Reviews
[REVIEW] Eli Roth’s ‘Thanksgiving’ (2023) Brings Classic Grindhouse Flavor That Was Well Worth the Wait
But when Roth has the sauce, he has it, and this movie is drowning in pure gravy. If you were waiting for a top-tier slasher packed with pitch-black humor and crimson blood everywhere, you’ll be pretty happy. If you were waiting for another one of those rare, legitimately great holiday horror films, you’ll be ecstatic. But regardless of what you’re waiting for, you should absolutely head to theatres to see Thanksgiving.
In a year with one of the grimiest Saw films yet, a blood-flooding entry in the Evil Dead franchise, and the notoriously nasty sleeper hit When Evil Lurks, you would think horror fans were full on all the brutal, mean-spirited kills they could get. But Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving is some of the best seconds, thirds, and even fourths we could have gotten in a landmark year for horror like 2023. It may have taken 16 years and some change to see a fictional trailer realized into a feature-length film, but the long cook time was worth it for the absolutely rich modern-day grindhouse feature that we got.
An Old Trailer Brought to Life
If you’re confused about what that last sentence meant, in 2007, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino made Grindhouse, a double feature of two throwback movies that evoked the old exploitation fare: Planet Terror and Death Proof. In the film were several fake trailers for exploitation movies that were never meant to be made, including one for a film called Thanksgiving, about a pilgrim-masked killer slashing through the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and leaving no leftovers (which is all the plot summary you need to understand this review). A few of these trailers were so well received they became real films, like Machete and personal favorite Hobo With A Shotgun, and Thanksgiving was set to become one of them too.
Despite the “Splat Pack” alum beginning a script in 2010, Thanksgiving was sidetracked by Roth’s other projects. And while it’s easy to say now that it should have come out sooner, I’m glad it came out when it did. Thanksgiving is rivaled only by Terrifier 2 as a snapshot of the great modern-day grindhouse revival that’s starting to warm up in American cinema as we get deeper into the 2020s. An original slasher with a simple plot and people being chopped to bloody bits is like a slice of warm pecan pie to horror fans; it’s comforting, it’s gooey, and it can get messy.
Eli Roth Brings Us a New Horror Classic
Roth nails the exploitation feel promised by the trailer, though, as anyone who has seen the promotional material will know, has abandoned the 70’s sepia aesthetic in favor of crisp digital cameras. Thanksgiving’s more familiar tones come from the original My Bloody Valentine most prominently, with colder undertones of 90’s slashers popularized by Kevin Williamson’s work on Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, and it works well in calling back to them.
Roth paints that classic picture of a quaint small town with residents who are rotten to the core. There are sappy love triangles, greedy business people, obnoxious homecoming heroes, and deadbeat super seniors, all waiting to be run through by a vengeful killer like a turkey getting stuck with a meat thermometer. The citizens of Plymouth this time around are about as obnoxious as most of Roth’s characters; their idiocy is played up for humor that is not quite whip-smart, but still manages to be witty often enough to catch you off guard with plenty of great jokes.
Despite having character actor heavyweights like Gina Gershon and Rick Hoffman present, the onus of the entertainment provided comes from the younger cast. Nell Verlaque’s Jessica is a solid final girl surrounded by some very funny friends; Tomaso Sanelli was born to play the role of comedically evil jock Evan, a quarterback obsessed with going viral & prone to dragging his friends into trouble. And despite the love triangle having Verlaque’s Jessica at the center of it, the best moments involving that B-plot come from Milo Manheim’s Ryan and Jalen Thomas Brook’s Bobby, whose interactions where they constantly go tit-for-tat and bicker for romantic attention are incredibly funny. It really does seem like everyone had fun with the material they were given because the film gets laughs effortlessly.
Will The Carver Find His Audience?
But let’s talk about our butchering pilgrim, The Carver. He is every bit as evil as he seemed in his first appearance (sans that one bit of coitus with the cooked turkey, sorry if you were excited about that). Cutting a path through town as he looks for revenge, he serves Roth’s blood-soaked vision on a silver platter. The Carver would find a cozy home as Mortal Kombat 1 DLC character with the grotesque ways he takes out some of his targets, effortlessly cleaving through people and racking up not only a body count but several very memorable kills in the process.
Eli Roth’s commitment to creating a mean-spirited mise en scene is still unrivaled, with the nastier kills showing that undeniable finesse. Roth’s strong suit even in his less impressive films has always been setting up victims and teeing them off with the rawest deaths, which, when at his best, make you feel like you just got splattered in the face with their blood. And Roth is undoubtedly at his best in this film; one kill, in particular, got nearly everyone in the theatre to synchronize and let out one harmonious “Oh s**t!” like the world’s first swearing-only boys’ choir.
A Mostly Great Movie Let Down By a Less Than Stellar Soundtrack
That said, some aspects of Thanksgiving’s cinematography are more cold mashed potatoes than sweet cranberry sauce. The music is far and away from being the best I’ve heard this year, which is ironic since a lot of the worse-off exploitation films of the 70s did coast by having decent soundtracks. Most audience members will be too preoccupied wincing at where The Carver’s axe (and pitchfork, and hammer) lands to notice this, though. And I can’t lie, I didn’t notice it until later either.
When it comes to the story, the twist of who the killer is falls apart after one particular detail in the film, which is something Roth and company must have noticed since they included a throwaway line meant to dissuade audience members from guessing The Carver’s very clear identity. Chances are you will figure it out early on, so don’t sweat it, and try not to feel too insulted when they do that thing flashing back to the very obvious red herring lines throughout the film.
BOTTOMLINE: Roth’s work has always been a mixed bag for me. But when Roth has the sauce, he has it, and this movie is drowning in pure gravy. If you were waiting for a top-tier slasher packed with pitch-black humor and crimson blood everywhere, you’ll be pretty happy. If you were waiting for another one of those rare, legitimately great holiday horror films, you’ll be ecstatic. But regardless of what you’re waiting for, you should absolutely head to theatres to see Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving releases, exclusively in theatres, this Friday, November 17th!
Reviews
[REVIEW] The People Vs. ‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose’
The Exorcism of Emily Rose is a unique take on exorcism films. The film follows Erin Brunner (Laura Linney), a high-profile defense lawyer. Brunner is fresh off a murder case where her client was cleared of all charges–only for that client to turn around and commit another set of murders. In the hopes of becoming a partner at her law firm, Brunner is talked into taking the defense for Father Richard Moore (Tom Wilkinson). Father Moore finds himself in the hot seat after a series of exorcisms resulted in the death of Emma Rose (Jennifer Carpenter). The twist? Erin Brunner is agnostic! OooOOoooOh.
The second film I wanted to cover, that’s “based on a true story”, is one that utterly fascinates me…and not for the right reasons. After Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, I felt let down. I am by no means a Henry Lee Lucas expert, but even with someone having the bare knowledge of the case, I couldn’t believe they dared to refer to it as having anything to do with the Confession Killer. Could The Exorcism of Emily Rose pull me out of this pit of despair? Can it get some basic information right? Ugh.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose is a unique take on exorcism films. The film follows Erin Brunner (Laura Linney), a high-profile defense lawyer. Brunner is fresh off a murder case where her client was cleared of all charges–only for that client to turn around and commit another set of murders. In the hopes of becoming a partner at her law firm, Brunner is talked into taking the defense for Father Richard Moore (Tom Wilkinson). Father Moore finds himself in the hot seat after a series of exorcisms resulted in the death of Emma Rose (Jennifer Carpenter). The twist? Erin Brunner is agnostic! OooOOoooOh.
This film brings us the dramatized events of Emily’s tragic final days through the setting of a courtroom drama. There’s something fun about this idea. It’s surprising this idea hasn’t been reused. Laura Linney and Tom Wilkinson are an excellent duo, they play off each other very well. If only the real-life lawyers were as likable as Erin Brunner (we’ll get there later). The real star of the show is Jennifer Carpenter. Tasked with doing justice to the real Emily Rose (Anneliese Michel), Carpenter handles her performance with class.
The story jumps back and forth between the courtroom and Emily’s experiences. There is great information for the film to base its script on, and it doesn’t do it interestingly. One of the most notorious pieces of evidence in this case is the leaked audio of the 67 exorcisms performed on Michel. The Catholic church did not release this audio until around 2011, but Carpenter does a great job of channeling the pain you can hear in the audio.
An interesting angle of the real Anneliese Michel story is how the lawyers were really trying to put the devil on trial. Unlike the film, Michel’s parents were also put on trial, as well as the two priests who initiated the exorcisms. Rather than the film’s dramatic guilty plea with time served as a sentence, the German justice department thought the parents had suffered enough and that the priests should just get fined. In reality, both the parents and the priests deserved to go to jail. The complete neglect of Anneliese’s ailments was thought nothing more than the dirty hands of the devil. Anneliese’s parents and the priests were the cause of her death. Their extreme beliefs in a bearded man in the sky trumped the reality of what was actually happening with their extremely sick daughter.
The film plays off Brunner as someone who needs to see the light. Brunner is put on this case to help rectify her previous case (the one where she got the murderer off without charges). God put her in Father Moore’s hands. So, by this logic, co-writer/director Scott Derrickson thinks that for one person to receive redemption, another must die. The Exorcism of Emily Rose is nothing more than religious propaganda. “What if god is real,” Erin Brunner asks the jury. Even if god is real, a young woman is dead! God isn’t on the chopping block, Father Moore is. This latter half of this film plays strictly to the Bible Belt.
Also, Erin Brunner is written as someone who can be redeemed and will be redeemed, a tragic character who has accepted greed over truth. Do you want to know who defended the Michels in real life? Lawyers who defended Nazis in the Nurenberg trials. Scott Derrickson can fuck right off.
Everything about this film feels like nothing more than Catholic-funded propaganda. Rather than owning up to their mistakes and accepting the punishment they deserved, the Michels and priests never had to answer for their true crimes. They left a young woman to die a truly horrible death and all got off with a slap on the wrist.
All of this went down around the same time as Vatican 2. The Catholics who were against Vatican 2 were hoping that they could find a way to prove that Anneliese was possessed because god wasn’t happy with the Vatican II overhaul. If they could prove god’s anger, they could use that as fuel to ensure Vatican II didn’t happen. Anneliese’s mother gaslit her into refusing the idea that her neurological issues could be the cause of all this. See, Anneliese wanted to be a teacher, but her mother forced her to believe that no one would hire her as a teacher if she had all of these issues. People won’t hire a crazy teacher.
Failed by those around her, Anneliese was posthumously deprived of any justice. If there is a god, I can only hope the Michels and the two priests do not meet him. Instead of breaking down all of these fascinating aspects of the case of Anneliese Michel, Scott Derrickson crafted a shell of a film. His lack of care for the source material is beyond disrespectful to Anneliese’s pain in her short time on earth. Scott Derrickson’s classless and [seemingly] Catholic-funded sophomore feature film is nothing more than a film that has a few solid scares that rely on you taking him at his word. For a film that starts with the title card “based on a true story,” there is not a lick of truth in this nearly two-hour film.
We continue to start our year by looking at short films that either ran their festival circuit in 2024 or will soon be running the festival circuit. Western horror is a subgenre that’s often overlooked, usually because it offensively centers around Native Americans attacking groups of white people who have taken over their land. Bone Tomahawk and The Burrowers are unfortunate examples of painting Natives in a negative light for the plight of the whites. Who knew all it would take for a well-done Western horror is an Italian director at the helm?
Dreadstone: The Beginning follows Jeb (Grid Margraf), a tired and weathered man who is left in charge of his non-verbal autistic daughter Adeline (Alexandra Boulas). Jeb finds himself in possession of a purple-glowing gem that may be more nefarious than meets the eye. The two traverse across harsh lands in search of the source of the gem. But things turn south when they find out what they were looking for may have answers to questions they never intended on asking.
Written by Avery Peck and Riccardo Suriano, and directed by Riccardo Suriano, Dreadstone: The Beginning is a fascinating start to a tale as old as time. Peck’s cinematography beautifully brings their words to life and effortlessly blends cosmic horror with the overwhelming fruitless nature of greed and the human condition. Cosmic and Western horror aren’t typically put together, but they work incredibly well with the ideas behind Dreadstone and its themes. Jeb’s gem is a practical MacGuffin and is a great stand-in for the concept of greed; this opulent-looking rock in a no-tech world. It’s a simple object that’s incredibly effective.
The frontier setting of Dreadstone works to create an isolating setting. This large setting singularly frames these two characters and makes them feel like the only people in the world. It isn’t until the film’s final shot that we realize they are definitely not the only people around. Dreadstone: The Beginning is a drastic change from Suriano’s previous film, Along Came Ruby. Besides the obvious time difference between these two films, Ruby sets itself as a Last of Us-like post-apocalyptic film, whereas Dreadstone: The Beginning sets itself to possibly be a pre-apocalyptic film. These two films also differ in tone, but both films prove that Suriano is confident with his overall voice and vision.
Alexandra Boulas stars in both Along Came Ruby and Dreadstone: The Beginning. Boulas excels in both films but gives a more reserved and confident performance in Dreadstone. With the exception of a few moments, Boulas’ performance is silent…but commanding. Watching Ruby shows that Boulas can easily deliver lines, while Dreadstone proves there’s more to her acting than line delivery. Fingers crossed we see her in more films in the near future, I think she has a promising career ahead of her.
Dreadstone: The Beginning is a unique take on Western horror that forgoes the [racist] Native Americans against white people trope that the subgenre is fraught with. A touch of cosmic horror, a hint of coming-of-age, and a heaping spoonful of good ole greed make Dreadstone: The Beginning a short film that will stick with you long after the credits roll. I’ll tell you what…this made me look forward to Dreadstone: The Aftermath!
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