Eli Roth's Thanksgiving Will Carve Up Theaters This November
This Thanksgiving, it's not just turkeys that'll be getting carved up. Horror director Eli Roth is set to follow in the footsteps of "Machete Kills" filmmaker Robert Rodriguez and "Hobo With A Shotgun" director Jason Eisener, turning the fake movie trailer he made for Rodriguez's 2007 film "Grindhouse" into a real, feature-length movie. "Thanksgiving" is now set to strut its way to theaters in time for the colonialist feast day.
While Roth has yet to drop a trailer or first footage from the movie, fans of the filmmaker probably have a good idea of what to expect from the feature-length expansion of a delightfully nasty short that left audiences laughing (and flinching) back when Rodriguez's "Grindhouse" made its debut. It's too soon to tell how much "Thanksgiving" will borrow from its source material, but as the first fiction feature co-written, directed, and produced by the "Hostel" filmmaker since 2015's Keanu Reeves-led erotic thriller, "Knock Knock," it'll surely be pure, unadulterated Roth.
When and where to watch Eli Roth's Thanksgiving
"Thanksgiving" is set to hit theaters exactly when you'd expect it to — around Thanksgiving. More specifically, the film will debut on November 17, 2023, roughly a week before the turkey-scarfing holiday. The worldwide release will come courtesy of Spyglass Media Group, which brought us the recent "Scream" films, and TriStar Pictures, which has helmed its fair share of horror films, including the actual '80s holiday slasher, "Silent Night, Deadly Night."
A November release date seems like a tight turnaround for the film, given the fact that Eli Roth just shared a picture in mid-March indicating that production had begun, but it would frankly be strange for the movie to come out at any other time. The image shared to the filmmaker's Instagram announcing the start of production featured an old-fashioned axe resting on Roth's director's chair.
What we think Thanksgiving will be about
As mentioned above, "Thanksgiving" started out as a fake trailer played alongside Robert Rodriguez's "Grindhouse." Presented with a lo-fi, late-'70s grainy look, the trailer showed off several gruesome kill scenes involving a masked murderer who is dressed like a pilgrim. "In the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts, the fourth Thursday in November is the most-celebrated day of the year," a creepy, Zodiac-killer-like voice intones. From then on, we see the killer terrorizing townfolk in school gymnasiums, on lovers' lanes, during a Thanksgiving dinner, and in broad daylight amidst a crowd at a Thanksgiving parade.
The initial trailer for "Thanksgiving" is an exploitation-comedy hybrid, one that brings groans over its gnarliest moments (I can't unsee the trampolining cheerleader bouncing accidentally crotch-first straight onto the killer's knife) and elicits plenty of laughs, too. In one scene, a girl decides to do a sexual favor for her boyfriend because it's Thanksgiving, a slyly funny bit that indicates this is a town with a strangely deep love for the holiday. In another, two men who seem to be cops crouch over what's obviously an utterly mangled human body. "It's blood," one tells the other after licking the substance from his finger. "Son of a b****!" his colleague says with perfect deadpan delivery.
It's unclear at this point how much "Thanksgiving" will draw from the short, but if it does, we know there could be two teens named Judy and Bobby. Bobby gets beheaded in the trailer, while Judy keeps finding herself in the arms of the killers' future victims. The two investigators also seem to play a key role in the original (fake) movie.
The Thanksgiving cast and crew
Just as Thanksgiving (the holiday) gathers assorted and sundry relatives in one room no matter how little they have in common, "Thanksgiving" (the movie) seems poised to star an eclectic cast. "Grey's Anatomy" star Patrick Dempsey has been attached to the project in press reports over the past few months, while "Bound" star Gina Gershon is also reportedly set to appear, per Deadline. Plus, TikTok star Addison Rae is set to take on a role, showing off her horror acting chops after her starring turn in "He's All That" in 2021.
Other actors reportedly attached include Rick Hoffman ("Suits"), Nell Verlaque ("Big Shot"), Jalen Thomas Brooks ("Walker"), Milo Manheim ("School Spirits"), Gabriel Davenport ("After the Storm"), Tomaso Sanelli ("Titans"), Tim Dillon ("Timing"), and Jenna Warren ("The Young Arsonists"). With most of the ensemble composed of young actors, it's safe to say that "Thanksgiving" will likely follow some of the teen slasher tropes it set up in its faux trailer back in 2007.
Jeff Rendell, who co-wrote the original "Thanksgiving" short with Eli Roth and played the killer pilgrim in the trailer, is once again penning the script alongside Roth. Prolific producer Roger Birnbaum is set to produce, as are both Rendell and Roth. With Roth and Rendell carving out this story like a prime cut of a perfectly-cooked bird, "Thanksgiving" will almost certainly be one of the most messed-up movies of the year when it drops on November 17, 2023.