phancy.com - horror reviews - MOH 2024

Thanksgiving



IMDb Info

Release Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 46m
Country: USA, Canada, Australia
Language: English
Genre Tags: Horror, Thriller
Plot Summary: After a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy, a mysterious Thanksgiving-inspired killer terrorizes Plymouth, Massachusetts - the birthplace of the infamous holiday.

Poster - Title Card


phancy.com rating:

phancy.com notes: A solid slasher for a movie based on a fake trailer. Equals parts funny, violent and mean, in all the best ways. The real horror is capitalism! And stupid men! Very much a throwback to classic slashers, while retaining a post-Scream meta sensibility. Gnarly deaths, idiot teens, a smart final girl, a woman trussed up and cooked like a turkey. What’s not to love?


Outside Reviews:

Nick Allen
3 out of 4 stars - rogerebert.com

It’s been a 16-year wait, but as studio horror needs something more than the supernatural and super serious to stay lucrative, “Thanksgiving” could revive the slasher flick at just the right time. “Thanksgiving” is engineered for hooting and hollering, especially for Massachusetts theatergoers like Newton’s own Roth to have their minds blown by deep-cut name-drops to the town of Methuen and the pizza chain Papa Gino’s. It has the constant momentum and specificity of a passion project, and while calling it Roth’s best film may not carry the most weight, “Thanksgiving” easily affirms that when his script isn’t simply a pile of guts, he can be a wicked good entertainer.


Austen Goslin
Thanksgiving is secretly the best Scream movie since Wes Craven’s run

Comedic slashers where both halves complement each other are rare, even among the genre’s most entertaining offerings. Movies like Totally Killer or Happy Death Day are too funny and lighthearted to ever really earn a genuine scare, while a movie like House of 1000 Corpses is so dark and gross that the humor isn’t likely to land on a first viewing. Few movies have ever struck that balance quite as well as Craven’s four Scream movies. Thanksgiving doesn’t quite reach that series’ meteoric heights, but it comes far closer than anything else in recent years — including the Scream franchise itself.