Thanksgiving – REVIEW

Slasher flicks are produced on small budgets and usually make strong returns for the investors. There’s simply no originality in these films which ultimately feel like the same rehashed script, filmed over and over with minor changes made to the initial script.

But that’s not to say that they’re not entertaining, with enthusiasts of this genre paying hard earned cash to be terrified over and over again.

And so Thanksgiving continues this tradition with some of the most horrendously twisted and blood curdling murderous attacks on unsuspecting victims ever seen on the big screen.

The synopsis is simplistic. Twelve months after a Black Friday riot in a giant store ends in tragedy, a sadistic axe yielding slayer goes on a rampage killing people in the most bizarre and barbaric ways.

Why is this evil slayer so determined to avenge? More importantly can the local sheriff uncover the identity of this killer?

Audiences are introduced to all the characters and made to believe that a particular unlikeable young man stands out as the killer. But is he? Or is this one of the traditional features of slasher flicks utilized to mislead audiences?

The script is chirpy. Audiences should nervously laugh and then scream in quick succession as the murders accelerate. Notably macabre yet pervaded in silliness is the dinner scene in the final act, where the slaughtered and soon to be slaughtered are bound and sitting around a table waiting to be served a Thanksgiving turkey – but hang on, is it a turkey?

Patrick Dempsey plays the role of the local sheriff who is intent on stopping this killer. The rest of the cast are predominantly youthful and good looking, a ploy to allure late teenage audiences to screenings.

This slasher flick ticks all the right boxes. It’s a whodunnit of sorts which armchair detectives should enjoy trying to discover the identity of the assailant before it’s announced in the closing scenes. The murders are brutal and there are many terrifying jump scare moments which moviegoers have come to expect in these movies.

Thanksgiving is an institution and a slasher movie built around this date may indirectly deliver box office gold when released in American cinemas.

★★★

In Cinemas now