Thanksgiving (2023)

Thanksgiving

• This is easily one of the greatest horror movies of 2023. No debate. In fact, it’s one of my favorite horror movies of all time, and it’s definitely in my top 10. It’s also in my top 10 of my favorite films of this year. There’s just so much I want to say about this movie, and even after waiting a few hours to write this after seeing it, my mind is still reeling. Story-wise, it’s not something totally out there and crazy. It’s a simple slasher, but it goes much deeper than you might think. It feels like a Scream movie, which obviously makes it good. A good way to think about it is “Scream meets the holidays”. Some of the themes are similar, and there’s actually a lot of different horror themes that this movie blends together nicely. It feels like a combination of a bunch of classic horror films. The opening shot pays tribute to ‘Halloween’, the story and motives feel like ‘Scream’, the kills feel like ‘Saw’, and the killer has an awesome Michael Myers aura. Everything about it is just about perfect. I actually thought very carefully if I should give this a perfect score, because it deserves it. However, there are a few tiny things that bring it down slightly. I can’t really say what they are (for spoiler reasons, as well as you needing to see this to understand what I’m talking about). Simply put, there’s a couple little red herrings that didn’t really make sense to me, and some of the motives/characteristics of the killer don’t add together all the way. But it’s still a great reveal. Mark my words, John Carver will go down as one of the greatest killers in horror film history. He should be as iconic as Jason Voorhees or Freddy Krueger. Lastly, the special effects, makeup, and CGI are ON POINT in this. All the deaths were extremely gruesome and horrifying, and one specific scene actually made me feel sick to my stomach. I can only name one other movie that has done that, and it was ‘Saw III’. There’s about a million more things I want to say, but I simply don’t have room, so I’ll end it here. Just know that this is one of the best horror movies, if not the best, that has been released this decade. I would recommend it to ALL horror/slasher fans. You do NOT want to miss this one. This film is officially Berry Approved, so go see it NOW!