Eli Roth's Thanksgiving Gets Fitting Release Date
More than 15 years after Eli Roth first teased the slasher Thanksgiving to audiences in Grindhouse, he's bringing the project to life as a feature film, which just earned a release date that will fully embrace the season of its title. For the horror genre, the months of September and October are when there is a major surge in unsettling stories being released, getting audiences into the spirit of Halloween, with Thanksgiving potentially being able to cash in on those looking to dive deep into terror after the wave of horror releases. Thanksgiving is currently in production and has a November 17th release date.
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 town residents, including several beheadings.
we’ll save you a seat. 🍽 🩸#ThanksgivingMovie is coming exclusively to movie theaters this November 17, 2023. pic.twitter.com/EMRH6ynDMZ
— thanksgivingmovie (@tgivingmovie) April 3, 2023
The film stars 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.
Back in 1974, Bob Clark released Black Christmas while John Carpenter and Debra Hill delivered Halloween in 1978. The success of both of these films helped ignite excitement in the burgeoning slasher subgenre, while also inspiring several imitators that cashed in on the formula of delivering a disturbing story set on a holiday. Films like Friday the 13th, New Year's Evil, April Fool's Day, and My Bloody Valentine are just some of the films that honored that trend. The inherent unease around Halloween and the prominence of Christmas make the two holidays the center of countless horror films, regardless of whether elements of those holidays are incorporated into the plot.
While there are a handful of films that take place on or around Thanksgiving, such as Blood Rage or the Thankskilling films, it's a holiday that is largely overlooked in the world of horror yet Roth's Thanksgiving looks to be changing all of that.
Thanksgiving is currently in production and has a November 17th release date.
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