Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving
As an Australian Thanksgiving is largely a holiday we ignore but when you attach Eli Roth's name to the tradition you quickly pique my interest. In his latest film offering, Thanksgiving, Eli Roth has served up a delectable menu filled with inventive gore & cheesy humour in a fun teenage slasher throwback.
Set in Plymouth, Massachusetts Thanksgiving begins with a prologue during the traditional Black Friday sales rush. Almost immediately Roth drives home his visceral gore-fest credentials for lovers of his style of film, thus quickly earning the film's R-rating. From that moment on the only way is for kills to get more & more extreme as the killer, known as John Carver, sets out on a revenge-fuelled rampage of extreme violence.
The script of Thanksgiving is paper thin in regards to nuance or thematic substance. If we wanted to grasp at straws you could perhaps claim the film is a veiled commentary on the loss of meaning for holidays like Thanksgiving as they've become simple consumerism tools. Or maybe the film is a message about the dangers of social media & the detached nature of the world.
But let's be honest, the script is simply a garnish & vapid vehicle for the violence to progress from epic kill sequence to epic kill sequence.
It's these moments of intense violence where Roth has made his bones as a filmmaker & Thanksgiving is no different. Some of the murders in this film are the most inventive we've ever seen. For example, this film has kills featuring the use of a commercial freezer, an electric carving knife, a trampoline, & corn forks.
Lovers of Eli Roth's gruesome carnage will leave the cinema having had their fill & feeling very thankful. Thanksgiving is a cheesy, trite, bloodstained affair that is delightfully fun. Think of this as frozen turkey dinner rather than your lovingly handmade Thanksgiving spread, you'll be satisfied & content but you know deep down it could have been so much more.
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