Think turkey day horror doesn’t exist? Chew on these 3 Thanksgiving horror films
Everyone loves holiday horror, but let’s face it…it’s pretty much confined to Halloween and Christmas, am I right? Sure, there is the occasional oddball holiday horror flick (think Uncle Sam or Rottentail), but it’s rare.
I am personally not a sports fan, so I have zero desire to watch football after stuffing myself with turkey – I would rather watch a movie. That led me to do a little digging around in search of some Thanksgiving-themed horror, and I narrowed it down to three of my favorites.
Black Friday – This one is a fun, easy watch, and doesn’t strain the brain too much…which makes it perfect for flopping on the couch after eating too much turkey and mashed potatoes. Plus, it features Bruce Campbell!
We also get performances from devon Sawa (Final Destination, Chucky, Heart Eyes), Ivana Baquero (Pan’s Labyrinth), Michael Jai White (Spawn), and Ryan Lee (Super 8, Goosebumps), and the cast has great chemistry.
It’s Thanksgiving night, and the employees of We Love Toys are forced to leave their family festivities early to prepare the store for Black Friday. As anyone who has worked retail knows, customers can get crazy at times, but this year, it’s even worse. Something has caused them to become crazed zombie-like killers, and the We Love Toys staff have to figure out how to avoid being turned themselves.
Campbell portrays store manager Jonathon as greedy and money hungry, and being Bruce Campbell, he steals every scene he is included in. But the other cast members also give good, funny performances, and we actually care about the characters. That’s something that is often overlooked in comedies, so I appreciated the effort.
Black Friday is a blast to watch, and you can find it for free on Amazon Prime Video.
Eli Roth's Thanksgiving was the most successful film on this list
Thanksgiving – This Eli Roth film began life as a fake trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse in 2007. For years, rumors swirled around that Elie Roth would be adapting it as a feature-length film, and it finally happened 16 years later.
Set in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Thanksgiving follows the aftermath of a Black Friday frenzy at the local RightMart store, during which three people were killed and several others seriously injured.
One year later, RightMart is prepping for another big Black Friday sale, but a killer wearing a creepy pilgrim mask is on the loose. Known as “Carver”, he is targeting people who were involved in the deadly chaos a year earlier.
Everything culminates at the town’s annual Thanksgiving parade, when Carver causes distractions and kidnaps four people, leaving Jessica to be the hero.
Thanksgiving has everything we have come to expect from Eli Roth: humor, chaotic horror, and gory kills. You can stream it on HBO Max,
Into the Dark: Pilgrim – I saved the absolute best for last, and it’s the one most of our readers are most likely to know nothing about. Hulu series Into the Dark debuted in 2018 with an intriguing premise. Each month would bring a brand new feature-length “episode”, and each episode promised to tie in with the month of its premiere.
Into the Dark offered a very mixed bag as far as intriguing horror goes, and most of the episodes I watched were very underwhelming. Then came Pilgrim, which was the November offering in the series’ second season.
Words cannot describe how delighted I was when I watched this one. It has become one of my Thanksgiving traditions to rewatch it every year during the season, and I love to recommend it to people.
In Pilgrim, we meet affluent couple Shane and Anna, and their two kids Cody and Tate. Cody is Shane’s daughter from his first marriage, and Tate is the son they had together…so it’s a realistic mixed family. Being a teen, Cody doesn’t always get along with her parents, but she and her half-brother are pretty tight.
One Thanksgiving, Anna decides that the kids are not grateful enough for what they have, so she hires two “actors” who portray pilgrims to basically re-enact the first Thanksgiving at their house. For the most authentic experience, everyone has to put away all of their electronic devices, which nobody is thrilled about.
When pilgrims Ethan and Patience arrive, things get pretty tense. They take their jobs seriously, and actors Peter Giles and Elyse Levesque portray them in a terrifying way. The family is in for the most horrifying Thanksgiving of their lives, and when I say things get brutal, that’s an understatement.
Pilgrim is bloody and absolutely insane – which is a compliment. I highly recommend watching it on Hulu this year (and every year after).
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