I will never, in my life, be more right about anything than I was in the early morning hours of April 6, 2007. I had just left a very late screening of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s new Grindhouse double feature. While I wasn’t a fan of either director’s film, I loved the fake trailers that played throughout. They were so good that as I left the theater, I predicted with absolute certainty somebody would eventually turn them into real movies. (I didn’t say it was a very bold prediction! Just that I was right!) That already happened with both Machete and Hobo With a Shotgun. Now my favorite faux Grindhouse trailer, Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving, is finally getting the feature film treatment. The trailer for Roth’s complete slasher movie isn’t super gory but it gives us a little more brutal action than the previous teaser.
Talk about serving some good old fashioned slasher horror, this Thanksgiving trailer features lots of blood and death at the hands of a masked pilgrim killer. The film’s official logline also reveals when this nightmare is taking place. Turns out a terrible, unofficial American “holiday” is also a part of this feast of terror.
After a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy, a mysterious Thanksgiving-inspired killer terrorizes Plymouth, Massachusetts – the birthplace of the infamous holiday.
This trailer and the previous teaser are a gazillion times less brutal than the fake one. The original is so over-the-top it’s hard to describe it without crossing lines of basic decency. However, if you watch both you’ll see why this new trailer might be hiding some of its most graphic moments. From the return of the turkey mascot and the cheerleader on the trampoline, Roth might have something sinister up his sleeves. He also might have stayed as true to his Grindhouse idea as possible without garnering an NC-17 rating.
The version of the horror movie he teased in Grindhouse would be worthy of an NC-37 rating, honestly. (Especially if it includes a very unique type of turkey stuffing scene.) That would be fine by me, though. I’m of age and would see any and all versions. Just as I always knew someday I would.
Written by Roth and Jeff Rendell, Thanksgiving stars Rick Hoffman, Gina Gershon, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Nell Verlaque, and Patrick Dempsey. It cuts its way into theaters this November.
Originally published on September 7, 2023.