Eli Roth’s “Thanksgiving,” a holiday-set slasher, is nearly here. And a brand-new trailer has arrived, checking off boxes for both spooky season and the upcoming turkey-centered holiday.
In “Thanksgiving,” a Black Friday tragedy inspires a serial killer known as “John Carver” to come to Plymouth, Massachusetts and start eliminating victims. It looks fairly straightforward, in terms of its slasher movie aesthetic, but also incredibly imaginative in the ways that the holiday is being implemented. That’s particularly true as we see a fresh victim wake up and realize she’s inside a giant oven.
If you’re going to do a movie called “Thanksgiving,” there are certain things that you simply must put your spin on.
“Thanksgiving” was born out of a fake trailer that was part of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s “Grindhouse” faux double-feature project in 2007. Other fake trailers, which ran in between the feature-length movies, were directed by Rob Zombie and Edgar Wright and have, so far, not been turned into actual movies. The fake “Thanksgiving” trailer was a standout, featuring a topless woman bouncing on a trampoline — and about to be impaled. (This moment has been hinted as being a part of the actual movie.)
Addison Rae, Patrick Dempsey, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Nell Verlaque, Rick Hoffman and Gina Gershon star in “Thanksgiving,” with Roth directing from a script by Jeff Rendell (they came up with the story together). It also marks Roth’s first narrative feature since 2018’s big-budget family film “The House with a Clock in Its Walls” and the Bruce Willis-led remake of “Death Wish.”
He is currently in post-production on “Borderlands,” an adaptation of the popular video game franchise, starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Jamie Lee Curtis, which Lionsgate will release next summer.
“Thanksgiving” opens in theaters on Nov. 17. Should make for a fun conversation at the family dinner table.
