Dir. Eli Roth | Now In Theaters | Rating: 3/5

Happy Thanksgiving – is not the plot of this film by any means. I had no intention of seeing this, but it was the only horror film playing on a Sunday that I hadn’t seen yet. For what this was trying to do, it was entertaining and certainly an “experience.”

This has a very classic slasher setup with a helping of Eli Roth’s trademark extreme body horror. Its strengths and weaknesses are characteristic of the subgenre. This film is a fun watch, even for the formula. These characters are unlikeable and dumb, but the story drives itself without the characters. The moments in this film that feel most successful are the ones where it leans fully into the horror comedy ridiculousness of it all. 

The body horror is incredibly extreme with some scenes pushing the envelope on believability. The “turkey” scene had me, and the 40-something divorced dad sitting next to me in the empty theater, audibly gasping. I could go on a rant about how gore has become so extreme and nonsensical in the last four years, but I’ll save that for another post. 

When the story and the characters attempt to grapple with anything serious, it falters heavily. The writing and storytelling in this isn’t particularly strong. It’s barely strung together in some parts, and the ending is tied together by a twist that no viewer is going to care about by the time they see it. This makes it challenging to tell if some of these side characters are acted poorly, or just written poorly. Not sure how sure Patrick Dempsey got on this billing, but he’s here and trying his best. 

This is set on the south shore of Massachusetts, so right off the bat we’ve got varying degrees of convincing Boston accents and a helping of Boston humor. This got some laughs out of me, and I’d recommend it to other New Englanders for some hometown bullying. 

Watch this once for the experience, but set your expectations for what you’re getting into. This is a holiday horror slasher where the villain is wearing a pilgrim mask and live streaming on Instagram. So with that in mind, enjoy the meal.

Know Before You Watch: Features extreme gore, death, blood, nudity.