“Thanksgiving,” directed by Eli Roth and starring Patrick Dempsy, Ty Olsson and Gina Gershon, takes place in Plymouth, Massachusetts after a very tragic and violent Black Friday incident sets a killer off on a town-wide slaughter. A group of teenagers make it their mission to try and stop the murderer before he comes after them and their loved ones on Thanksgiving day. 

“Thanksgiving” may sound like any other slasher film, but it is much more than that. Roth has a very twisted and creative mind, which we see throughout the film, and he sets “Thanksgiving” apart from other horror movies by mixing the gore with trendy humor. 

Roth also does a great job with casting, which is a perfect mixture of seasoned and novel actors. The actors’ performances are fantastic, and there was not one time that their emotions or terror wasn’t sincere. 

The film’s portrayal of teenagers, especially at the beginning of the film, was cliché and stereotypical with them always being on their phones, the girls being self absorbed, and the star football player having the nerd write his paper for him. It would have been nice if we could’ve gotten to understand the characters as more than annoying and selfish teenagers, but I can admit that it was a great foundation for character development.  

The special effects and gore were not realistic enough. In certain scenes ripped skin looked gummy and almost glue-like, and if you paid close enough attention, the blood looked too liquidy and, at some points, translucent. However, some scenes were believable.

This movie is very graphic and gory; Roth doesn’t leave anything up to the imagination. There are moments with excessive amounts of profanity. This movie is definitely not for children and, depending on the age, should be watched with adult supervision. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie and would recommend this to people who love horror, especially slasher films. It was well made and thought out, the acting was fantastic, and the plot was entertaining. I really enjoyed the idea of a Thanksgiving horror movie because of how out-of-the-box and creative it was. It got me thinking about the amount of Thanksgiving movies I’ve seen, which before this one was zero. 

If your favorite movie genres are horror and comedy, then “Thanksgiving” is perfect for you.