Thanksgivingis the newest slasher flick from Eli Roth, which means audiences are in for quite a ride if they decide to venture out to theaters to see it. Thankfully, Roth’s latest endeavor lives up to the hype. The film opens in Plymouth, Massachusetts, with a Thanksgiving Day/Black Friday riot that ultimately turns deadly at the local superstore. The film then picks up a year later as those who were at the riot and believed to have exacerbated the horrific situation begin to die in gruesomely bloody ways. Dressed as the famous pilgrim, John Carver, theThanksgivingkiller ups the ante with every murder as he/she prepares a Thanksgiving meal unlike anything those in Plymouth have ever seen.
ArguablyRoth’s best film to date,Thanksgivingisn’t for everyone. Although some viewers won’t find anything terribly scary about the holiday slasher flick, others will surely recoil at the sight of every ghastly murder. The film is a frightfully fun movie sprinkled with a dash of comedy, although it isn’t overly comedic. Instead, it manages to encompass the perfect amount of humor necessary for such a movie, which essentially reminds the audience the film is meant to be entertaining.
Thanksgivinghas a great story at its core while embodying what a classic slasher flick should be; it uses silence and jump scares effectively, and its gore is top-notch but doesn’t necessarily linger. Whether audiences find such aspects scary is completely subjective. If the trailer looked appealing to the viewer, then they would most definitely enjoy the delightful horror ride that isThanksgiving.
Classic Slasher Flick
Thanksgiving
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Clearly inspired by such films asScreamandHalloween,Thanksgivingis aclassic slasher flickreminiscent of its horror predecessors but with quite a bit more gore. It manages to pay homage to such films without feeling like it’s ripping them off, which is a difficult feat to accomplish.
The opening shot of the film clearly takes a page out ofHalloween’sbook and then continues to give heavyScreamvibes until the credits roll. While plenty of gratuitous slasher films out there could easily be criticized as derivative,Thanksgivingmanages to tell a fresh, new story while simultaneously embodying what it takes to make a quintessential slasher flick. As such, if a person deems classic slasher films too scary, then they should steer clear of Roth’s new movie. However, horror fans will most definitely want to check out the film.
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Effective Silence and Jump Scares
Despite its classification as a slasher film,Thanksgivingeffectively utilizes silence and jump scares to build suspense, both of which require no ghastly gore. Furthermore, the film doesn’t waste a jump scare merely to jolt its audience. Instead, the film is concise with its goal and doesn’t waste time trying to trick the audience. If something abruptly emerges from around the corner, it will be the John Carver killer, and those in danger had better run. While the film is meant to be frightening and fun, it’sclearly meant to entertain its audienceswith gore more than anything, which it underscores with its silences and use of jump scares.
While some horror films utilize their score to build anticipation toward a jump scare,Thanksgivingis very effective with its silence. More often than not, throughout the film,a jump scareis preempted by complete silence, which makes its abrupt scares all the more alarming. Although there are plenty of moments when the film’s music is used to influence the audience’s emotions, its silence is the most frightening. Thankfully, however, even though such moments are clearly scary when they happen, the feeling doesn’t last, nor does it linger once the film is over. Instead, viewers are simply left thoroughly entertained.
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Top Notch Gore
Thanksgiving’s most notable horror aspect is its use of gore, which is top-notch. However, the bloody deaths don’t necessarily linger because the film has an effective story to tell. However, that doesn’t mean the gore is merely sprinkled throughout the film. It’s a well-seasoned movie withan abundance of gore. There’s definitely no shortage of blood and guts almost immediately, but the film’s gruesome visuals don’t necessarily overstay their welcome, at least not until the very end. The film’s capstone is undeniably gruesome because there’s nowhere else to look except the big screen where all the madness is happening. However, gruesome doesn’t necessarily mean scary, as is the case withThanksgiving.
Make no mistake, the film is extremely gory, and if such facets of horror are off-putting to certain viewers, thenThanksgivingis not the film for them. Nonetheless, the film’s ghastly deaths are violent, and the gore is definitely over the top, but it’s offset with humor, and the blood doesn’t dawdle on the screen until the very end. The killer quickly moves on to his/her next victim before the viewer has time to fully process what they saw, or they’re simply too busy chuckling to themselves to be bothered by it.
At the end of the day,Thanksgivingisn’t trying to scare its audience as much as it’s trying to entertain its audience. The film is scary in the same way films likeScreamorHalloweenare scary.Horror fanswill undoubtedly love the movie, but others might find it too frightening to be considered enjoyable. As such, whether the film is actually scary solely depends on the opinion of the viewer.
