million in worldwide sales on a $15 million budget.  Rotten Tomatoes has an average rating of 6.8/10 with the websites consensus reading “Combining belly-busting humor with delightfully over-the-top gore, Thanksgiving is a feast for grindhouse fans.”. Metacritic gives a 63/100 score based on 34 critical reviews.  And of course, since it made some money, a sequel has been greenlit for a 2025 release.

This was an enjoyable and polished film.  It was well crafted and well-acted with a decent story and some sympathetic and likeable characters for the audience to root for and some not so likeable characters that become Pilgrim chow. The overall look of the film is professional and polished with some good humor mixed with a spooky atmosphere and plenty of over-the-top gore. It reminds me of some of the classic 80s and 90s horror films, like I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and Terror Train (1980), falling into a subgenre I like to call “revenge killer”. This film follows the basic premise that sometime in the past something horrific happened and now someone is out for revenge. I love stories like these, as it usually includes a bit of mystery on who the killer is and why. I am hoping the sequel will keep this element and not bring back the same killer and rehash the same story.  The only thing I didn’t particularly care for was the gore, it is over the top at times and a bit too gross for me, but that is a personal preference. In conclusion, this is a well done, slick looking film that was fun to watch with a good cast and an interesting story.