Slashers are perhaps the most popular category of horror movies, boasting the likes of iconic franchises such as Halloween, Friday The 13th, Scream and more. After decades and countless movies, it’s difficult for a slasher to be original and good. Surprisingly, Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving is exactly that and perhaps one of the best modern slashers, despite being made from a mock trailer Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse (2007).

Blood Rage

Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving feels like the best of slashers before it like Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Black Christmas, April Fool’s Day and more. As a horror fan, it’s great to finally have a good Thanksgiving-themed horror movie. The closest we had before was probably 1987’s Blood Rage and 2021’s Black Friday. Speaking of that movie, Thanksgiving begins with a tragic and bloody sequence that reminds me of the opening scene from 2021’s Black Friday, showcasing how brutal and unforgiving the Thanksgiving/Black Friday shopping rush is in the United States.

That said, the version in Thanksgiving is a lot more shockingly violent and it will probably become an iconic scene amongst horror fans once the movie releases. With that, Thanksgiving starts on a bloody high note but it only gets better from there.

What’s the best part of any slasher movie? The kills. And oh boy, the kills in Thanksgiving deliver. In that regard, Thanksgiving is even better than 2022’s Scream or 2023’s Scream 6. The kills and deaths in Thanksgiving are gory, unique and fresh enough that they’re never just simple stabbings, which even the recent Screan movies tend to follow to death (pun intended). I won’t spoil the kills in Thanksgiving, but the vibe they give off is mostly similar and likely inspired by Damien Leone’s now-iconic Terrifier franchise. Art The Clown paved the way for more deranged kills in slashers. Stabbings aren’t going to cut it anymore, and Eli Roth knows this. He employs a lot of everyday appliances in his kills too, which gives it a sort of Final Destination vibe as well (including one involving a trampoline, I might never get on a trampoline again).

As for the cast of characters, all of them deliver a relatively good performance. Surprisingly, while the characters in Thanksgiving do still somewhat follow the usual high school stereotypes, none of them are annoying or unlikeable (except for Tomaso Sanelli’s Evan. who is a bully). In this way, you don’t really feel like any of them deserves to die, which makes their deaths even more impactful. Because of that, the movie also inserts a lot of suspense and tension in its kills (and during the lead-ups to those kills), especially in how the killer (referred to as the John Carver killer) stalks and kills their victims. We can definitely add another soon-to-be iconic killer into the pantheon of slasher killers.

That’s Not Cranberry Sauce

Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving is one of the biggest surprises of the year, especially since many predicted it to be just another self-indulgent typical slasher. While the flaw in this movie is that it doesn’t really offer anything new or innovative, it offers the best of what a modern slasher can be, with great kills. It’s just overall an extremely fun movie. Now horror fans have an annual movie to watch every Thanksgiving.

A PSA to those watching in Malaysia; unfortunately, the movie is plagued by a lot of cuts if you’re planning to watch it in Malaysian cinemas. That’s not Sony Pictures’ fault though, and the movie is definitely still worth watching, especially for horror fans.

FINAL SCORE: 80/100

We attended an early screener of Thanksgiving courtesy of Sony Pictures Malaysia. Thanksgiving is slated to premiere in Malaysian cinemas on 30 November 2023 (with early screenings from 23 November 2023 onwards).