The 2007 film Grindhouse is a bit of an anomaly in the filmography of both Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. A vicious double-feature made as a homage to the era of exploitative filmmaking that rose to prominence in the ’70s, Grindhouse was the original vessel for the films Planet Terror and Death Proof to be viewed in. Between the two, a handful of trailers for fictional films would play out, each one being so over-the-top, they’d probably never see the light of day as an actual movie — minus the ones that did.
Hobo With a Shotgun and Machete were turned into fully-fledged movies, with the latter of which spawning a sequel, Machete Kills. While Rob Zombie and Edgar Wright’s shorts, Werewolf Women of the SS and Don’t, respectively, haven’t yet received an expansion, a surprising development has recently come to life regarding Eli Roth’s short, Thanksgiving.
Having left the re-shoots for Borderlands, Eli Roth is now working on a feature-length version of Thanksgiving, per Deadline. It was a surprising development, especially seeing as how Roth’s recent theatrical films have deviated away from the horror genre. For now, all we can ask is: what will Thanksgiving have in store for horror fans?
A Slasher Directed by Eli Roth
Dimension Films
With Death Wish and The House in a Clock in Its Walls being Roth’s most recent theatrical outings, it’d be fun to see him return to his roots with not just a horror film, but with a slasher that heavily dives into its grindhouse roots.
It’s a genre that Roth hasn’t personally directed, despite having produced several of them in the past. He clearly has a knowledge of how they work, what makes them so compelling, and how to do them well. He even has an informative show, Eli Roth’s History of Horror, where he and a variety of guests speak passionately about the horror genre. The slasher subgenre by itself has two entire episodes devoted to it. It’d be interesting to see him tackle the subgenre personally, bringing with him the signature traits that accompany his films.
Adding onto this, you could argue that there’s a dearth of Thanksgiving-themed horror movies outside low-budget VOD outings and various independent films. Pilgrim and Thankskilling do a decent enough job at filling the void, but a high-profile director like Roth could hopefully inspire more creators to use the setting of family gatherings and turkey carving for their horror films.
More Dark Holiday Humor
There are several legitimately hilarious, if not stomach-churning, moments in the Thanksgiving trailer, from a pair of detectives having to taste blood to confirm that it is in fact, blood, to multiple decapitations preceding attempts at intercourse. The monotonous, deathly serious repetition of the film’s title in-between kills only adds to the hilarity of the nonsensical setup. The killer even lops off the head of a turkey mascot in the middle of a giant Thanksgiving-themed parade. It’s really hard to see that and not so much as smile at the sheer insanity of the situation.
Terrifier 2 proved that there’s still an audience for over-the-top slashers. Strangely enough, you could even argue that the success of Terrifier as a whole, with its gleeful violence and downright mean-spirited brutality, matches well with the kind of edgy humor and gruesome violence that Roth inserts into his work. Even if you didn’t enjoy Cabin Fever or The Green Inferno, there’s an underlying humor in these films that paints a horrifically sinister world, a kind of cruelty that goes so far beyond reality that we can’t help but uncomfortably chuckle at it. Thanksgiving being purposefully self-aware of this and capitalizing on it only promises more laughs.
More Grindhouse Filmmaking in the Industry
The trailer for Thanksgiving was originally released in 2007, now more than fifteen years ago. In that time span, we’ve seen Brawl in Cell Block 99, Dragged Across Concrete, Black Dynamite, both Crank films, and Spring Breakers all hit the big screen in some form or another, all either directly aping or being inspired by the very same films that inspired Thanksgiving.
The thick film grain, saturated colors, and muted voice performances of the original Thanksgiving trailer also lend it a visceral unpleasantness. A lot of what makes horror work to begin with isn’t necessarily what you see, but the implication of what you’re seeing: the low-quality film masking the imperfections of gory makeup and making everything else look washed out gives Thanksgiving a legitimately perturbing look, only alleviated by the parodic context of the trailer itself.
The film landscape is far different now compared to where it was during the release of Grindhouse. Films like Hobo With a Shotgun, and consequently Thanksgiving, can now find a home on streaming with few if any stipulations, the director of Hobo With a Shotgun ought to know, considering his newest film, Kids vs Aliens, is coming soon to Shudder as one of their exclusive films.
Filming for Thanksgiving is set to begin in March, so we can hopefully expect more news surrounding the film to release around that time.
