Good afternoon, House of Madness residents:
First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends, family, and readers! Hopefully you're getting close to the moment you get to stuff your face with succulent turkey, ham, potatoes, or all of the above before you venture out into the wild, wild Wal-Mart wilderness in hopes of scoring fantastical wares at a fraction of the cost. Let's be honest, that Playstation 5 isn't going to jump into your arms directly, so you'd better be up to speed on your face stepping and clotheslines if you want to come home a hero. However, nobody needs a hero as much as the residents of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and they need one quick.
It's Black Friday, and everyone who's anyone is lined up outside their favourite box store in hopes of landing the deal of a lifetime, and a free waffle maker to boot. As the local sheriff (Patrick Dempsey) tries to herd the crowd, he becomes overwhelmed, and all hell breaks loose faster than you can say "no refunds". As casual injuries escalate into brutal carnage, all everyone can do is sit back and watch in horror as the bloodbath happens right before their eyes; the only thing higher than the money they're saving is the body count, and it ain't pretty.
Fast forward one year, and another Thanksgiving and Black Friday are upon the town of Plymouth, only this time there's a message for everyone involved in the initial slaughter: your time is up. As everyone panics and plots to take out the masked killer dressed as John Carver, the killer makes short work of the residents one by one, and quickly starts a new body count of their own which the town isn't ready to deal with, let alone solve. Is the killer amongst them, or is he or she an outsider preying on the innocent in a little holiday fun?
"Thanksgiving" is pretty much your run-of-the-mill slasher with more red herrings than an Agatha Christie novel, but it possesses its own charm which allows it to follow a well used formula without being predictable. There are certainly a lot of fun, over-the-top kills that will satiate anyone's palette for gore, and there are also plenty of laughs to be had without taking away from the overall atmosphere of the film. If you like comedy, slashers, blood, guts, and all of the above, you'll most certainly have a blast watching this film, that is, unless you're a real turkey.
Madness Meter: 6.8/10
NB
