In the past I've been quite lukewarm on Eli Roth as a director, but I was pretty impressed by his previous two films The House With A Clock In Its Walls and Death Wish respectively. He showed vast improvements as a filmmaker, so I was definitely onboard when I heard they were turning his fake trailer from Rodriguez and Tarantino's Grindhouse called Thanksgiving into a feature.
Eli really doubles down on that tried and true (80’s) formula, and for the most part delivers a really fun no frills slasher with loads of great kills. And seriously, apart from the heavy handedness of the “consumerism is bad” message, he plays it fairly straight forward in terms of story and opts to focus more on the kill gags. Although some character development would’ve been nice. I mean, even the 80’s slashers that he’s trying to mimic had more.
But hey, one thing Eli has always had going for him is his ability to create an effective kill scene. You can see that this is his primary focus, and plenty of thought and hard work has gone into the setup and execution of these scenes. There's quite a few creative and memorable practical kills, and gore a plenty (the parade ha!).
The dialogue and one liners in particular were pretty hit and miss, with the exception of the Hanover jock guy. Seriously, his New England accent was hilariously over the top and his douchebaggery at an all time high. Apart from him and Patty Dempsey who plays the Sheriff, the rest of the cast was fairly forgettable though. In saying that, I do think that John Carver is a pretty memorable slasher villain. His look is cool and he doesn’t mess about when it comes to getting down either.
A large portion of the horror community is claiming this to be “the slasher of the year”. That maybe so, but given that this has been the worst year for horror in an awfully long time, that really isn’t saying much. Expectations were high after his last film Death Wish, but unfortunately this is more a case of two steps forward 3 steps back. Lower your expectations and it’s still a fun time at the cinemas though. Oh, and the nod to Happy Birthday To Me was also pretty rad.
THREE out of FIVE stars.
Kommentare