“Thanksgiving.“ You’ll come home from the holidays… in a body bag!” So goes to the fake tagline to Eli Roth‘s fake trailer for the no-longer-fake slasher movie “Thanksgiving.” After making up the movie for laughs as one of the four fake movie trailers that accompanied “Planet Terror” and “Death Proof” In Quentin Tarantino & Robert Rodriguez‘s “Grindhouse,” Roth returns to the director’s chair to make his joke a real thing. A little late for that? Sure, but from the looks of the trailer for the actual film, it looks like Roth wants to make a bonafide slasher — and not just for laughs.
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The premise for “Thanksgiving” is simple: a serial killer comes to a small town in Massachusetts to wreak havoc on its residents and their visiting families. And while Roth recreates certain scenes from his “Grindhouse” trailer for the new film, like that trampoline gag, it looks like he’s taking a more serious approach here. Roth has a decent cast lined up for the slasher, too, with Patrick Dempsey leading the way as the town’s sheriff tasked with taking down the murderer.
Other cast members in “Thanksgiving” include Addison Rae, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Nell Verlaque, Mino Manheim, Gina Gershon, and Tim Dillon. Rick Hoffman, Gabriel Davenport, Tomaso Senelli, and Jenna Warren round out the main cast.
Roth, directing his first film since 2021’s “Fin,” co-writes the script for “Thanksgiving” with Jeff Rendell. Spyglass Media Group and ElectroMagnetic Productions produce the film, with TriStar Pictures distributing.
So Roth follows in Rodriguez’s footsteps, recreating his fake “Grindhouse” into an actual film as Rodriguez did with “Machete.” Will “Thanksgiving” find an audience like Rodriguez’s 2010 film? Find out when the movie hits theaters on November 17. Watch the real trailer for the real “Thanksgiving” below.
