Review: Thanksgiving (2023)
Thanksgiving (2023)
Rated R for strong bloody horror violence and gore, pervasive language and some sexual material
<Originally posted at https://kevinsreviewcatalogue.blogspot.com/2023/11/review-thanksgiving-2023.html>
Score: 3 out of 5
Thanksgiving is a movie that feels like a remake of itself. Specifically, a 2000s Platinum Dunes slasher remake, rather appropriately given that the film began life as a fake trailer for the 2007 film Grindhouse homaging the retro holiday slasher flicks of the '80s, with a mix of depraved and gory deaths, phenomenally stupid characters, and low-budget sleaze. It's an idea that has been bouncing around in director and co-writer Eli Roth's head for years, and even as he went on to make other movies, he never gave up on the idea of turning it into a feature film the way that Machete and Hobo with a Shotgun, two other fake trailers attached to Grindhouse, had been. The film he and co-writer Jeff Rendell ultimately made feels like a film that's ultimately, after sixteen years, wound its way from being an homage to '80s horror to being an homage to '00s horror, the decade in which Roth cut his teeth as a filmmaker, filled as it is with elements of that era's slasher flicks that now seem old enough to be nostalgic in their own right. It homages a lot of the trailer's more memorable scenes, but wraps them in a package that's at once darker and grittier but also slicker and more polished, with a big-name cast (a mix of veteran actors like Patrick Dempsey and Gina Gershon, Disney Channel stars like Milo Manheim, and influencers like Addison Rae) paired with exactly the kind of violence you'd expect from a filmmaker who was once considered one of the leading figures behind the "Splat Pack" of ultraviolent 2000s horror movies. Most importantly, it's a movie I enjoyed, even if I'll be the first to admit that it's no classic, or one of Roth's best. It's a fairly by-the-numbers whodunit teen slasher cut from a very post-Scream cloth that doesn't have a lot of surprises, but does have some solid thrills and chills that I suspect are gonna ensure that it gets rewatched a fair bit by horror fans around the Thanksgiving holiday.
Set in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the film opens with a Black Friday riot at RightMart instigated by a mix of the store's owner Thomas Wright deciding to open early on Thanksgiving night and a group of teenagers, including Thomas' daughter Jessica, managing to sneak in early and provoke the crowd outside when they see them. Three people die in the ensuing stampede, a security guard, a shopper, and the wife of the store's manager, while the high school baseball team's star pitcher Bobby gets his arm broken, killing his sporting dreams. One year later, a killer in a Pilgrim costume and a mask of the Plymouth Colony's first governor John Carver is hacking up people connected to the "FightMart" riot, on a quest for revenge. Now, the teens, along with the local sheriff Eric Newlon, must figure out who's behind the murders before they're the next to die.
It's a simple slasher plot of a sort that we've seen a million times in the last twenty-five years, and it was honestly a fairly predictable one. The killer's identity is telegraphed pretty early on, it wasn't much of a surprise when the big reveal came, and the main plot was rather boilerplate once you scratch the surface. You've got a lot of archetypal teen horror movie stock characters (the aggro jock, the sexy best friend, the shifty boyfriend, the cool geek because it's 2023 and unpopular nerds don't work anymore, the girl who you know is gonna make it to the end and defeat the killer) who largely stay within their lane, as well as adult supporting cast members who are there to serve as cannon fodder and/or suspects. The plot involving the store's greedy management was established in the first act but never really built upon after. It's not altogether completely disposable from a writing standpoint, but this is still a teen slasher movie, and you don't watch these films for particularly in-depth plotting and characterization unless you see an A24 plate on the opening credits.
No, you watch because you want the goods. You want stabbings, decapitations, dismemberment, mutilations, and more, all vividly displayed on screen in ways that earn this movie an R rating. And when you've got the guy who made Cabin Fever and Hostel behind the camera, that's what you're gonna get. This movie comes alive when it's time to kill, and it doesn't care how ridiculous it gets with the bloodshed. The deaths range from the deadly serious to the awesome to the comical (one death in the opening Black Friday scene involving a man literally shopping 'til he dropped had me in stitches), but no matter what, when John Carver is doing what his name suggests, that's when it felt like Roth was most invested in the material. There's one lengthy chase scene late in the film, climaxing with one of its best and most gruesome kills, that I think is gonna go down as one of the classics. The gore is plentiful, and it is icky and gross.
The cast was surprisingly good for a movie like this. Nell Verlaque may not have had much of a character to work with as Jessica beyond "the final girl", but she did it well, in particular giving great "scared face" whenever she was confronted by the killer or realized that her friends were in danger. Patrick Dempsey made for a good authority figure as the sheriff, and if you're wondering how Addison Rae did, she actually wasn't bad. Finally, the actor playing the killer was wonderfully hammy after the big reveal, and I wouldn't have accepted anything less given the kind of movie this was, delivering the most ridiculous dialogue ("this Thanksgiving, there will be no leftovers!") with the straightest face without even once winking at the camera. On every technical level, this movie was at the very least competent, and never wore out its welcome.
The Bottom Line
Thanksgiving could've stood to have a bit more meat on its bones story-wise in order to make the parts between the kills more interesting, but the kills were plentiful and grisly enough, and its other qualities competent enough, that I could forgive it. Even if it's just from lack of competition, I see this sticking around as a go-to Thanksgiving/Black Friday horror flick.
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MARIE SPENGLER - OC INFO
FULL NAME: Marie Rae Spengler
NICKNAMES: Sisi (by Callie), Mimi (by Cathleen), Brown Eyes (by Julian), Dear Friend (by Ariadne), Sweet Child (by Ariadne), Brainiac Junior (by Peter), Freak (by Summerville citizens), Dirt Farmer's Daughter (by Summerville citizens)
FACECLAIM: Kara Lindsay
FANDOM: Ghostbusters (1984-1989; 2021)
BIRTHDAY: January 1st, 1990
ZODIAC SIGN: Capricorn
SEXUALITY: Demisexual
GENDER: Female (she/her/hers)
OCCUPATION: Assistant professor of psychology at USC (2018-2020, lost job due to COVID), virtual lab researcher at Cornell University (2020-2021), Adjunct professor at Columbia University (2022-currently), Ghostbuster (2021-currently)
BIRTHPLACE: Manhattan, New York City, New York
LIVES IN: Manhattan, New York City, New York (birth-age 3, age 28-31, age 32-currently) || Summerville, Oklahoma (age 3-16, age 31-32) || Stanford, California (age 16-19) || Chicago, Illinois (age 19-23) || Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (age 23-28)
NATIONALITY: American
FAMILY:
Julian Matthews (lover/partner/significant other)
Egon Julian "E.J." Spengler (son)
Hazel Spengler (daughter)
Elijah Spengler (son)
Egon Spengler (father, died 2021)
Cathleen Paige Spengler (mother)
Callie Spengler (older sister)
Unnamed ex-brother-in-law
Trevor Spengler (nephew)
Phoebe Spengler (niece)
Edison Spengler, Sr. (paternal grandfather), deceased 1983)
Ruth Spengler [nee Westelman] (paternal grandmother, deceased 2001)
Elon Spengler (paternal uncle, deceased 2014)
Noelle Spengler [nee Rosenfeld] (paternal aunt)
Edison Spengler, Jr. (paternal cousin)
Cyrus Spengler (great uncle, deceased 2002)
Benjamin Paige (maternal grandfather, died 1988)
Colleen Paige [nee Tillens] (maternal grandmother, died 2008)
David Paige (maternal uncle)
Joanne Paige [nee Vogel] (maternal aunt)
Jill Paige (maternal cousin)
Mark Paige (maternal cousin)
Mitchell Paige (maternal cousin)
Lucinda “Cindy” Paige (maternal cousin)
Christopher Paige (maternal cousin)
Theresa Paige (maternal cousin)
Sharon Paige (maternal cousin)
Caroline Tiffin [nee Paige] (maternal aunt)
Glenn Tiffin (maternal uncle)
Ronald Tiffin (maternal cousin)
Anthony Tiffin (maternal cousin)
Jackson “Sonny” Tiffin (maternal cousin)
Abel Paige (maternal uncle)
Rebecca Paige [nee O'Connor] (maternal aunt)
Loretta Paige (maternal cousin)
Erika Paige (maternal cousin)
Dominic Paige (maternal cousin)
Eleanor Paige (maternal cousin)
Melanie Paige (maternal cousin)
Katrina Paige (maternal cousin)
Constance “Connie” Whelan [nee Paige] (maternal aunt)
Douglas Whelan (maternal uncle)
Monty Whelan (maternal cousin)
Timothy Whelan (maternal cousin)
Gina Whelan (maternal cousin)
Felicity Whelan (maternal cousin)
Adam Paige (maternal uncle)
Helen Paige [nee Rafferty] (maternal aunt)
Olivia Paige (maternal cousin)
Holly Paige (maternal cousin)
Cynthia Paige (maternal aunt)
Peter Venkman (honorary uncle)
Dana Barrett (honorary aunt)
Oscar Venkman [born Wallance, formerly Barrett] (honorary cousin)
Eliana “Elly” Venkman (honorary cousin)
Andrew Venkman (honorary cousin)
Kelly Venkman (honorary cousin)
Ray Stantz (honorary uncle)
Willow Olson (honorary aunt)
Addison Stantz (honorary cousin)
Natalie Stantz (honorary cousin)
Grace Stantz (honorary cousin)
Janine Melnitz (honorary aunt)
Louis Tully (honorary uncle)
Lily Tully (honorary cousin)
MOODBOARD
CHARACTERISTICS: Intelligent, academic, plucky, organized, reserved, brilliant, bright, tortured, stoic, self-sacrificial, cocky, poised
LIKES: Science, occult, classic literature, spending time with her father, playing the piano, playing the violin, baking, libraries, theater, working in the lab with her father and with Phoebe, atmospheric music, Julian's voice
DISLIKES: Being bullied, Summerville, Gozer the Gozerian, the Peck family, Callie's ex-husband, how clingy Lily can be, being touched when she's feeling overstimulated
WEAPON OF CHOICE:
PKE Meter
Proton Pack
Ghost Trap
Gigameter
Tobin's Spirit Guide
Occult Reference Net
OTHER PERSONAL INFO:
Was diagnosed as autistic around her second birthday.
Graduated from high school as valedictorian at age 16, completed her bachelor's degree in theoretical physics at Stanford in just one year, completed her master's degree in both criminology and psychology from Stanford at age 19, completed her first PhD in psychology from Northwestern University at 23, completed her second PhD in parapsychology from Drexel University at age 27, and received her third PhD in nuclear engineering through an accelerated doctorate program at age 28.
Was born in the early hours of 1990 following the defeat of Vigo the Carpathian.
During her time at Northwestern, she saw Callie in a grocery store with five-year-old Trevor and two-year-old Phoebe. The sisters were estranged at the time, so Marie did not approach them, and left before Callie could see her.
Fluent in Hebrew, Yiddish, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, European and Latin Spanish, Flemish, Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Latin, and Sumerian
INSPIRATION: Katherine Plumber Pulitzer (Newsies), Amy Santiago (Brooklyn Nine Nine), Jemilla (Firebringer), Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Bones), Nina Rosario (In The Heights), Will Graham (Hannibal), Marian Paroo (The Music Man), Dr. Elizabeth Weir (Stargate: Atlantis)
NAME ANALYSIS:
Playlist available here
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