The movie Thanksgiving is slasher directed by Eli Roth that was released on November 17th, 2023. The killing starts with an incident that happened during a Black Friday store riot that resulted in three deaths. The following year, a psychopath dresses up like a murderous pilgrim to get revenge on people who were involved the night of the riot. It starred an interesting variety of actors including Patrick Dempsey and TikTok star Addison Rae. With a budget of $15 million, the box office has only grossed $10.3 million as of this past Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Although the rotten tomato score is set at 82%, audience reviews have been mixed. For a horror/slasher type movie, its rotten tomato rating is considerably higher than most, which I found interesting in comparison to audience reviews along with my own. The audience score is 79%, which is not much less than the tomato score, yet I’m finding some of the reviews rather interesting. It appears that there were mostly only two types of reviews: 5/5 or 1/5 stars. People either love it or hate it, which is also odd to me since I remain somewhere in between after watching it in theaters.
Overall, I’m glad that I decided to go watch it, but it was also nowhere near a cinematic masterpiece. You can’t take the movie seriously with its average acting and cheesiness. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at parts that weren’t meant to be funny, however that’s part of why I liked it. I’m not 100% sure of the director’s intentions, but I definitely got some laughter and fun out of it rather than being scared. There were a few decent jump scares and it was mildly thrilling. The most notable part of the film though was undoubtedly the extreme amount of outlandish gore. This is definitely not a movie you’d want to accidentally watch by walking into the wrong theater. Within just the first 10-15 minutes, the audience is traumatized by the graphic violence and injuries, which continue throughout the entirety of the film. If blood squirting everywhere is your thing you’re probably going to love it, but if you have a weak stomach, prepare to need a puke bucket. To give it a star rating, I think I’d give it a 3/5. I enjoyed watching it and I’d recommend it to those who can handle the gore, but as a film in general, it wasn’t too impressive by any means. I believe it’s worth your time for the outlandish hilarious entertainment, but don’t expect anywhere near a cinematic masterpiece.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/thanksgiving_2023/reviews