Thanksgiving Movie (2023) has quite an iconic backstory if you know what we are talking about. Back in 2007, during Eli Roth created a fake trailer for Thanksgiving which was featured in the film “Grindhouse (2007)”. As it happens, this fake movie trailer has now not just become a reality but is also Eli Roth’s highest rated film to date. The film stars Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Nell Verlaque, Rick Hoffman, & Gina Gershon and is now playing in theatres in US. Though its yet to be released worldwide, the following section contains the full plot summary and the ending explanation which means, MAJOR SPOILERS for the film follow below, so beware.
Thanksgiving Movie 2023 Recap and Ending Explained
Thanksgiving chronicles the gruesome rampage of a serial killer dressed as Pilgrim John Carver, the first governor of Plymouth Colony, who embarks on a murder spree in Plymouth, Mass.—the birthplace of the film’s titular holiday—in the wake of a tragic Black Friday riot at the town’s local superstore, Right Mart. When Thanksgiving rolls around the year following the deadly shopping spree, John Carver sets out to make a festive table spread out of the residents he deems responsible for the violence. His targets—including Right Mart owner Thomas Wright (Rick Hoffman), his new wife Kathleen (Karen Cliche), his daughter Jessica (Nell Verlaque), and Jessica’s friends—must uncover the killer’s identity before it’s too late, setting them on a crash course for a twisty whodunnit of an ending.
After a number of townspeople have been murdered by Carver, Jessica hatches a plan to draw the killer out using herself and her family as bait during Plymouth’s annual Thanksgiving parade. Unfortunately for the Wrights, Carver takes the opportunity to don a clown costume for the day instead and drugs and kidnaps all three of them along with Jessica’s friend Scuba (Gabriel Davenport). Carver takes them to his hideout, where he’s already holding Jessica’s friends Gabby (Addison Rae) and Evan (Tomaso Sanelli), and proceeds to cook up Kathleen like a Thanksgiving turkey. With the remainder of his hostages tied up and seated around his table, Carver smashes Evan’s head in with a meat tenderizer and then serves up Kathleen while livestreaming the scene on social media.
Luckily, thanks to the bladed ring that the Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused-esque McCarty (Joe Delfin) loaned her earlier in the movie, Jessica is able to cut through her bonds and pass the ring to Scuba to do the same. The two escape the house, although Scuba gets sliced with an ax and Jessica twists her ankle jumping over a fence in the process. Jessica manages to limp her way over to the parade warehouse and finds Sheriff Eric Newlon (Patrick Dempsey) unconscious on the ground before seeing her ex-boyfriend Bobby (Jalen Thomas Brooks) fleeing into the warehouse. Now believing the killer is Bobby, whose star baseball career ended after his arm was broken during the riot, Jessica helps Sheriff Newlon up and the two alert the rest of the police force.
The police set up shop inside a room in the warehouse and Sheriff Eric places an evidence bag containing Bobby’s phone on the table in front of Jessica. The rest of the cops leave and as Sheriff Newlon turns to exit the room and give Jessica a few minutes on her own, she realizes that the same brambles that were stuck to her clothes after fleeing through the woods from Carver’s hideout are also stuck to the sheriff’s pants. She pieces together all the clues that she missed implicating him as the killer just as he also realizes she’s figured it out. Sheriff Newlon launches into a sinister confession, detailing how he wanted to punish the privileged and self-important people responsible for getting his friend Mitch’s (Ty Olsson) wife Amanda (Gina Gershon)—with whom he was having an affair and who was carrying his child—killed during the Black Friday riot.
But Jessica is one step ahead of him, revealing that she’s been livestreaming his entire monologue. Jessica flees through the warehouse and Bobby shows back up to help her. She turns on a valve of inflammable gas to inflate a giant blow-up turkey and the two try to drive off in Bobby’s truck. With Sheriff Newlon in hot pursuit, Jessica fires off a dummy round on one of the parade’s shotgun props to ignite the turkey and make it explode, enveloping Sheriff Newlon in flames. When the police search the warehouse, they find no remaining trace of the sheriff and decide he must have been completely incinerated.
But Jessica clearly isn’t so sure. That night, after being reunited with her dad, surviving friends, and boyfriend Ryan (Milo Manheim), she dreams that she hears someone in her closet before Carver attacks her in a fiery blaze. Jessica wakes up safe in her bed, but Roth leaves things open for a sequel with the suggestion that the notorious Thanksgiving killer could still be out there.
Thanksgiving is now playing in theatres and will release worldwide by on December 8, 2023.
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Just as I expected…traditional slasher movies were violent, of course, but not especially sadistic. And I think cooking someone alive qualifies as sadistic. I just don’t think anyone will make a normal slasher anymore. And if they do, this certainly isn’t it.