Thanksgiving

An even bigger cracker than I was hoping for. Eli Roth has made his best horror film and his best slasher in quite possibly a decade. A vicious carnage that puts all the Screams, Halloweens, Fridays the 13th, all the PG-13 slashers and all the wannabe meta slashers to shame. The film doesn't try to bring anything new to the genre, it just works with what's proven, but it's so fan-friendly that everything is done with a love for the genre, and I enjoyed the whole thing immensely. Just the setting alone in the famous American holiday of Thanksgiving is very cool and more enjoyable than Halloween or Christmas. Anyway, here's to a great slasher franchise, which I hope this will be. The very opening opening sequence, which I'd call the Black Friday opening gory madness, will a legendary scene in the horror archive that will earn the film a cult status. Let's move on to the individual elements, where I won't spare any praise. The Killer is perfect, with amazing design and costume, an iconic character who has skill and the set-ups are amazing. To my surprise the reveal of the killer and his motive works, which I also applaud. It's packed with hyperbole and a nice dark humor. It also works well as a whodunit about the hunt for a serial killer, where we follow a little investigative work. It's nice that the target is not just the central group of teenagers, but a host of other supporting characters. The city is consumed by terror and no one is safe. The body-count is decently high. I must also praise the well dosed jump-scares, one of them almost gave me a heart attack, and is one of the best this year (shame on all the ghost movies, when a slasher is doing a better jump-scare job). I also liked the retro 80's feel and the characters are cool too (the main character is really cute and hot). I must also highlight the fact that it's not completely silly. The behaviour of the characters is definitely more natural than in other slasher horror movies. And now the main thing , the gore and the execution of the murders is top notch. Here Eli Roth is really unleashed and all the murders have a twist, they are properly brutal, very creative, literally unpleasant and very nasty sometimes. He uses a variety of weapons and fatalities and I really enjoyed all the kills. There were guts, hammering, frying alive, scalps, decapitations, severed fingers, in short something from everyone and it's great. The finale with the dinner is also interesting, though I think the potential could have been used a bit better, it pointed to the ultimate torture mayhem, but stayed halfway, too bad, there could have been two legendary scenes in one movie, you just don't see that. Of course, there's plenty of tension and the whole thing is so much fun that when it's over you want to watch it all over again. 8.5/10. (11/28/2023)

I'm quite surprised at the warm reception Thanksgiving has received from both audiences and critics in particular. In my opinion, it doesn't really break out of the horror slasher average. It does have two very nice sequences – the opening massacre at the mall and the final celebratory dinner – but otherwise it's standard fare without any style of its own, likeable characters or, heaven forbid, a script that's interesting in any way. The slasher of the year remains the more playful Seminar. (12/23/2023)

Thanks to the above-average ratings of the users here, I was tempted by a (supposedly finally) above-average slasher, so I decided to give it a shot. Well, even though it is not a must-see, it is definitely a genre film that at least entertains. The big advantage over its competing cheap, boring and in many ways underdeveloped brethren (not only) of this year is especially the director's experience. Eli Roth doesn't shoot blanks here, but instead brings a decent amount of imagination and quality kills. I highly praise the excellent jump-scares accompanying the murders – I didn't expect many of them and they managed to lift me out of my seat – and I must also mention the pretty cool teenage gang with (within the genre) decent chemistry, the well-detailed and wholesome gore, something that has been dramatically lacking in recent films and which we get here in abundance (finally!!!! ), and, last but not least, paradoxically, the well-functioning elements of satire and the extremely far-fetched scenes, as they gave the film an uplifting lightness and showed that you don’t have to cling to deadly seriousness, but can take it with a grain of salt, which was confirmed by the opening scene with the Black Friday sale – I had a royal good time there and knew from the very beginning that this would be the right note. Fans of the genre will also enjoy the guessing the identity of the killer, which astute viewers will figure out through detailed hints at the beginning, but I believe that the majority will be very surprised by the result. The only downside for me and the reason why I'm not going higher is the (almost classically) fizzled conclusion and ending, plus the lack of any significant genre innovation or more sophisticated details, but apart from that I'm not complaining about anything and I have to admit that for the first time in a good while even a slasher managed to please me and I didn't get caught up in all the stupidity, so definitely a good choice. (11/28/2023)

Epic slasher goulash. Though Thanksgiving lacks atmosphere and fear, it has obvious knowledge of the slasher genre and a screenplay that’s able to give it a forceful boost and is even surprising in places. Here we have not only a gory slaughter, but also a spectacular abduction, and the scenes involving the hunt for the killer are reminiscent of The Silence of the Lambs and Seven. However, the nod to Halloween in the first shot of the film makes it clear that Thanksgiving is not going to steal from the classics, but merely show respect for them. In places, the killings are enjoyably overwrought in a B-movie kind of way, like a crisply baked Thanksgiving dinner that borders on being disgusting. And the main course, Nell Verlaque, is extraordinarily appealing. (12/25/2023)