# Thanksgiving (2023 film)

Thanksgiving is a 2023 American slasher film directed by Eli Roth and written by Jeff Rendell, based on a story by the pair, who produced with Roger Birnbaum. Based on Roth's fictitious trailer of the same name from Grindhouse (2007), it is the fourth feature-length adaptation of a fictitious Grindhouse trailer after Robert Rodriguez's Machete (2010), Jason Eisener's Hobo with a Shotgun (2011), and Machete Kills (2013), a sequel to Rodriguez's film. The film stars Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Nell Verlaque, Rick Hoffman, and Gina Gershon, and follows a small Massachusetts town that is terrorized by a killer in a John Carver mask around the Thanksgiving holiday one year after a Black Friday riot ended in tragedy.
Thanksgiving received a theatrical release in the United States by TriStar Pictures through Sony Pictures Releasing on November 17, 2023. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $46 million worldwide.
A sequel is currently in development which is scheduled for a November 2025 release.

## Plot

On Thanksgiving in Plymouth, Massachusetts, a mob gathers outside local superstore RightMart in preparation for a Black Friday sale. Jessica Wright, whose father Thomas owns the store, lets her boyfriend Bobby and friends Gaby, Evan, Scuba, and Yulia inside early. The crowd notices them and stampedes into the store in a frenzy. In the ensuing chaos, Amanda Collins (wife of RightMart's manager Mitch), a security guard, and a customer are killed and Bobby gets his arm shattered. Bobby later moves away from Plymouth.
The following year, RightMart begins preparations for another Black Friday sale. When Bobby returns to Plymouth, a waitress named Lizzie is killed by a figure wearing a John Carver mask. Lizzie's involvement in the RightMart incident leads police to believe those involved are being targeted.
The assailant, now fittingly called "John Carver", tags Jessica and her friends in grisly social media posts. Jessica lends camera footage from the RightMart incident to the town's sheriff, Eric Newlon. Carver kills several more residents involved in the riot, including students Lonnie and Amy, and security guard Manny. Evan and Gaby are soon abducted while Yulia is attacked in her home. Jessica and Scuba make it there but are unable to stop Carver from disemboweling Yulia with a saw. The police attempt to lure Carver out by having the Wright family participate in the Thanksgiving parade. Carver in a different disguise decapitates a mascot and sets off smoke bombs, causing chaos in which he is able to abduct Jessica, her stepmother Kathleen, Thomas, and Scuba.
Kathleen is prepared and cooked alive at Carver's hideout. Her corpse is served as a "turkey" at a table where the hostages and victims' corpses are seated. Carver then bludgeons Evan to death in a livestream in front of the others. Jessica and Scuba escape from the table and Carver chases Jessica through the woods. She then comes upon Eric lying on the pavement and follows signs of movement into a building where parade float materials are being stored. She sees Bobby in the Carver costume but Eric joins her and tells her to go outside. Gunshots are heard but Bobby is not found.
The police inform Jessica that her friends and father are safe. In the sheriff's office, Jessica notices the same debris from the woods that stuck to her clothing is also stuck to the hem of Eric's pants, revealing that he is the killer. Jessica asks Eric why he engaged in his killing spree, and he reveals his motive for the murders: After Eric's wife left him, he met Amanda Collins and had an affair with her. Amanda became pregnant with his child, and she planned to divorce Mitch to be with him. Amanda was pregnant when she was killed during the RightMart incident. Eric then began targeting those he held responsible for the riot, as their negligence and violence caused Amanda's death. Eric had abducted Bobby and placed him in the Carver costume to frame him.
Jessica then reveals to a horrified Eric that she has live-streamed his confession, exposing him as the killer. Eric attacks her, but Bobby intervenes. An enraged Eric attacks again, intent on killing Jessica for ruining his plans and his life. Jessica loads a blunderbuss using her mother's bracelet and shoots down a balloon attached to a tank of gas, causing an explosion that engulfs the sheriff.
Jessica reunites with Gaby and Scuba while Bobby is taken to the hospital. Authorities are unable to find Eric's body and believe he was incinerated in the blast. Reunited with her boyfriend Ryan, Jessica has a nightmare in which she is attacked by a flaming Eric.

## Cast

* Patrick Dempsey as Sheriff Eric Newlon
* Nell Verlaque as Jessica
* Addison Rae as Gaby
* Jalen Thomas Brooks as Bobby
* Milo Manheim as Ryan
* Tomaso Sanelli as Evan
* Gabriel Davenport as Scuba
* Jenna Warren as Yulia
* Ty Victor Olsson as Mitch Collins
* Tim Dillon as Manny
* Russell Yuen as Detective Peter Chu
* Karen Cliche as Kathleen
* Derek McGrath as Mayor Cantin
* Joe Delfin as McCarty
* Jeff Teravainen as Deputy Bret Labelle
* Rick Hoffman as Thomas Wright
* Gina Gershon as Amanda Collins
Additionally, Jordan Poole plays Jacob, Mika Amonsen plays Lonnie, Shailyn Griffin plays Amy, Amanda Barker plays Lizzie, Chris Sandiford plays Doug, and Lynne Griffin plays Grandma. Adam MacDonald provides the voice of John Carver.

## Production

After director Eli Roth created the fake movie trailer, Thanksgiving, for the film Grindhouse (2007), plans for a feature-length adaptation began. In 2010, Roth told CinemaBlend that he was writing the script with Jeff Rendell and that he hoped to complete it once he was done with press for The Last Exorcism (2010). By August 2012, Jon Watts and Christopher D. Ford were set to write the screenplay with Roth and Rendell after they finished writing the Roth-produced Clown (2014). In June 2016, Roth revealed on Reddit that the script still needed work in order for the film to live up to the trailer.
In January 2023, Deadline Hollywood reported that Spyglass Media Group was producing the film. Roth would depart from Borderlands (2024), passing additional photography off to Tim Miller, in order to direct the film. The following month, Patrick Dempsey and Addison Rae joined the cast. Also cast were Jalen Thomas Brooks, Nell Verlaque, and Milo Manheim. In March 2023, Rick Hoffman, Gina Gershon, Tim Dillon, Gabriel Davenport, Tomaso Sanelli, and Jenna Warren joined the cast. Principal photography took place in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario, from March 13 to May 5, 2023.

## Release

In March 2023, TriStar Pictures acquired the rights to the film. Thanksgiving was released in the United States on November 17, 2023. The film was released in India as Bloody Thanksgiving. It was released on digital platforms on December 19, 2023, followed by a Blu-ray and DVD release on January 30, 2024. The film began streaming on Netflix on February 17, 2024.

## Reception
### Box office

Thanksgiving grossed $31.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $14.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $46.6 million.
In the United States and Canada, Thanksgiving was released alongside Next Goal Wins, Trolls Band Together, and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, and was projected to gross $12–15 million from 3,204 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $3.8 million on its first day, including $1 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $10.4 million, finishing fourth at the box office. The film made $7.2 million in its second weekend (a drop of 31%), finishing in fifth. It then made $2.6 million in its third weekend. The film was re-released in 511 theaters in the United States on the last weekend of January 2024.

### Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 84% of 151 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "Combining belly-busting humor with delightfully over-the-top gore, Thanksgiving is a feast for grindhouse fans." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 63 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it a 73% overall positive score.
Owen Gleiberman of Variety wrote "Thanksgiving follows the rules of the slasher genre, but it's got a more charged and entertainingly hyperbolic atmosphere than these movies used to have". Frank Scheck ended his positive review saying, "There are times you can feel Thanksgiving straining too mightily for a cult status it's not likely to achieve. But it seems a safe bet the film will be trotted out like a turkey on cable channels and streaming services for many Thanksgivings to come". The San Francisco Chronicle's G. Allen Johnson gave the film a score of one out of four and wrote, "Thanksgiving could have been a great horror movie. Instead, it's one of those where if you've seen the trailer, you've seen the film".

## Sequel

In November 2023, Roth announced on his Instagram page that a sequel, Thanksgiving 2, had been greenlit for a 2025 release. Two months later, Nell Verlaque and Rick Hoffman said that they believed they would return for a sequel. In August 2024, Roth stated he and co-writer Jeff Rendell were "about to hand" the final script to the studio, and that Addison Rae was expected to return as her character Gaby.

## Accolades

| Award | Date of Ceremony | Category | Recipient(s) | Result |
| Dead Meat Horror Awards | March 3rd, 2024 | Best Practical Effects Best Kill Best Remake or Sequel Best Villain | Thanksgiving | Nominated |