THANKSGIVING (2023)

Studio:   TriStar Pictures
Director: Eli Roth
Writer:   Jeff Rendell
Producer: Eli Roth, Roger Birnbaum, Jeff Rendell
Stars:    Patrick Dempsey, Nell Verlaque, Addison Rae, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Milo Manheim, Tomaso Sanelli, Gabriel Davenport, Jenna Warren, Rick Hoffman, Gina Gershon

Review Score:

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Summary:

One year after a deadly megastore riot, a masked killer uses the Thanksgiving holiday to stalk people connected to the tragedy.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

On Thanksgiving Day in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Sheriff Eric Newlon attends a holiday dinner with RightMart store manager Mitch Collins and Mitch's wife Amanda. Additional dinner guests include RightMart owner Thomas Wright and his teenage daughter Jessica, Thomas's new fiancée Kathleen, and Jessica's high school baseball star boyfriend Bobby DiStasi.

Mitch is unexpectedly called to work at his RightMart store's big sale later that evening. Using access afforded to her family, Jessica and Bobby help their friends Evan Fletcher, Evan's girlfriend Gaby, Evan's football teammate Scuba, and Scuba's girlfriend Yulia get into the store early. From inside the store, Evan taunts Lonnie, a rival from another high school who restlessly waits with his cheerleader girlfriend Amy, diner waitress Lizzie, and an anxious crowd outside.

Despite the efforts of Sheriff Newlon and security guards Doug and Manny to control everyone, a riot breaks out after Lonnie riles up the crowd. Manny flees the scene. Amanda Collins and Doug are both killed in a stampede of customers. Bobby breaks his arm and completely vanishes for a full year afterward.

One year later, Evan, Gaby, Scuba, Yulia, and Jessica, who is now dating Ryan Baker, begin receiving threatening texts from someone disguised as pilgrim John Carver. After diner waitress Lizzie is violently murdered and her lower body hanged on the RightMart store sign, the teens and the town realize a killer is stalking people associated with the riot. Detective Peter Chu and Deputy Bret Labelle join Sheriff Newlon's investigation into the matter.

Bobby unexpectedly resurfaces, which causes Ryan to renew his jealousy of Jessica's previous boyfriend. Since Kathleen Wright secretly deleted the original files, Bobby helps Jessica access backup security camera footage of the RightMart riot on her father's computer. Using still frames from the video that show people in prominent positions at the riot, Jessica helps Sheriff Newlon identify Lonnie and Ryan among potential suspects. Meanwhile, the killer decapitates former security guard Manny.

As concern among the teenage friends grows, the killer butchers Lonnie and his girlfriend Amy at their high school across town. Jessica then narrowly escapes the murderer after he attacks and captures Evan and Gaby. Ongoing frustration sparks another acrimonious confrontation between Bobby and Ryan, which Sheriff Newlon breaks up while Jessica tells off both boys.

Jessica accompanies Scuba when he purchases a gun from local burnout McCarty. The killer calls Jessica and Scuba to show them he has Yulia held hostage in her home. Jessica and Scuba race to Yulia's house where the killer mutilates Yulia to death with a buzzsaw in front of them.

The remaining targets reluctantly work with the police to lay a trap for the killer at Plymouth's annual Thanksgiving parade. However, the killer, now dressed as a clown, still creates a public panic by slaughtering a teen dressed as a turkey mascot during the event. In the ensuing commotion, the killer captures Thomas and Kathleen Wright along with Jessica and Scuba.

The killer prepares and bakes Kathleen like a turkey that he serves at a bizarre dinner scene with Thomas, Jessica, Scuba, Evan, and Gaby tied to chairs around a table. A livestream of the event leads authorities to underground tunnels, although they discover the killer electronically hid his true location. With his voice disguised, the killer beats Evan to death with a meat tenderizer before explaining he targeted the teens because of the taunting they did that incited the RightMart riot.

Scuba and Jessica break free from their restraints. The killer chases Jessica to a warehouse where she spots Bobby in a jumpsuit and assumes him to be the killer. Jessica finds Sheriff Newlon recovering from a head wound and points him in Bobby's direction, but Bobby escapes.

Thomas, Gaby, and Scuba are hospitalized in the aftermath. While recovering in his office, Jessica connects clues that identify Sheriff Newlon as the real killer. Newlon confesses he was having an affair with Amanda Collins, and the killing spree was his revenge against those he blamed for her death. Newlon suddenly flies into a rage when he discovers Jessica secretly broadcast his confession through a concealed cellphone.

Bobby rescues Jessica. Following a protracted confrontation, Jessica and Bobby seemingly explode the sheriff using gas for parade balloons, but Newlon's body isn't recovered. Jessica resumes her romance with Ryan, although she suffers from a nightmare that a burned Sheriff Newlon is still after her.

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Review:

What started as a cheeky Coming Attraction plugged in between Robert Rodriguez's "Planet Terror" and Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof" way back in 2007's "Grindhouse" finally becomes a full-length movie with Eli Roth's 2023 feature "Thanksgiving." And in finding creative ways to incorporate just about every memorable moment from that fake trailer, "Thanksgiving" fulfills its 16-year-old promise of exploitation era absurdity by serving up a fully packed plate of horror and humor that's likely to land on more than a few lists of favorite fright films fit for the fourth Thursday of November.

After a setup scene introduces a few of the many main players, "Thanksgiving" kicks off festivities with a milieu familiar to anyone who's ever eschewed the convenience of online shopping to brave the human zoo of a Black Friday sale in person. With the promise of a free waffle iron dangling over already-enticing prices, the restless crowd outside a major megastore can only entertain themselves with Boston-accented insults for so long. Soon, the situation turns into a literal door buster as teens taunt crosstown rivals and anxious shoppers break down barriers with froth-mouthed fervor. A pair of people get killed, and there's plenty of blame to pass around in the aftermath.

That's why one year later, when a murderer masked as original Mayflower pilgrim John Carver starts stalking anyone associated with the deadly riot, no one can be quite certain who's wielding his historic ax. Jessica and her four closest high school friends, who sneaked into the store early and angered everyone outside in the process, seem to be the primary targets of terrorization. But the megastore owner and his trophy wife aren't off the hook as victims or as suspects. Neither are Jessica's ex-boyfriend who mysteriously disappeared following the melee or the new beau who opportunistically popped up in his place. The handsome sheriff sure has a hot mess on his hands as the small town of Plymouth continues getting carved up like a basted bird, and anyone could be at either end of the blade.

Whether it's the revelation of Pamela Voorhees exacting revenge in the first "Friday the 13th" (review here) or the never-identified madman who crank calls a sorority house in Bob Clark's original "Black Christmas" (review here), slasher films have a long tradition of often doubling as whodunits. As evidenced by the preceding summary, "Thanksgiving" also has a major mystery component, although individual mileage absolutely varies on how much fuel that puts in the film's tank.

By my conservative count, there must be at least a half-dozen partners, toadies, and various hangers-on who play no more important roles than "potential culprits." Perhaps if the nicely paced 100-minute runtime overstayed its welcome, "Thanksgiving" would have had the real estate to establish these jabronis as genuinely viable candidates for the killer instead of the forgettable nobodies they actually are.

I'm honestly not sure how much the script truly tries to hide the supposed secret. Because the movie plays so conspicuously with the herrings it doesn't dunk in neon red paint, I correctly predicted the killer, and their exact motive, well before the movie's midpoint without even trying. Since it came easily, the killer's identity doesn't seem too challenging to figure out. So if you don't want it spoiled for you, maybe don't think too hard on it. Better yet, don't give it a thought at all.

I also think if anyone's enjoyment of "Thanksgiving" hinges on the iffy whodunit, they'll miss out on the murderous merriment that is really the movie's main course. "Thanksgiving" collects all of the other essential elements for structuring a proper, prototypical slasher: chases, narrow escapes, teenage melodrama, a formidable enough Final Girl, nailbiting predicaments and, perhaps most critically for this brand of horror, gruesome deaths courtesy of a masked murderer with a striking silhouette.

A couple of kills feature spilled entrails, a shopping cart scalping, severed body parts, and someone salted, seasoned and roasted in an industrial oven. Other than that last one, nothing gets too over-the-top outrageous, although the tone includes several other splashes of dark comedy, such as one victim being unable to swipe open her phone due to blood smearing the screen or have it recognize her mangled face, as reminders that "Thanksgiving" isn't meant to be gulped down with strict seriousness. It's more of a fast food "cheat meal" for fear fans who want something flavorful that's not necessarily nutritious.

"Thanksgiving" probably won't hold up to repeated viewings once the killer is already known and the clutter of useless side characters stick out like even sorer thumbs. For a first feeding, however, it's a clean movie built on sharp imagery, a perfectly fine plot, and colorful atmosphere that doesn't get too garish. It's no "Halloween" (review here), nothing except Carpenter's classic is, but "Thanksgiving" still stands at or above "April Fool's Day," "New Year's Evil," and entries of that ilk as an easily entertaining holiday horror film.

Review Score: 75

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