Thanksgiving - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Thanksgiving



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



AV NIRVANA is member and reader-supported. When you purchase an item using our links, we might earn an affiliate commission.


​

Movie
"This year there will be no leftovers!"

Ahhhh, more movies based off of a fake trailer from a grindhouse film. Anyone remember the 2007 Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez double feature Grindhouse? One of the main “fun” features of the film was a set of faux trailers for other “grindhouse” style films that soon went viral online. Fans got excited seeing the fake trailers and wanted more, thus we got various directors actually MAKING said fake trailers into full length films. Flicks like Machete with Danny Trejo, Hobo With a Shotgun starring Rutger Hauer, and now Thanksgiving some 17 years later (though I’m still jonesing for Wrewolf Women of the SS to get a feature length film, but sadly Rob Zombie doesn’t appear too interested).

Thanksgiving follows a fairly rote slasher premise with a few minor holiday twists for y’all. It opens up with the traditional “one year prior to recent events” where a black friday holiday event goes HORRIBLY wrong when the partakers end up storming the local department store, killing several people in the process. Fast forward a year later and things have changed for all those involved. Jessica Wright (Nell Verlaque), the daughter of the owner of the store is riddled with guilt over being one of the inadvertent instigators, and wants to somehow make things right. But before her crisis of guilt can really bear any fruit, Plymouth Massachusetts gets another horrifying holiday. This time a mysterious man in a John Carver mask starts picking off the instigators of the previous year’s tragedy one by one, murdering them and sending pictures to all involved with the dead bodies arranged around a thanksgiving table.

One by one the victims are sliced, diced, stuck in an oven and roasted, before becoming another ornament on the table while Sheriff Eric Newlon (Patrick Dempsey) and Jessica figure out just who is the killer. Is it Jessica’s ex boyfriend Bobby (Jalen Thomas Brooks) whose sports career was cut short by the event? Is it someone else? And how many bodies is the mysterious John Carver wannabe going to stack before enough is enough?

Eli Roth’s holiday gravy boat movie is pure sleazy fun from beginning to end. Holiday themed horror movies have been out of style for quite some time, but Roth just has FUN by homaging and taking inference from so many other great holiday horror flicks and incorporating them into his Thanksgiving bloodbath. Cheesy tag lines like “this year, there will be no leftovers!” abound, and everyone is just hamming it up to level 11. In true Roth fashion he winks and nods at the camera quite a bit, interjecting dark humor into every kill (including a Benny Hill esque cat and mouse game between the mother and the killer while he’s TRYING To roast her alive), but never enough to make it slapstick or take away from the severity of the situation.

Personally, I feel that Roth stumbled a bit with his implementation of the comedy and horror together by not incorporating the humor till it was too late. The third act is full on crazy Grindhouse comic book insanity and I LOOOOOVE it to death. But the first 2 acts tend to be a bit too straight laced and more traditional horror, which makes the final act feel a little out of place. My personal take is that he should have leaned harder into the looney toons grindhouse aspect of




Rating:

Rated R for strong bloody horror violence and gore, pervasive language and some sexual material.




4K Video: Video:

Thanksgiving’s Blu-ray release looked REALLY good when I reviewed it early in the year, and while I was expecting at least a moderate upgrade with this 4K UHD disc, I wasn’t prepared for just HOW nice of an upgrade this is. The Dolby Vision is not a major upgrade in many ways (the muted colors and sort of grim tone to the picture sort of negates the saturation “pop” many people are looking for) but the upgrades in textural details and overall clarity is startling. Especially in darker shots where you can see a lot more fine details without that slightly milky look to the blacks that cropped up in the 1080p Blu-ray image. Fake grain is added in per Eli’s Roth’s interviews, and it looks as natural as you can expect. It may not be 1980s film grain natural, but it adds a nice textural flair to the whole affair. Overall, this is probably one of the more impressive upgrades from Blu-ray to 4K that Sony has put out recently. Especially when you consider that the Blu-ray only came out less than 9 months ago, so it’s not like they were using an aging master for the 1080p disc. Bravo Sony.









Audio:

As is the norm for Sony, they have given us an Atmos track for the 4K UHD disc, while the Blu-ray previously reviewed only had a 5.1 DTS-HD MA track on board the disc (although the 5.1 mix is still on the 4K disc as a secondary language track). AND as is the norm, the upgrade from the Atmos is very nice, but not this legendary upgrade due to the fact that Sony’s 5.1 tracks are nothing to sneeze at. It’s a really nice sound design filled with great splatter effects, and awesome surround usage. The overall ambiance has some nice upgrades in the Atmos overheads with creaks and groans, while the bass track sounds just a little weightier. Dialog is crips as can be, and while I don’t consider this to be a night and day difference to the 5.1 mix, I will give it a half star upgrade.












Extras:

• Deleted & Extended Scenes
• Outtakes
• Massachusetts Movies: Eli & Jeff's Early Films
• Behind the Screams
• Gore Galore
• Commentary with Eli Roth and Jeff Rendell

Final Score: ​

Thanksgiving is goofy fun that is just what the doctor ordered. It’s mindless early 2000s slasher goodness, with Eli Roth’s penchant for over the top gore and some “winks at the camera” thrown in for good measure. Like I said, this is MINDLESS fun, but fun nonetheless. It’s not going to blaze any new trails in the horror genre, but those of us who like gory slashers will get a kick out of the crazy kills. I lamented in my Blu-ray review back in January that we didn't get a 4K release for a film like this, and it looks like Sony came through with their typical habit of putting the 4K release in a Steelbook packaging. Luckily it's a pretty kick butt transfer and the upgrade to Atmos is a welcome treat. For those waiting for said 4K release, now is your time. Fun Watch


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Patrick Dempsey, Ty Olsson, Gina Gershon, Karen Cliche, Dereck McGrath
Directed by: Eli Roth
Written by: Jeff Rendell, Eli Roth
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core, English DTS-HD MA 5.1, French (Canadian) DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish DTS-HD MA 5.1, DVS 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: R
Runtime: 106 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: October 15th, 2024

Recommendation: Fun Watch