Thanksgiving : La semaine de l'horreur

Un « slasher » épique bien mitonné. Si Thanksgiving manque d’atmosphère et de frissons, il bénéficie d’une connaissance évidente du genre, et d’un scénario qui parvient à lui donner un élan spectaculaire et même à surprendre par moments. On assiste ici non seulement à des massacres sanglants, mais aussi à un enlèvement impressionnant, et les scènes de chasse au meurtrier font penser au Silence des agneaux ou à Seven. Même le clin d’œil à Halloween dans le premier plan du film indique clairement qu’il ne s’agit pas ici de piller les classiques, mais simplement de leur témoigner du respect. Par endroits, les meurtres sont agréablement exagérés à la manière d’un film de série B, comme un dîner de Thanksgiving bien grillé et croustillant à la limite du dégoûtant. Et la cerise sur le gâteau, Nell Verlaque, est d’une beauté sans équivoque. (25/12/2023)

An even bigger cracker than I was hoping for. Eli Roth has made his best horror film and his best slasher in quite possibly a decade. A vicious carnage that puts all the Screams, Halloweens, Fridays the 13th, all the PG-13 slashers and all the wannabe meta slashers to shame. The film doesn't try to bring anything new to the genre, it just works with what's proven, but it's so fan-friendly that everything is done with a love for the genre, and I enjoyed the whole thing immensely. Just the setting alone in the famous American holiday of Thanksgiving is very cool and more enjoyable than Halloween or Christmas. Anyway, here's to a great slasher franchise, which I hope this will be. The very opening opening sequence, which I'd call the Black Friday opening gory madness, will a legendary scene in the horror archive that will earn the film a cult status. Let's move on to the individual elements, where I won't spare any praise. The Killer is perfect, with amazing design and costume, an iconic character who has skill and the set-ups are amazing. To my surprise the reveal of the killer and his motive works, which I also applaud. It's packed with hyperbole and a nice dark humor. It also works well as a whodunit about the hunt for a serial killer, where we follow a little investigative work. It's nice that the target is not just the central group of teenagers, but a host of other supporting characters. The city is consumed by terror and no one is safe. The body-count is decently high. I must also praise the well dosed jump-scares, one of them almost gave me a heart attack, and is one of the best this year (shame on all the ghost movies, when a slasher is doing a better jump-scare job). I also liked the retro 80's feel and the characters are cool too (the main character is really cute and hot). I must also highlight the fact that it's not completely silly. The behaviour of the characters is definitely more natural than in other slasher horror movies. And now the main thing , the gore and the execution of the murders is top notch. Here Eli Roth is really unleashed and all the murders have a twist, they are properly brutal, very creative, literally unpleasant and very nasty sometimes. He uses a variety of weapons and fatalities and I really enjoyed all the kills. There were guts, hammering, frying alive, scalps, decapitations, severed fingers, in short something from everyone and it's great. The finale with the dinner is also interesting, though I think the potential could have been used a bit better, it pointed to the ultimate torture mayhem, but stayed halfway, too bad, there could have been two legendary scenes in one movie, you just don't see that. Of course, there's plenty of tension and the whole thing is so much fun that when it's over you want to watch it all over again. 8.5/10. (28/11/2023)

I'm quite surprised at the warm reception Thanksgiving has received from both audiences and critics in particular. In my opinion, it doesn't really break out of the horror slasher average. It does have two very nice sequences – the opening massacre at the mall and the final celebratory dinner – but otherwise it's standard fare without any style of its own, likeable characters or, heaven forbid, a script that's interesting in any way. The slasher of the year remains the more playful Seminar. (23/12/2023)