Why Aren’t There More Thanksgiving Horror Movies?

When Grindhouse opened back in 2007, the few who saw it in the theater were gifted with a few satirical film trailers. Several years later one of those trailers, Machete, became an actual film. It even received a sequel, Machete Kills, which stands as one of the most outlandish movies ever to hit (and swiftly leave) theaters. And, following in Robert Rodriguez’s footsteps, Eli Roth ended up adapting his passion project, Thanksgiving, in 2023.

It scored excellent reviews for a slasher flick, primarily for its style, tone, and the performances from the cast, and did relatively well financially, but it helped raise the question that the initial faux trailer did: Why aren’t there more Turkey Day-themed horror movies? Since the 1970s, Christmas has had a cavalcade of holiday-themed horror movies try to capitalize on the festivities. For instance, Black Christmas, Christmas Evil, Gremlins, the ultra-controversial Silent Night, Deadly Night, Elves, Hardware, The Gingerdead Man, Santa’s Slay, Krampus, and two quasi-remakes of Black Christmas.

That list doesn’t even encompass half of the entirety of existent Christmas-themed fright flicks. With Halloween, it’s obvious why so many horror movies incorporate the holiday. But, with Christmas, which is supposed to be about love and spending time with family, there’s less of a direct throughline.

Thanksgiving essentially has the same purpose as Christmas, but with the added spin of, well, thankfulness. And, yet, up until Roth’s faux trailer, there was really just the little-seen Blood Rage (which isn’t easy to find but is worth checking out for slasher fans), a slew of direct-to-video movies that were acknowledged even less than Blood Rage, and 2005’s awful Boogeyman. That dearth of Thanksgiving-themed horror content didn’t really change in between 2007 and 2023, either.

There was the absurd black comedy ThanksKilling and 2019’s Escape Room took place around the holiday, but that’s about it. To put it into context, that same 16-year stretch gave Halloween-themed horror movie fans Rob Zombie’s two Michael Myers movies, David Gordon Green’s Michael Myers trilogy, Trick ‘r Treat, All Hallows’ Eve (an anthology film centered around Art the Clown), a sequel to All Hallows’ Eve, two Terrifier movies, and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Christmas had Wind Chill, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, an underrated reboot of Silent Night, Deadly Night, the aforementioned Krampus, Better Watch Out, Anna and the Apocalypse, and the low-budget Grinchy flick The Mean One, to name a few.

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Essentially, Roth has crafted the one IP that actually directly incorporates Thanksgiving into both the plot and the scares. It’s impressive he could turn a brief faux trailer into a solid and successful feature film, but the question still exists why more studios, big or small, don’t try to capitalize on the beloved holiday. Thanksgiving has even been shorted when it comes to comedy, with the most notable example being Planes, Trains and Automobiles (which, for Steve Martin’s Neal Page, at least, does in and of itself function as a horror tale).

The horror genre is arguably bigger now than it’s ever been, with its entries proving to be even more reliable at the box office than superhero movies, so why not incorporate more gobbling turkeys and cranberry sauce? The truth is, the staples of Christmas and Halloween are more natural fits for the genre. Jack-o’-lanterns? Scary. An elderly bearded man who essentially breaks into your house at night with a big bag slung over his shoulder? Scary. One of Earth’s dumbest birds awkwardly waddling around? Not so much. It takes a genre master like Roth to twist it all into something glorious, and it looks like fans will have to wait until his announced Thanksgiving sequel to get more pilgrim-themed madness.

The consolation prize for Thanksgiving-themed horror fans is that they haven’t been as slighted as Easter-themed horror fans. Sure, Critters 2: The Main Course has a man in an Easter Bunny suit attacked by a toothed, furry little alien. But, as that scene description implies, the Critters franchise always functioned as a sci-fi comedy more than it did horror. At this point in time, the scariest Easter movie out there is a potential nightmare about choking on a plastic Easter egg.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!