Thanksgiving ★★★

I’M HAPPY for Eli Roth.

After 20 years of trying, the much-maligned horror director has another box-office hit.

Roth first came to the attention with Cabin Fever in 2002 and then hit it big with 2005’s Hostel.

In the ensuing years he has produced some decent stuff, such as Hostel II and The Green Inferno, but for some reason seems to have rubbed critics up the wrong way and become polarising in a similar way to Kevin Smith.

Thanksgiving (2023) is a throwback to the slew of American exploitative slashers of the 1970s and ‘80s and based on a fake trailer that Roth made for the double bill Grindhouse cinema release in 2007.

Roth has been threatening to turn the trailer into a film every year and has finally done it.

It’s a fun slasher with some good kills and a hilariously grotesque opening sequence – the best of the film – in which a Christmas Eve department store sale turns into a bloodbath with manic shoppers killing each other over the limited supply of free waffle irons.

Interestingly, the film seems to have been toned down a little from the original trailers with some scenes altered or missing completely.

Perhaps Roth, ever the entrepreneur, is holding them back for a director’s uncut version.