Setting a Thanksgiving-themed slasher movie in Plymouth, Massachusetts, may be a bit obvious, but it certainly wouldn’t be the only element of director/co-writer Eli (Hostel, Cabin Fever) Roth’s Thanksgiving that is squarely on the nose. Based on Roth’s faux trailer of the same name from the 2007 double-bill Grindhouse and co-written by Jeff Rendell, the film begins with a Black Friday bloodbath at a big-box store owned by the town millionaire Thomas Wright (Rick Hoffman), who refused to hire adequate security for such massive crowds.
Footage from the security cameras clearly shows who among the riotous shoppers was the most responsible, and a year later a mysterious killer, hiding behind a mask of the Plymouth colony governor John Carver, begins targeting the guilty parties, including most of Hoffman’s family members, such as Wright's daughter Jessica (Nell Verlaque) and her friends, who managed to get into the store before it opened a year earlier only to taunt those on the outside. Sheriff Newton (Patrick Dempsey, recently crowned People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive) tries in vain to keep the peace both currently and a year ago, but when his would-be girlfriend (Gina Gershon) was crushed and partially scalped in the melee, his interest in the case became personal and perhaps less focused.
Eli Roth is not only a filmmaker but a student of genre film, so his aesthetic and approach to Thanksgiving is very much of the 1990s, with a bit of 1980s energy stuffed in around the edges. His dedication to keeping the kills original and exceedingly bloody is admirable, while his camera movement, music cues, and general vibe are decidedly period. The identity of the killer is almost secondary to his reasons for wanting these people dead. The reveal feels straight out of Scream, in that it feels completely unguessable by audiences because there are very few genuine clues given (and no, the montage of evidence we’re given after his identity is revealed doesn’t count; those are just variations on line readings from earlier in the movie).
But Roth keeps things moving with highly likable (and unlikable) characters whom we can either hope survive until the end or die horribly, depending on who you’re rooting for. The film has a nasty sense of humor and enough corny one-liners to give Carver at least an honorable mention in the Slasher Hall of Fame. Roth isn’t going for groundbreaking, but he isn’t trying to make everything familiar either. And the finale’s big dinner-table sequence might be the greatest thing Roth has ever committed to film. Most importantly, it’s great seeing him back in the genre he clearly cares about the most, having fun, delivering a few choice jolts of fear, and opening the tap on the blood flow. Plus, it’s a holiday-themed movie, so bring the whole family.
The film is now playing in theaters.