Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving Confirms Production Start With Set Photo

More than 15 years after audiences saw a fake trailer for Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving, an official movie inspired by that short is on the way, with a behind-the-scenes photo from the film’s set confirming that production was underway. The photo itself doesn’t offer any information about the project, though it does confirm the return of the familiar weapon used by a killer sporting Pilgrim-inspired garb as they knock off coeds in Plymouth, Massachusetts one fateful November. While Thanksgiving doesn’t yet have a release date, we won’t be surprised if it lands in theaters just in time for this year’s holiday.

“There will be no leftovers,” the film’s official Twitter account shared alongside the photo. “[Thanksgiving] is now in production.”

View on X

No official details on the film’s plot have been released, but based on the original trailer seen in Grindhouse, we can piece together the core concept. That trailer showed the festivities of the holiday being celebrated in Plymouth, Massachusetts as a killer violently knocked off various residents of the town, which included a number of beheadings. With slashers like Halloween and My Bloody Valentine featuring killers committing crimes on holidays, the film will likely embrace a similar spirit to those slashers. 

Starring in the film are Patrick Dempsey, Nell Verlaque, Addison Rae, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Milo Manheim, Gabriel Davenport, Tomaso Sanelli, and Jenna Warren. The project recently added Gina Gershon, Tim Dillon, and Rick Hoffman. Roth is directing the film from a script by Jeff Rendell, who also wrote the original trailer.

The experience of Grindhouse was the brainchild of filmmakers Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. The experience was meant to evoke the feeling of going to the movies for a double feature of schlocky horror, with Rodriguez delivering Planet Terror while Tarantino delivered Death Proof. Each segment of Grindhouse was preceded by trailers for fake movies, with Grindhouse enlisting the likes of Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright, and Roth to craft fake trailers. One fake trailer, Machete, was developed by Rodriguez and has since been adapted into a feature.

While it might come as a surprise to some audiences that Roth is moving forward on the picture, he has been expressing his passion for expanding the short virtually ever since the trailer was released.

Stay tuned for details on Thanksgiving.

Are you looking forward to the new movie? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!