A masked man sows terror in a small town in the United States in revenge for a tragedy that occurred the previous year in Thanksgiving.
Since he concocted a trailer parody of Thanksgiving to accompany the presentation of the project Grindhouse by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez in 2007, Eli Roth promised to one day make a feature film. The wait lasted 16 years. Was she worth it? Yes and no.
Yes, because we find the Eli Roth of the good old days, that of Cabin Fever and D’Hostel. Recharge your batteries with a family film with entertainment The House with a Clock in Its Walls did him a lot of good after a series of resounding failures (The Green Inferno, Knock Knockthe remake of Death Wish). Here he is back in shape, ready to have fun.
It begins with the jubilant introduction where a riot occurring during the traditional Black Friday causes deaths. The madness of capitalism is expressed on screen in the bloodiest way possible. An outrageous moment that will not be the last.
From there, the story does not fulfill all its promises, developing a slasher conventional, stuck between the homage to Halloween and satire Scream. The senseless scenario is consummately ridiculous, while the unsympathetic characters follow one another. Between the usual heroine (Addison Rae, TikTok star) and the hunky sheriff (Patrick Dempsey, obviously), neither deserves to make old bones.
What interests Eli Roth – and horror fans at the same time – are the scenes of carnage. The filmmaker gives it his all, with a good dose of jumps, dark humor and disgusting moments. Thanks to a few unhealthy streaks, turkey meals won’t taste the same anymore. And no one will want to attend a parade or perform on the trampoline.
No doubt this extended version of Thanksgiving pales in comparison to its fake original trailer. But the film restores faith in the horror genre after the successive debacles of The Exorcist: Believer and of Five Nights at Freddy’s.
Indoors
Horror thriller
Thanksgiving (VF: Action of grace)
Eli Roth
Addison Rae, Patrick Dempsey, Milo Manheim
1:46 a.m.