Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving Trailer Released

Following up on a tease from yesterday, Sony Pictures has released the official trailer for Thanksgiving, the upcoming film from Hostel‘s Eli Roth. The concept, which has been floating around for more than 15 years, ironically started its life as a trailer. Specifically, Roth directed a trailer for Thanksgiving as part of Grindhouse, the double-feature from Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, which played like an old drive-in schlock double-feature, up to and including fake trailers and the like. Thanksgiving is the third (out of five) fake trailer from Grindhouse that woudl eventually go on to become a real movie, with the others being Robert Rodriguez’s Machete, which spawned a 2010 film starring Danny Trejo and even got a  sequel; and Jason Eisner’s Hobo With A Shotgun, which released in 2011 and starred the late Rutger Hauer.

The inherent absurdity of a slasher movie based on the idea of American Thanksgiving is part of the movie’s appeal, giving it the same energy as more recent movies like Cocaine Bear or, to some extent, the indie sensation The VelociPastor (which was also based on a fake trailer).

You can see the trailer below, via Bloody Digusting.

Thanksgiving (2023) stars TikTok star Addison Rae alongside  Grey’s Anatomy’s Patrick Dempsey, Jalen Thomas Brooks (Walker), Nell Verlaque (Big Shot), Milo Manheim (Zombies), Gabriel Davenport (Steal Away), Tomaso Sanelli (Titans), Jenna Warren (My Little Pony), Tim Dillon (Timing), Rick Hoffman (Suits), and Gina Gershon (Riverdale). 

It’s hard to know what to expect from the movie, beyond some gore and some laughs. Roth has been one of the biggest names in horror since the 2000s, when he burst onto the scene by writing, directing, and producing his own cult-hit horror films Cabin Fever (2002), Hostel (2005), and Hostel: Part II (2007). He has branched out into bigger projects in recent years, producing and/or directing things like Netflix’s Hemlock Grove and even the Baywatch remake, but has never been the same kind of cultural phenomenon he was when his career first exploded. Similarly, of the three movies to spin out of Grindhouse, only the first Machete really made any money. Of course, even Grindhouse itself performed modestly at the box office, and is more fondly remembered by its cult following than by its commercial success.

Here’s the official (if brief) synopsis for the film:

After a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy, a mysterious serial killer, known only as “John Carver”, comes to Plymouth, Massachusetts, with the intention of creating a Thanksgiving carving board out of the town’s inhabitants.

Thanskgiving will be in theaters on November 17.