What to watch with your family on Thanksgiving can become a never-ending debate, particularly with the seemingly endless options streaming services offer. So, to save you time this holiday weekend, we've selected a thematically appropriate movie that should bring the whole family together* no matter what: the Turkey Day-themed slasher. Thanksgiving.
*“gathering the family” can mean “gagging through immaculately crafted blood”
Directed by gore master Eli Roth and originally based on his grinding house except the same name, Thanksgiving is a Christmas slasher that follows a small New England town that is being terrorized by a murderous Thanksgiving mascot exactly one year after the Black Friday tragedy.
This is all as silly and ridiculous as it sounds, but it's also a really good time. Each of the film's many, many deaths becomes progressively bigger, bloodier, and more absurd, but the real pleasure of this film is the care with which it punctuates the suspense, finding the perfect line to make each moment tense without being really scary. Even more importantly, for a silly slasher of this variety, Thanksgiving has a great mix of characters you're rooting for and characters that seem tailor-made for you to root for as they meet their destiny. As for family appeal, it even has a cast that spans generations of pop culture, from Grey's Anatomyfrom Patrick Dempsey to TikTok's Addison Rae. This delicate balance makes it a secretly perfect watch for a group that enjoys horror movies, but may have different levels of tolerance for the real scares those movies contain… as long as everyone is willing to suffer some deaths. particularly twisted and graphic.
Of course, that raises the biggest caveat to this recommendation: whether or not the idea of watching a particularly gory horror movie together on Thanksgiving is your family's idea of a good time. As for my family, a good silly slasher that's both funny and gory is always a perfect way to spend time together. If that sounds like something you can relate to, then this one is perfect for your Happy Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is streaming on Netflix.