Thanksgiving (2023) Dir: Eli Roth

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As someone who lives outside of the United States, thanksgiving is not a holiday I celebrate or particularly think about, aside from the occasional time when I come across it in American media, such as this slasher, directed by Eli Roth. I wouldn't say this was at the top of my watchlist, but a mixture of boredom and mild interest meant that it ended up being my choice for an evening's entertainment.

A film like this was screaming for practical effects, and, thankfully, Roth delivered them, at least to some extent. I would have liked to see those effects go even further, but I still enjoyed the ones we got. This does, however, lead me to the more negative points. Many of the deaths in the film lacked any creativity, aside from one, which was, admittedly very creative and horrifying, but it was the highlight of a very forgettable affair. Most of the deaths were also totally unrealistic, particularly one of the early deaths, which was very dumb. It made it difficult to suspend my disbelief.

Things weren't helped by the basic and rather irritating dialogue, which made some scenes very cumbersome to sit through. Things weren't all bad, though; I liked some of the comedy, which definitely helped this film's case. Using the very real chaos of 'Black Friday' is - it makes people act horrendously, and wasn't the worst idea for an inciting incident. Unfortunately, the big twist was very predictable, which took a little of the shine out of the reveal, but it was still well-shot.

Patrick Dempsey was the only person who gave a somewhat decent performance, and even that was pretty inconsistent. I wanted to like him more than I did, especially in the second half of the film, where he felt a lot weaker. The rest of the cast were decidedly average, with the most notable of the bunch being Neil Verlaque and Addison Rae, whilst Jalen Thomas Brooks, Milo Manheim, Tomaso Sanelli, and Gabriel Davenport, also warrant a mention, at least fornthe substantial nature of their performances.

Overall, this was a pretty nothing film, in my opinion. It was a very generic American slasher, which lacked creativity or quality, with the exception of one particularly gruesome scene. I kind of feel as though this should have been even crazier and more absurd, if it was to be any good, but it never quite did that consistently, and I was ultimately left unfulfilled. In the end, I think this was yet another mediocre horror film, which never quite achieved all it could've.