Since 2007, when he created a mock trailer for the movie Grindhouse, Eli Roth has been waiting for the right opportunity to create a feature-length movie based on the fake trailer. The original trailer is filled to the brim with terrible puns, extremely cheesy kill scenes and body reveals in true Eli Roth fashion. Roth made his directorial debut with the 2002 movie Cabin Fever, which he wrote with his college roommate in the late 90s. Later, when he created Hostel in 2005, his name became inextricably linked with the gritty slasher subgenre of horror films. He has since been added to a list of other independent directors known as “The Splat Pack,” featuring filmmakers who create highly violent movies on a low budget. Along with his writing and directing abilities, Roth is also a talented actor, making appearances in most, if not all of his movies. His most notable performance is in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, as Donny “The Bear Jew” Donowitz, for which he received a Critics Choice Movie Award.
Now, almost twenty years after the faux trailer was created for Grindhouse, Thanksgiving is finally happening. With the Thanksgiving holiday coming closer and closer, this article will tell you everything you need to know about Thanksgiving before it comes out. Bless the meat, let’s eat!
Editor’s Note: This piece was updated on October 4, 2023.
When Does ‘Thanksgiving’ Come Out?
Thanksgiving will come a little early this year, with a theatrical release on November 17, 2023.
The slasher film will be going up against a healthy crop of competition including the YA prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Taika Waititi‘s sports comedy Next Goal Wins, and DreamWorks’ animated sequel Trolls Band Together.
Will ‘Thanksgiving’ Be Available to Stream?
Thanksgiving will initially receive an exclusive theatrical release and plans for a digital release have yet to be revealed. Given the speed at which movies have been going from theaters to video-on-demand, it’s likely that Thanksgiving might grace our tables television screens by Christmas or New Year.
We also know that the film will eventually be available to stream on Netflix, thanks to a deal that was struck between Sony Pictures and the streamer back in April 2021, which gives the service the rights to stream recent films from the studio after their theatrical and exclusive VOD windows have concluded. Recent Sony titles that have become available on Netflix include The Pope’s Exorcist, The Machine, and 65.
What Is ‘Thanksgiving’ About?
The movie is set in Plymouth, Massachusetts, a town that takes Thanksgiving very, very seriously. “The table is set, the festivities have begun, but an uninvited guest has arrived… and this year, there will be no leftovers.” When a serial killer sets his sights on the residents of the town, he is determined to kill as many of them as possible. The big question to be answered is “Why?” What is it about Thanksgiving that sets the killer off? Knowing Roth, it could be something as simple as a guy who just really wants to fight for the rights of animals raised for slaughter.
The official synopsis for the film, from Sony Pictures, reads:
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?
Is There a Trailer for ‘Thanksgiving’?
The official teaser trailer for Thanksgiving was released on September 9, 2023, giving genre fans their first real good look at Eli Roth’s first horror movie in a decade.
The official red-band trailer was released by Sony Pictures on October 4, 2023, giving viewers an even better look at the creative holiday-themed kills that Thanksgiving promises to be full of.
The original trailer from 2007, which runs a little over 2 minutes long, can be seen in the Grindhouse movie, or you can view it below:
Who’s In the Cast of ‘Thanksgiving’?
In February 2023, it was confirmed that Patrick Dempsey (Grey’s Anatomy) had been cast in the movie as the town sheriff, alongside Addison Rae. Rae is best known for her TikTok account and singing, but now she is making the transition from cell phone screens to bigger screens. She was most recently in the 2021 Netflix film He’s All That, as Padgett Sawyer.
They will be joined by Gina Gershon (Emily The Criminal), Milo Manheim (Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 3), Jalen Thomas Brooks (Walker), Nell Verlaque (Big Shot), and Rick Hoffman (Hostel). The film will also star stand-up comedian Tim Dillon, Gabriel Davenport (Hotel for the Holidays), Tomaso Sanelli (Titans), Jenna Warren (My Little Pony: Make Your Mark), and Karen Cliche (Galentine’s Day Nightmare).
Who Is Making ‘Thanksgiving’?
As previously mentioned Eli Roth is directing the Thanksgiving. He began writing the script for the film as early as 2010, working with Jeff Rendell (Cabin Fever). Roth and Rendell are also producing the project alongside Roger Birnbaum. Executive producers on the project include Gary Barber, Peter Oillataguerre, Greg Denny, Kate Harrison Karman, and Chris Stone.
During an AMA on Reddit in 2016, Roth posted that the script was still in production but needed more work to live up to the trailer. Rumors and speculations about Roth’s development of the film circulated since then, but we finally got confirmation at the beginning of this year that the movie is in production with Spyglass Media Group producing. Roth, who was working on directing the Borderlands adaptation with Craig Mazin (The Last of Us), left the director’s chair in order to sink his teeth into the holiday-themed slasher.
Watch Other Films From Eli Roth:
In the meantime, if you wanted to refresh your memory of Roth’s previous work, you can check out some of these movies:
Grindhouse (2007) – This movie was co-directed by Roth, Quentin Tarantino, and Robert Rodriguez, and was the first movie in a long time to be released as a back-to-back double feature, in the way that movies were often released back in the 60s and 70s. After struggling at the box office, Planet Terror and Death Proof were ultimately released as separate movies and have since become cult classics. The film has a stellar cast as well including the likes of Kurt Russel, Rose McGowan, and Danny Trejo.
Rent on Planet Terror on Prime Video Rent Death Proof on Prime Video
Cabin Fever (2002) – While camping at a remote cabin, five college friends fall ill with a vicious flesh-eating disease. If you haven’t already seen this movie it’s a great way to make you paranoid about your drinking water. The 2016 remake of Cabin Fever was directed by Travis Zariwny, with Eli Roth on the writing team and executive producing.
Hostel (2005) – Written and directed by Roth, this movie follows a trio of college friends as they backpack across Europe. They are lured to a hostel in Slovakia by a seemingly kind stranger, but soon realize they’ve found themselves in a sadistic spiral of human trafficking at its worst. This gore-fest has a runtime of 94 minutes.
When the summer begins to cool and the leaves begin to change colors, you’ll have something besides turkey to look forward to this fall. Coming to theaters on November 17th, it’s likely we will have an official trailer release by Halloween, and we’ll update this article as soon as we do!
#Holiday #Slasher