It’s not just a turkey that gets carved in the teaser trailer for Sony Pictures’ holiday-themed horror offering Thanksgiving.
The slasher film from director Eli Roth hits theaters Nov. 17 and stars Patrick Dempsey and Addison Rae. Thanksgiving is based on a fake trailer that Roth made for co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s 2007 film Grindhouse.
Thanksgiving focuses on a serial killer heading to a small Massachusetts town with the goal of making the titular holiday a bloody one. The cast includes Jalen Thomas Brooks, Nell Verlaque, Milo Manheim, Gina Gershon, Tim Dillon and Rick Hoffman.
“Thanksgiving is a time for appreciation,” Hoffman’s character says in the teaser. “It’s a time to remember our many blessings — to celebrate with the ones that we love the most — and a time for all families to be together.”
The spot shows an axe-wielding villain in a pilgrim hat wreaking havoc on the town’s denizens, which includes an unfortunate fate for someone in a restaurant kitchen.
Thanksgiving counts Gary Barber, Greg Denny, Kate Harrison Karman and Peter Oillataguerre as executive producers. Producers include Roth, Roger Birnbaum and Jeff Rendell.
This film marks the second fake trailer from Grindhouse to become a feature-length movie in its own right, following directors Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis’ 2010 film Machete that starred Danny Trejo and Michelle Rodriguez.
Roth’s recent projects include helming 2021’s Discovery+ documentary Fin and the 2018 remake of Death Wish. He also had an acting role in HBO’s drama series The Idol that aired earlier this year, and has the video game movie Borderlands due out next year.
