Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
After a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy, a mysterious Thanksgiving-inspired killer terrorizes Plymouth, Massachusetts - the birthplace of the holiday. Picking off residents one by one, what begins as random revenge killings are soon revealed to be part of a larger, sinister holiday plan.
Thanksgiving (2023) is Eli Roth's feature expansion of his faux-trailer from Grindhouse, and it delivers a competent if unspectacular slasher. The plot smartly ties Black Friday consumerism satire to holiday horror in Plymouth, giving it a thematic hook that elevates it above generic slashers, though the whodunit mystery is telegraphed fairly early and the character work is thin. Acting is serviceable but mostly functional genre work with little standout performance. Cinematography hits the expected slasher beats with some well-staged kill sequences but nothing visually distinctive. The novelty is moderate — the Thanksgiving setting and consumerism angle are genuinely fresh for the subgenre, but the execution follows well-worn genre conventions closely, and the film is ultimately a crowd-pleasing throwback rather than a reinvention. The ending resolves the mystery somewhat limply and the final twist lands with less impact than intended, leaving the whodunit payoff feeling underwhelming.