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Thanksgiving Dir Eli Roth on Time Period Fun & Keeping the Audience

Thanksgiving director Eli Roth spoke to Bleeding Cool about the time periods discussed, Grindhouse evolution, and audience kill reactions.

When it came to developing the holiday slasher film Thanksgiving, it wasn't meant to leave the original concept of 2007's double feature Grindhouse as the trailer directed by Eli Roth was one of several fake ones developed between Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror and Quentin Tarantino's Deathproof. Over time, fan interest led Rodriguez to develop the Danny Trejo-starred Machete into its film in 2010 and its 2013 sequel, Machete Kills. Roth eventually developed his contribution in Thanksgiving to its own 2023 slasher film, with the director announcing a sequel on December 1st. While promoting the home release, he spoke to Bleeding Cool about whether the film was always set to be a contemporary setting and if there were any kills he had to scale back on. The film follows a tragic and disastrous Thanksgiving Black Friday sale as a themed serial killer stalks his/her victims the following year.

How Eli Roth Developed Thanksgiving into a Modern Holiday Slasher Film

Bleeding Cool: Did you ever consider setting 'Thanksgiving' in another period like the '70s or '80s, or were you set on a contemporary story?
Roth: We went through all the possibilities on it. I felt like the trailer was from 1980, and we decided early on that we wanted to make a contemporary movie. As much as I love the 'Grindhouse' aesthetic, as fun as that is, I don't think it works for 90 minutes in a serious film. It tells the audience it's a fun joke, which is okay; it's a different tone, and that's not the tone I wanted. I wanted to make an actual, real slasher movie.

Even in whatever ridiculousness that I love, there were other periods we looked at. I've looked at all of them, and I'm not saying I wouldn't do that in the future. We were talking about…it got so far that we kept talking about it to the point we were talking about 'Caveman Thanksgiving' and then protozoans. What if the 'Thanksgiving' prequel was the creation of the universe? That was where we were, and this is with Sony. They're like, "What if we set it in this?" We're like, "Yeah, then we could do that." "Would you prefer it?" Then it's Medieval Thanksgiving, and then it's a bunch of cavemen fighting. We have considered everything, including setting a prequel, like the inception of life at the beginning of the universe.

The oven kill was probably the most memorable in the movie. Were there any of the kills you had to scale back on to preserve the R-rating?
Some stuff, but honestly, it was more during the carving up of the dinner scene that it got a little too grotesque, and weirdly, the oven scene was really graphic. When I was shooting it, people were saying, this is too much. I'm like, "No, I made 'Hostel.' We showed it to a test audience, and the room was silent, but not in a good way. People were horrified, but then it became an upsetting, unpleasant experience. I thought, "That's not this movie." I set the tone early on that the kills are fun. I can't have that diner kill and have the Tim Dillon [character] kill. They're such fun kills.
Even the mayhem, as horrible as it is, is so enjoyable that people like you can't change the tone of the movie to go super dark and sadistic at the end of the film, or the audience feels tricked. We pulled back on the oven kill, and people went crazy applauding when the timer popped, and that's what I wanted. I wanted when the turkey thing pops, everyone to go, Yeah, that happened. So weirdly, it was one of those lessons I learned where sometimes more gore doesn't necessarily mean it will be a better experience. The stuff we pulled back on was not stuff I particularly missed.

Thanksgiving, which stars Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Nell Verlaque, Rick Hoffman, and Gina Gershon, is now available on digital and available on Blu-ray and DVD on January 30th. You can check out our interviews with Karen Cliche, Jeff Teravainen, and Jenna Warren.

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