It took fifteen years, butThanksgivingfrom directorEli Rothis finally hitting the big screen. The upcoming slasher follows a mysterious Thanksgiving-inspired killer who terrorizes Plymouth, Massachusetts, after a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy. The film’s origins date back to 2007, when a trailer for the then non-existent film was featured in Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’sGrindhouse. Following in the footsteps ofMacheteandHobo With A Shotgun,Thanksgivingis the latest film to stem from the double feature.
Back in 2010, Roth revealed that a film based on the faux trailer was in the works but bringing the film to life proved to be a slow process. In a recent interview withCollider, Roth explained the hurdles he faced while bringingThanksgivingto life:
“We tried to do it. There were rights issues, and then the pandemic hit. We thought we had. Also, we were trying to get the script right.”
And get the script right, Roth eventually did. Working alongside co-writer Jeff Rendell (who played the pilgrim in theGrindhousetrailer), the two steered from the trailer and took a more creative approach:
“For years, I was just connecting the dots between the trailer, and then I was like, ‘Am I just filming the scenes in between what I already did before it?’ (Co-writer) Jeff Rendell and I just went through every iteration. I’ll tell you, the big revelation was, he said, ‘I have to just pretend that Thanksgiving 1980 exists, and that it was so offensive that every print was destroyed, and the only thing that survived was the trailer. This is the reboot of what that movie was. Every copy of the script was burned. Every print was burned. The only thing that survived was that one trailer, on the darkest corners of the internet. So, we have to make a movie based on that. This is the reboot of what that was.’ That freed me up creatively to go, ‘I can use a couple of my favorite things in the trailer, but I don’t have to worry about recreating the trailer.’ That trailer was for a movie where every print was destroyed. Now, this is gonna be its own thing.”
Related:Thanksgiving Trailer & Poster Turn Eli Roth’s Grindhouse Slasher Into Real Movie
Eli Roth Teases That Thanksgiving Will Bring the Gore
Roth, who began his directing careerwith gory films likeCabin FeverandHostel, is a well known name in the splatter subgenre, which points to a bloody good time withThanksgiving.But just how bloody? Well, according to the director,Thanksgivingwon’t go “as far as ‘Terrifer 2’” in terms of graphic visuals, but he promises the film will still be “bonkers:”
“It’s much more in theCabin FeverandHostelvein, where it’s an R-rated movie that’s being released in movie theaters by a mainstream studio, but it’s still totally bonkers. I want everyone screaming and going, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe they did that.’ It’s that kind of movie, but it’s also not gonna be in the way you’d expect. You want to outdo what you did in the fake trailer, but hit people in ways that they don’t see coming. That’s the trick. Because it’s based on a fake trailer, I have to live up to the expectations, but I can’t just recreate what I did before because then, weirdly, it becomes boring. So, you have to surprise people in ways that they don’t see coming.”
ThanksgivingstarsPatrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Nell Verlaquel, Rick Hoffman, and Gina Gershon. It is scheduled for release on November 17, courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing’s TriStar Pictures.
Until then,Roth’s animated series,Fright Krewe, is available to stream on Peacock and Hulu. His next directorial feature,Borderlands, is set to debut in 2024.
