Thanksgiving (2023) Review – After 16 years Eli Roth finally delivers Thanksgiving…but was this worth the wait?
March 23 2024
Published by Geisha Quezada
How It Started...
Eli Roth who is most known for his films in Cabin Fever (2002,) Hostel (2005,) with a directorial team in Grindhouse (2007,) etc. has now come out with Thanksgiving (2023). Roth had made a fictional trailer for the film “Thanksgiving” that had been released in 2007 as part of a double feature for Grindhouse along with other fake trailers. At the time Fans were raging for Roth to make this into a real feature length movie, which Roth was indeed intrigued to make the film immediately but went through a lot of trouble from producing the right script to trying to manage someone to pick up his idea.
Out for revenge
The Film is a gory slasher that takes place in Plymouth, Massachusetts on the night of Thanksgiving and we get an overview of two families having dinner both getting ready for Black Friday. The Films main characters consist of a group of teenagers who arrive to the shopping center for some fun when a twist of events hits after crowds of consumers break through the glass doors to enter the store and in a rush catastrophe hits when people start to die in the riot. A year later happens and it is Thanksgiving time again but this time the town becomes terrorized.
As people begin to die one by one at first it was suspected to be random deaths until it is realized throughout the film that it is actually part of a big elaborate who dun it scheme. Eli Roths Thanksgiving (2023) is able to capture a modern innovative idea of the toll holidays take out of people and traditions, as well as the aspect of families blending issues from heartfelt moments to emotional distress. The story is accomplished with help of Cast, Crew, amazing cinematography work, as well as symbolism and themes included.
Working with the Cast
-Thanksgiving is full of a large cast with multiple backgrounds, with one of main characters Jessica played by Neil Verlaque who is a horror fan herself and loved working with Eli Roth as she enjoys the 80’s/90’s slasher vibe aspect the film was giving. Weeks prior to filming Roth made all the actors playing the high school kids to all hang out together which included Addison Rae as Gabby, Milo Manheim as Ryan, Jenna Warren as Yulia, Jalen Thomas Brooks as Bobby, Tomaso Sanelli as Even, and lastly Gabriel Davenport as Scuba so therefore when it came to filming, they could all be comfortable with each other. The cast was able to get close pretty quickly which allowed the cast to be able to translate their friendship on screen immensely. Roth in fact got actual teenagers when working on the script in order to make the characters sounds more believable allowing the characters to have a better performance.
-Patrick Dempsey as sheriff Eric really brought the villainess arc to his character as he is able to express the change in his character, from a happy guy who loves life to a depressed man who has lost his will for anything. The tragic Black Friday accident he went through to then a year later where he keeps his good cop act has the viewers believing very well that he is not a killer suspect when in reality he is the John Carver Mask killer. Not only till the end is where he is to be suspected as a possible killer as he begins to act more suspicious. They do an excellent job of diverting the attention to Ryan and Bobby as throughout the film they attempt to make them seem as they are the killer. With a cast full of multiple different characters, it is beneficial to see that they do not seem out of place or overwhelming to keep track of all of them, granted the killer makes sure to take care of those numbers for us.
Sensing Danger
The cinematography in thanksgiving is some top-notch work, from the suspense to the jumpscares, it really has you at the edge of your seat. Even for the murder scenes Roth tried to make sure every kill was unique and different in their own way. The Black Friday opening scene does a great job of switching the tone from a bunch of kids having fun and being laid back to a tone of serious as well as threatening circumstances as the riot begins. As the mess begins to unravel the shots filmed take multiple views of everyone insinuating clues further down for the characters as the film goes. During regular scenes with the main crew the lighting is brightly lit and includes soft/warm lighting demonstrating the security around the characters as it is the holidays and gives the audience a sense of relief knowing nothing is going to happen.
Once you see a shift in movement with the lighting and it switches to a more tense scene, it allows you to feel anxious for the characters as you can tell the difference in lighting as it gets dimmer and includes shadows to distinct certain highlighted scenes. The dinner torture scene towards the climax of the movie shows a great example of that compared to the thanksgiving opening scene in the beginning of the movie where there you see it's brightly lit as well as giving the sense of coziness to us viewers watching. Then during the torture scene you see the difference in lighting and how dim it has become as well as the cooler sense of lighting to amplify the intensity of the situation the kids and family are in.
Deeper Meanings
MOVIE REVEIW
Believe it or not Thanksgiving actually has an exceptional theme to where even though it's a horror movie it carries a bigger message. Eli Roth had this idea based on all the Black Friday incidents he would witness as they started to get crazier and crazier. He would notice that the meaning of Thanksgiving would feel lost by all the consumerism that was being taken over because of Black Friday. Roth said “It’s the commercialization of Christmas that has bled over into this holiday about being thankful” which is what inspired the main theme of this film. This way he gave meaning to a tragic story without it becoming just like any other slasher film. While Roths film does resemble other slasher movies he does a great job at depicting creativeness with all the brutality and gore he has to offer for the big screen. Throughout the film it is easy to overlook the symbolism in the movie whether it is from the settings created or the handling of props and their meaning as well as the attachment to the character. Towards the end of the movie, we come to find out Sheriff Eric was having an affair with Amanda Collins which is played by Gina Gershon who was married to Mitch Collins as known as Ty Olsson and was planning to leave her husband Mitch for Sheriff Eric. It is funny how Eric didn’t care about ruining another man’s life, while when Amanda died during the Black Friday incident and his life was ruined he made it his mission to get rid of the people who ruined his life.
You've made it!
Overall, Eli Roth releasing his movie 16 years later was from that first little teaser was the best thing he could have done. Without doing so the film would not have been what it is today as Roth gathered inspiration throughout the years. It is something very unique with exceptional characters, interesting kills, and a new idea of a slasher was accomplished. A slasher can be done only so many times and without it feeling repetitive and this fresh new idea of a movie brought back my gore-meter to life. The characters sold this experience and allowed it to be an enjoyable sit down, because they didn’t feel like soulless bots but would actually make you feel bad for them when they were offed one by one.
Thanks to the cinematography you could really capture the essence of what they were put through and be aware of their surroundings leading up to key points. As gory and chaotic as Thanksgiving maybe it well off to see such film with meaning behind it to spread a message to the viewers about what this holiday has actually become to some people. If you are a fan of horror movies especially slashers like Scream or Halloween I definitely recommend watching this film because you’ll get the same kick out of it but with a better plot and great scenes. It’s not too much nor is it not too little of anything, it becomes the right amount of everything needed to fill in those check marks for you.
Thanksgiving made it's premiere at Vista Theatre and was released on November 17, 2023
Sources:
YouTube, youtu.be/Sq3AE_OvCqE?si=dUhh4KdCWm5V-nMG. Accessed 15 Mar. 2025.
Odom, Dani Kessel. “1 Shot from Eli Roth’s Grindhouse Trailer Secretly Spoils Thanksgiving’s Biggest Reveal.” ScreenRant, 20 Nov. 2023, screenrant.com/thanksgiving-eli-roth-grindhouse-trailer-reveal-spoil/.
Lennon, Mads. “Thanksgiving: 5 Most Brutal Death Scenes (and 3 That Weren’t so Bad).” Netflix Life, Netflix Life, 21 Feb. 2024, netflixlife.com/posts/thanksgiving-most-brutal-death-scenes-that-werent-so-bad.
“Thanksgiving Kill Count.” YouTube, 2024, youtu.be/pj8m7RdzYEE?si=lANQPoOtpxpqHtCR.
Navarro, Meagan. “‘Thanksgiving’ – Eli Roth on the Importance of Original Horror and Evolving His ‘Grindhouse’ Trailer [Interview].” Bloody Disgusting!, 13 Nov. 2023, bloody-disgusting.com/interviews/3788032/eli-roth-thanksgiving-interview/.