The Horrors of Halloween: November 2023

Thursday, November 16, 2023

Eli Roth's THANKSGIVING (2023) Trailers, Official/Fan Art Poster Collection & Reviews

Official Posters:

Colors by @halloweenisforever:

Chinese Poster:

Make Your Own John Carver:

TriStar Pictures and Spyglass Media Group will release Eli Roth’s highly anticipated new slasher Thanksgiving in theaters worldwide on November 17th, 2023. The film, an expansion/reboot of Roth’s faux trailer seen in Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse (2007), has been rated R for strong bloody horror violence and gore, pervasive language, and some sexual material.

SYNOPSIS: After a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy, a mysterious Thanksgiving-inspired killer terrorizes Plymouth, Massachusetts – the birthplace of the holiday. Picking off residents one by one, what begins as random revenge killings are soon revealed to be part of a larger, sinister holiday plan. Will the town uncover the killer and survive the holidays…or become guests at his twisted holiday dinner table?

Roth told Collider. “We were trying to get the script right. For years, I was just connecting the dots between the trailer, and then I was like, ‘Am I just filming the scenes in between what I already did before?’ The big revelation was, (Jeff Rendell) said, ‘I have to just pretend that Thanksgiving 1980 exists and that it was so offensive that every print was destroyed, and the only thing that survived was the trailer. This is the reboot of what that movie was. Every copy of the script was burned. Every print was burned. The only thing that survived was that one trailer, on the darkest corners of the internet. So, we have to make a movie based on that. This is the reboot of what that was.’ That freed me up creatively to go, ‘I can use a couple of my favorite things in the trailer, but I don’t have to worry about recreating the trailer.’ That trailer was for a movie where every print was destroyed. Now, this is gonna be its own thing.“

Roth wrote the script with Jeff Rendell. Roger Birnbaum and Eli Roth are producing. The cast includes Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Nell Verlaque, Rick Hoffman and Gina Gershon.

Tribute Posters:

Roth mentioned other holiday-centric films that help serve as inspiration for Thanksgiving, including films like Friday the 13th, My Blood Valentine, Silent Night, Deadly Night and more.

“For sure. I mean, look, obviously, I grew up in Massachusetts, so every year at Thanksgiving, Jeff Rendell — who I wrote it with — we were waiting for a Thanksgiving slasher film,” Roth said. “It never happened. We had Halloween, you had Silent Night, Deadly Night at Christmas, you had My Bloody Valentine, you had April Fool’s Day, you had Mother’s Day. But there was never one for Thanksgiving. It seemed so obvious to us, so from the time we were 12 or 13 years old, we always wanted to do it, because Thanksgiving is obviously is a huge deal in Massachusetts with the pilgrims. You went to Plymouth Plantation/Plimoth Patuxet in Sturbridge Village and saw all these pilgrim recreation villages. So we really wanted to do a modern take and create a new mythology and a new slasher film. The way I think of it is that if you love Thanksgiving, you’re going to want your kids to be into horror films."

Teaser Trailer:

Official Trailer:

John Carver Returns to Plymouth:

A New Horror Legend:

Featurette 1:

Featurette 2:

John Carver Scare Prank:

Grindhouse-style Fan Edited Posters by @unite_and_fight:

2023 Grindhouse Fan Made Trailer:

WHERE TO WATCH Thanksgiving (2023):

Stills:

Eli Roth, director of the horror film "Thanksgiving," poses with costumed characters at the premiere of the film, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023, at the Vista Theater in Los Angeles:

Reviews:

“Bringing Thanksgiving into a contemporary setting is an asset here. All of the fake trailer’s highlights get woven in or repurposed in organic ways, but now there’s a meaty subtext (but mostly text) to the holiday’s history that presents a perfect setup for a slasher. Like curating the perfect holiday feast, Roth orchestrates a vicious, thrilling, and raucously entertaining slasher with a showstopper finale.” ★★★★ Bloody-Disgusting.com

“Roth’s reference points aren’t particularly obscure, but he earns the right to claim them through his proud commitment to horror for horror’s sake, a balm at a time when it feels like every other entry to the genre is buckling beneath the weight of its belabored trauma metaphors. He applies discipline to the disreputable, elevating choice cuts of trash not with put-on profundity but with a keener mastery of and appreciation for their foulest, basest pleasures.” ★★★★ TheGuardian.com

"It's been too long since a domestic theatrical slasher based on an original idea put an ear-to-ear smile on my face. Thanksgiving is one of the great modern American slashers, and Roth's return as a hardcore horror director feels right. It's been sixteen years since Grindhouse, and the wait was worth its reward. Hopefully a sequel won't take another decade plus change to release." ★★★★ DailyDead.com

“Thanksgiving is a mixture of Scream and holiday slashers like Black Christmas, but it gets its own, particularly nasty touch thanks to Eli Roth’s love for gore and grindhouse cinema. The pilgrim father, armed with an axe, fits wonderfully into the ranks of sadistic holiday killers, even if the film runs out of steam a bit in the final act.” Filmstarts [translated from German]

"Thanksgiving has everything you could want in a slasher: over-the-top kills, a wicked sense of humor, suspense, seasonal flair, the sexiest man alive, gratuitous Boston accents, and The Misfits over the end credits." @brokehorrorfan

"Last night I got to check out the premiere(ish?) of Thanksgiving which is every bit as fantastically twisted & disgusting as I dreamed it would be! 🥰 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Do not hesitate checking it out!!! Totally an instant cl-ass-sick I will be watching again ASAP!! AMAZING!!!! So much fun and great gore fx!!" Darcy the Mail Girl @dianaprincexo

“Roth manages to shake things up enough to keep you guessing how each act of violence is gonna play out. Sprinkle in a little Rick Hoffman and just a pinch of Gina Gershon, and you’ve got a pretty good dinner. Though the opening Black Friday scene alone makes this dish worthwhile, the bulk of the film may not measure up to the promise of the original trailer. But that will likely have more to do with the pressure of expectations of modern horror audiences…” ★★★½ Maddwolf.com

“Some of the dialog was funny, but the violence was frustrating. I couldn’t tell if some of the deaths were intended to scare me or just gross me out. It seems Eli Roth intended horror, laughs and senseless deaths. I’m split on the movie because there were entertaining scenes and forced scenes and the characters were so laid back as victims.” 6 out of 10, MJB784

“I’m not sure noting that the script is seemingly intentionally bad is an endorsement. That really plays into how stupidly easy it is to figure out “whodunit.” The misdirections and false leads are barely attempted. And the film’s utterly deflating finale isn’t amusingly awful. It’s just awful and in the most half-@ssed ways.” ★★ RogersMovieNation.com

“Thanksgiving definitely leans hard into its slasher influences and pays tribute to the ’80s throughout, still lingering on the final girl premise. And fortunately for audiences, it all works. The practical gore effects are hands down some of the best of the year. John Carver is a perfected reintroduction to the slasher sub-genre that reinforces exactly what drew people to these movies in the first place.” SpoilerFreeMovieSleuth.com

” …a movie like this needs a far more interesting final girl than Verlaque’s Jessica, who is as bland as unsalted popcorn. In attempting to line up potential suspects, the movie is filled with too many characters, some of whom disappear for long stretches as though the writers have forgotten about them. Thanksgiving does just enough to deliver on its premise, but despite some fun kills, it feels like a missed opportunity to kick off a new slasher franchise.” ★★★ TheMovieWaffler.com

“The film does not have the look that the fake trailer had, so do not expect that B-film cinematography, we are looking at a film totally of our time, with a current bill, more in the Scream style than the trailer that he proposed at the time. What you can expect is humour, even with scenes inspired 100% by the trailer. Nor does it skimp on blood and funny deaths, nor on the suspense of murderer and victim playing cat and mouse.” TerrorWeekend.com [translated from Spanish]