Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Thanksgiving (2023)
92 Plays2 months ago
Rick and Trav share all that they're thankful for from the second best fake trailer-turned-movie (hat tip to MACHETE) in Eli Roth's 2023 THANKSGIVING. A slasher served with questionable ethics of Patrick Dempsey's “Sexiest Man Alive“ win, a slice of Neck Glass Guy, and even a dash of tasteful cannibalism, this one has it all.
(00:00) - Teasing the 1st Annual Spooky Awards on Dec 21st
(3:25) - Intro / Synopsis / Where We Saw It
(7:44) - Overall Thoughts
(15:30) - Analysis
(19:21) - Production Notes
(26:30) - Casting
(31:54) - The Real John Carver
(34:21) - Scare-O-Meter
(36:06) - Deep Cuts [Spoilers here on out]
(43:39) - Highlights
(48:52) - Awards
(1:26:52) - Outro / Coming Up Next
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Thanksgiving Break Announcement
00:00:00
Speaker
It is going to be a happy Thanksgiving.
00:00:08
Speaker
needs a small i buy em all at the
00:00:21
Speaker
it is going to be a very happy thing
00:00:38
Speaker
We're back. Our last episode before we
Spooky Awards Preview and Listener Engagement
00:00:41
Speaker
take a week off for the Thanksgiving holiday. And we have a very fitting horror movie selection. but You won't believe what it's called. yeah The most on the nose that we've done thus far. um How are you doing, Rick?
00:00:55
Speaker
I'm good, Trav. I have one question for you. Yes. question for you. When are you going to release the files?
00:01:06
Speaker
Do you think I was the one vote in Congress that voted no? I'm not talking politics, man. I'm talking about the 36 movies for the spookies that we're going to consider for our spooky awards. Oh, of course. Those fires.
00:01:19
Speaker
Yes, we ah we are gearing up for our end of the year spooky awards. The first time we will actually record this and share it as opposed to just a list on Letterboxd, but where we review and award our favorite horror films of the year for 2025.
00:01:36
Speaker
Plenty of great categories and awards. We'll have our, you know, our cantaloupe award. We'll have our best lines. We'll have our M. Night Shyamalan twist of the year. Best actor, or best actress, yeah supporting. It'll be fun.
Horror Film Wishlist and Social Media Call
00:01:51
Speaker
We're going to wear suits. I'm literally going to wear a suit. remake Yep.
00:01:55
Speaker
So we are gearing up for that. If you don't already follow us on social media, now is the time to do it because Rick and I wanna make sure that we are bold with our picks, but also that we are thoughtful of what other people think. And so we will be soliciting your views on making sure we've seen all the movies everyone thinks are are worthy for these awards, asking for nominations for a lot of the different categories. I think combined we're little over 35 horror films for the year. Maybe we could pump those numbers up to 40 by your end. If you want an easy way to see our current list as well as the nomination categories, we will link it in the episode description here into a letterbox list.
00:02:39
Speaker
Have we ever done a link in the episode description before? We did it once for Dr. Worland's book for the Halloween episode. Perfect. I didn't know we had that technology. This is great. mean, we had to pay the guy somehow.
Personal Anecdotes and Humor
00:02:53
Speaker
By the way, Trav, if you ever looked, the one guy that did vote against Epstein's files, if you want to bring that up, you do kind of look like Representative Clay Higgins, at least in style. have not looked up his picture. He's got a lot of facial hair I would assume body hair. Why he do that?
00:03:09
Speaker
like There's going to be a huge spotlight on him now to be like, do we need to look into this guy? What is it one person saying no? I don't really question that anymore, honestly. We're living in interesting times. um
Introducing 'Thanksgiving' Film and Synopsis
00:03:26
Speaker
This is the Sunday Scaries. I'm Travis Telerik.
00:03:29
Speaker
And I'm Ricky Townsend. And we are covering the festive and seasonally appropriate film from Eli Roth. in his 2023 picture, Thanksgiving.
00:03:40
Speaker
Thanksgiving. ah The synopsis is, i'm just doing early. you know Sure. Yeah. rip Hey, rip the bandit off. Tell people, in case they don't know what a movie titled Thanksgiving is about, like enlighten us. you'll
Viewing Experiences and Film Homages
00:03:54
Speaker
You'll never, you'll be so surprised to hear that after a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy, a mysterious Thanksgiving-inspired killer terrorizes Plymouth, Massachusetts, the birthplace of the infamous holiday.
00:04:07
Speaker
Yeah, so this film came out in 2023 two years ago. I actually just watched it for the first time just a few months ago, like two or three months ago. Why did you watch it? Were you just going through slashers?
00:04:17
Speaker
i I think so. i I'm trying to catch up on maybe... good horror films of this decade that haven't yet have to shout you out, Trav. I have to shout you out your Your clip rate of watching horror films this year has been pretty astounding. like Not just movies from this year, but movies from like the eighty s seventy s ninety s to like you've been You've been crushing Well, I watch a ton of horror films, but I realized if you if you look at my filmography, there was a super heavy focus, especially like the 2010s, late 2000s, 2010s, kind of my um young adulthood.
00:04:55
Speaker
And there were so many films from then going way deep that I realized just I needed to be a bit more well-rounded. So that means watching a few newer horror films have come out, as well as few classics, so to speak, you know, films from the eighties and earlier. And so I've, I've started to become more well-versed if we're going be doing this horror movie pod, but I appreciate man. Um, there's, yeah, doing the work a lot of gems, um, but yes, so this is a new were film that came out a few years ago and potentially we'll get a sequel at some point. It's been
Character Deep Dive and Horror Tropes
00:05:28
Speaker
talked about, but I don't think it's,
00:05:30
Speaker
gotten past like having a studio green lighted or nothing, nothing of the sorts. Yeah, there's a lot of momentum about it being shot earlier this year and released for this Thanksgiving. And that just totally did not happen.
00:05:42
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. But um an Eli Roth film, he is no stranger to horror films. He's had quite a few. and it was interesting i originally watched this movie on netflix just a few months ago i realized now in the us they changed the streaming rights to its on hulu or part like your disney disney plus subscription was not as fun of a viewing experience my second time around because with hulu at least our disney subscription ads there's ad breaks and i don't know i always thought it is someone's job to intentionally figure out where to place the ad breaks in a film
00:06:19
Speaker
And I do not think that happened here where they pick like some of the scariest moments and just interjected it into the middle of a scene where you see someone getting killed or screaming. Exactly. and And then suddenly it would go to like a two minute ad break. So it's still a very enjoyable watch. But if if someone's listening to this, who works at Hulu, like you guys got to rethink where you put in the ad placements here.
00:06:43
Speaker
I would love that job. Hey, Rick, go watch 20 movies over the next month and tell us what the ad breaks. And you know what? My emails would be so clean and specific. I would do good work because I would be so thankful for watching movies.
00:06:59
Speaker
um so i had the fortune of not
Slasher Genre Discussion and Comparisons
00:07:02
Speaker
having to orbit ad breaks i saw it in theaters um i went november 18th 2023 one of my best friends joe cooper we were arguing we were arguing whether to see that or the holdovers because that was an oscar the holdovers is a great film It's a great film, and I ended up watching that another time. But it dawned on me that there is no better time to see a horror movie than Saturday night on its opening weekend.
00:07:32
Speaker
That is when you get the most amount of people. You're all crammed into a room. You were talking about last episode. You get the screams, you get the gasps, you get the laughter. ah And it was the right call. Everybody had a blast.
00:07:45
Speaker
What I really liked about this movie, I remember thinking this when I watched it, was that it is lighthearted and fun, but it's not so winking like Scream where it's like trying to make a me and meta commentary on horror films. It is referencing other horror films, which we will talk about, and I'm excited to talk about that. But it's earnest enough while also not taking it too seriously, but it's not trying to like make
Origin and Production of 'Thanksgiving'
00:08:11
Speaker
too many smart connections or commentaries about horror films. It's just referencing them and having fun. It's really playful and ah had a great time in the theaters when I watched it. I think it was... ah
00:08:22
Speaker
AMC it at the Village in the Park in Plano. Nice little theater. Yeah. It's one of those funny horror films where I think there's very few people who would ever put this at one of their like best of list as like one of my favorites or one of their favorites.
00:08:39
Speaker
But I think it's universally agreed upon that this is a pretty enjoyable movie. Like I think it's everyone, everyone likes it. Maybe one absolutely loves it, but it's definitely worth the watch. It lends itself super well to this podcast. We're talking pre-pod. It's,
00:08:53
Speaker
we we were talking last episode as well about there being, you know, maybe two schools of thought for horror movies, or at least on a spectrum, you get the movies that want to take themselves seriously.
00:09:04
Speaker
And you have a self serious film that it's hard to deliver on, but those can be truly the most scary of horror movies. And you have the films that say, Hey, this is purely to entertain. So there will be laughs. Everything's going to be 110% almost caricature of of characters and killings and stuff like that. And it's the, that's what this film leans into. It is not in no man's land where I accused keeper maybe of, i like that film, but this film Thanksgiving seems to be more sure of yeah what it is meant to be. It's very, it is it's very comfortable in
Historical Figures and Humor in 'Thanksgiving'
00:09:38
Speaker
its place in horror.
00:09:40
Speaker
i would I would call Thanksgiving like the Andy Dalton of horror films. like Nobody loves Andy Dalton, right? He is a reliable backup quarterback. He's a nice guy, and you're happy to see If your quarterback goes down, it's like, huh, we got Andy Dalton, the Red Rocket.
00:09:56
Speaker
I like this analogy, but I would raise this to the Matt Fitzpatrick of quarterbacks. Ryan Fitzpatrick? Oh my God. Matt Fitzpatrick is a golfer. I would raise it to Ryan Fitzpatrick. Thank you. Keep it in, coward. Keep it in. Because he's the quarterback, or Jameis Winston, who everyone loves.
00:10:16
Speaker
We'll never go to the Hall of
Cast Highlights and Background
00:10:18
Speaker
Fame. No one has ever thrown around like this is one of the best quarterbacks of all time or even best quarterback for my franchise. But they're enjoyable to watch. Like no one, no one is upset when these guys ah get in under center. You know, you're going to be entertained. They're just going to be. try i'm I'm convinced this is definitely the Jameis Winston. Yeah. horror film Some bizarre lines, you know, ah licking his fingers.
00:10:44
Speaker
love Jameis, man. I love Jameis. Very quotable football player. But yeah, this is like peak slasher kind of horror comedy. Like you said, like like Scream, but not trying to be as meta.
00:10:58
Speaker
um And, you know, I will say, we'll talk more about Eli Roth in production notes, but his filmography to date I have not loved. I've thought it's been mediocre at best. He's definitely steered into like kind of like the splatter subgenre of horror, which means over the top gore and effects. And, you know, his first few horror films in like Cabin Fever and Hostel and Green Inferno, not really meant to make you laugh as much as this one.
00:11:31
Speaker
And it turns out he's pretty damn funny. In fact, I like this more than any of his horror films to date. This is my favorite horror film he's made. While Hostel is still his mosts most successful, this is his best reviewed film of his career.
00:11:44
Speaker
um And I agree. i'm I'm higher on Roth as a filmmaker than you. As a person, i'll I'll leave no comment there. But ah ah I was impressed. I think what what shines through here is his love for horror films. Like... And his love for Boston. like ah yeah He's tried and true Boston guy. And I you know i was thinking, Trav, yesterday, if i if we could make a last-minute ad to like get ah a Boston... I have a Boston friend who I think would have been so fun to have on the pod. But like I think there's a lot of Boston references that we will not get. But we get enough. The whole masshole ah depiction of people that he yes he gets going here is so great. And like there's just kind of this...
00:12:28
Speaker
mean-spirited, but they're proud. ah They're obstinate and they don't like authority, but they're very loyal to each other. Like he really captures that demographic of people ah in a city that has a really strong personality. And it's, you
In-depth Analysis of 'Thanksgiving' Themes
00:12:44
Speaker
know, obviously, um and sorry, this takes place in Plymouth, not Boston. I should be saying Massachusetts as a whole.
00:12:52
Speaker
Boston's just kind of like the, the, representative big city of that. Yeah. Of the state. Yeah. But you know what I'm saying? Like, it's just like what I, from my friends that have been Massachusetts and the stories they tell me and caricatures and exaggerations, like he leans into that and probably has a lot of references that we won't catch, but it's still funny.
00:13:10
Speaker
Yeah. I love, you know, One thing Eli Roth did that thought was so fun with this film is there's a really large ensemble. Like this cast list is huge. There are a lot of different characters, but he really spared no expense in giving every character like a super colorful yeah and detailed like yes background and story. thought about that. You have a lot of your maybe more common horror tropes, like the small town sheriff and the mayor, even in like an evil stepmother.
00:13:39
Speaker
But then he randomly gives us like a character, Yulia, who's family is maybe tied to the Russian mob, like her dad's a Russian mob boss. It doesn't spend a lot of time, like, tying that in. It's just like, this is who she is. Like, we're going flesh her out a bit more. then you And then you get this old, this guy who's hanging around the high school far too long, McCarty, and has like, his yeah his little assistant, whose name ah escapes me right now. i think it's Scott or something. But, uh...
00:14:04
Speaker
Yeah, really fully fleshed out characters. Yeah, him and his dad are like, they own the local gun store, but he also sells booze to minors. And there's a whole scene at like a party that he's hosting for underage kids. I really want to know more about that guy. ah Has a lot of dog whistles with him. You know, he's got a lot of guns. He's like, has a ring from his dad's time in Iraq. like Yes. it's Something's going on with him. I don't know what's happening, but he's, I just love the Iraq war was mentioned in this film when it had really no place. Yeah.
00:14:33
Speaker
very colorful characters where you're left with kind of the appetizer, just the taste of like who they are. And it's so great. You're like, I'd be happy to see a sequel. Like let's bring some people back. Like there's i so much more I want to know about the small town and the people in it. This so ripe for a sequel. And I do feel like we're burying the lead a little bit. And I know this is production notes, but it's just hard not to mention. And since it's big part of its Genesis, but ah started as a trailer, a fake trailer. Oh yeah.
00:15:01
Speaker
grindhouse 2007 so very quick thing i wanted to say was uh how rare this happens how rare a little fun video in this case a fake trailer becomes a movie and i'm tying it back to what you're saying about the fully fleshed out characters the fact that he took a two and a half minute fake trailer with no character development and then made a really lived in world is is pretty cool but i know we'll get into our detail of production notes Yes, yes. And we definitely have to talk about that more. um You know, it is topical with like some themes that are just very much serve right to you without having to think too deeply about it with consumerism and social media. And I like it, but he doesn't try to force it down your throat so much where you're like, okay, this is overdoing it. nor nor I think it's the right touch there. Nor is it too subtle, Travis. like he's He's not trying to say things that are just beneath the surface that you can't really, you know, keep her. was very like, what the fuck are you guys trying to say here? Yes. ah Whereas Thanksgiving. It's a clear message. It's a clear message and it's it's not too did dad and it's not too pedantic at all. It's just like, yeah, consumerism bad, social media bad, revenge can lead you to do some really bad things. um
00:16:14
Speaker
But it's enough for you to believe motivations of the characters and why this movie exists. And you feel like you're watching a full complete, you're you're you're having a full plate of Thanksgiving dinner watching movie. You got the main course and all the sides. And then underneath all of this, it's a pretty decent, like whodunit mystery where I remember the first time watching it.
00:16:39
Speaker
you know, the character of John Carver or the killer who's wearing a John Carver mask. You don't know who it is. And I really didn't know. it kept me guessing throughout the whole film the first time I watched it. So that's fun as well. I was actually my second time watching. It's like so obvious the second time, you know, like, yeah, which I'll get into in my foreshadowing section for the winners and losers. ah I almost second guess myself. Like, did i maybe guess who it was? But no, I actually remember,
00:17:06
Speaker
the moment in the movie when I realized that it was the person who it is. And I was like, Oh, okay. This makes sense. But they do a good job of concealing that when, but at the same time, sleight of hand, like giving you enough hints that you could guess it if you want it to. Yeah.
00:17:21
Speaker
Anyways. Yeah. So a good movie. Like I'm, I'm wondering if I'm too low on it. It's a, especially cause I think generally my relation with horror and all of its sub-genres there's not too many slashers
Financial Success of 'Thanksgiving'
00:17:34
Speaker
that are like on my top 100 list outside of like screen 100 really yeah like that's ah i mean i guess some of the original i need to probably walk that back some of the original halloween's there screams there maybe the better way to put it is the last three decades worth of slashers i think it's been very hard for me to find one i enjoy as much as thanksgiving
00:17:56
Speaker
Let's see. So it's everything that's happened after a Scream, I guess. Yeah, exactly. the so we talked about this We've talked about this, or at least briefly mentioned it. Scream kind of broke the slasher in a sense that like it showed all of its weaknesses and strengths and like got smarter than all of them and put it in our face. And to the point where I think people can probably be intimidated to make like a a rote slasher where they feel like they're just doing doing the same thing as always whereas that used to work in the 80s doesn't work as much now um i mean if we did a slasher based episode i'm sure we would find a bunch of beloved ones but yeah i hear you like i do think there is a a gap in the marketplace uh sounds like hard eyes helps fulfill that a little bit this year Yeah, Hard Eyes is good, but like Thanksgiving is again, I guess I'll stand by like it's up there. Maybe the only thing I can think that's comparable, but I don't know if you could really call it a slasher is like the new Final Destination Bloodlines.
00:18:51
Speaker
Um, but I don't know. Do you, do you call bloodlines a slasher? I guess death is the killer. I do. Uh, I do just cause it's death personified is, is a killer that's taking down people left and right. so you know, it's, it's not the one you first think of cause there's not like a knife or a chainsaw or anything, but I consider it slasher. So yeah, okay i mean we include that one there. At least I do.
00:19:14
Speaker
So we both like this one. This is good. that We've had a few films where we've disagreed recently, so it's good to have one where we're both pretty enthusiastic about it. um Awesome. Well, let's move to production notes then. Monetarily.
00:19:26
Speaker
$15 million dollars budget, decent sized budget for this film. No slouch. And it did pretty well, right? I looked you for this, but you know almost $32 million domestic box office, almost $47 worldwide.
00:19:39
Speaker
That's a hit. If you're getting over it three times, yeah i think for that should be in the black there. Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, the the rule of thumb is for most of your, and this skews more so blockbusters, but two point five x with the budget. will earn your blockbuster a trip out of the out of the the red. um But you can skew that lower and place play with it a bit with smaller films. So if it made three X, it's way in the green and ah again. Black.
00:20:06
Speaker
As an accountant, I have to correct you. Thank you, CPA. big Green makes more sense, honestly. But maybe that's too Christmassy if you have green and red as your two indicators. Black
Character Contributions to Humor and Horror
00:20:16
Speaker
Friday was so horrendous in this movie that I just want to stay away from that. um But yeah, that's that is a that's a double right there. That's a nice double. Not even just a base hit. That that is that is some profit right there.
00:20:28
Speaker
And then i I rudely stopped you when you were sharing probably the coolest part about the production, how this goes all the way back to 2007. So if you, if you want to rehash that, i'll I'll let you share it now. Cause I think this is such a cool factoid about the movie. Yeah, so um a very cool exercise in and formal constraint and an homage to ah exploitation films was the double feature ah Grindhouse. um One film directed by Robert Rodriguez called Planet Terror and another film directed by Quentin Tarantino called Death Proof starring my current boss, Kurt Russell, who had a blast on that film. um
00:21:09
Speaker
And if you went to see that the right way, which I wish I had when I was 17 when the movie came out or that double feature came out, you would go to a film art house film center or a place that's retrofitted with like 35 millimeter projector and you see both movies back to back just like you would in the 70s. And to make that experience more, um you know, realistic and immersive.
00:21:33
Speaker
ah Tarantino and Rodriguez hired several filmmakers, mainly their friends, to make fake trailers, ah two of which I believe turned into films. Hobo with a Shotgun, I think, also turned into an actual feature Really? Yeah. i didn't know that. That's very cool. And then Thanksgiving. And now the biggest, if you go watch that trailer, which it's great. I mean, you have that low voice, this repetitive slogan that keeps going. It's really grainy and dirty. This film looks nothing like the trailer. Like it's it's set in present day.
00:22:05
Speaker
um It's it's not all crackly and old with like damaged film. um And ah but what Eli Roth said in an interview was that the premise for the trailer was that ah ah a boy fell in love with a turkey. And his dad killed the turkey for Thanksgiving. And the kid goes crazy and kills his whole family ah because he's so mad that it happened. And then goes to a mental institution. And then when he's released or escapes, I forget, he takes revenge on the whole town. And so when when Eli got a lot of attention for this um and a lot of, you know, ah pats on the back for a fun trailer.
00:22:43
Speaker
he he He was trying to connect it to the like the lower of the trailer, but he couldn't. So then what he said was what I made up in my head head was that this was an actual movie. It was so bad that no Prince of it still exists. And so we're making a reboot of that movie.
00:22:57
Speaker
Like we're making a reboot of the fake movie and ah we're changing the lore. So it's about something else. I like it. From from that trailer too. So again, this is an entirely original story and that he had to flesh out, like you said, almost rebooting his trailer.
Cultural Significance of 'Thanksgiving'
00:23:11
Speaker
But they do recycle some parts of it. Like the title card name. Yes, the title card. It's all bloody and bloody.
00:23:18
Speaker
There's a parade sequence with a very specific decapitation kill so that they reuse. There's a trampoline kill scene the trailer that they reuse. And then the line, of course, of this Thanksgiving.
00:23:30
Speaker
there will be no leftovers that they use repeatedly in the trailer and
Favorite Moments and Unique Film Aspects
00:23:36
Speaker
the film. And so it's cool to still take pieces of that again, two and a half minute trailer from 2007. And it's worth noting that original trailer wasn't just Eli Roth, but he worked with ah Jeff Rendell, who then is the writer for this film, Thanksgiving. So they did that together and then partnered together again to make the actual full feature film 16 years later. It's just, it it's mind-blowing to me that it took this long to have a...
00:24:06
Speaker
purely Thanksgiving. Like I know there's Thanksgiving, which is a, I think went straight to DVD or something that a lot of people love, but I need to check it out. We almost covered it. We were waffling. I think we next year. If we don't have Thanksgiving too, right now, we'll cover Thanksgiving.
00:24:24
Speaker
Another horror adjacent Thanksgiving adjacent movie is Adam family values. Adam's family values, the sequel to Adam's family. um Yeah, there's a horror movie called Pilgrim.
00:24:36
Speaker
And then there's a lot of maybe not like specifically Thanksgiving, but fall horror movies. I guess what I'm saying there's a dearth of Thanksgiving films. I'm surprised it took this long to make one as sturdy as this with literally the holiday name as the title. Yes. You know, you have Halloween, you have Thanksgiving, and then Black Christmas is as close as you can get to just being Christmas the name.
00:25:00
Speaker
Crazy it took till 2023 to get this, to be honest. Yeah. Wait, I do want to circle back to the trailer again, though, that Eli Roth and Jeff Rendell made. Yeah. Because, again, they were working with Tarantino as well as Robert Rodriguez. But two years later, the film Inglourious Bastards comes out, which is another Tarantino film. Eli Roth is actually in the cast for this one as Donny Berowitz, the bear Jew, the bear which is a very iconic Tarantino character. But this film has a movie within the movie called Nation's Pride, which is about one of the German snipers is one of the main characters in Glorious Bastards.
00:25:37
Speaker
and Tarantino had Eli Roth create that film in trailer as well. I didn't know that. he's done multiple films within films for Tarantino, which is pretty cool. That's awesome. i have I have more on some Eli Roth and Glorious Bastard connections to this film, but I'm saving it deep cuts. Okay.
00:25:54
Speaker
But yeah, that's that's most of it on crew. Again, Jeff Rendell wrote it, Eli Roth directed. Anything else about the two of them before we move to cast or other production notes? No, that just Eli Roth is an interesting character in horror. I think he's always wanted to play with the big boys and never really was able to ah until he made the franchise of Hostel, which love it or hate it is a staple in in early 2000s or really just 2000s in general horror. That torture porn subgenre took off. ah Yes. made it ah Made them a lot of money. We wouldn't have the human centipede without Hostel. God for that. So we have him to thank for it. So for cast...
00:26:31
Speaker
A pretty obscure, relatively unknown cast other than Patrick Dempsey, who headlines it. Sexiest man of the year recently. I just remember seeing his face on people.
00:26:43
Speaker
He didn't win it while he was like on Grey's Anatomy. He's won it just in the past few years, I think. um Wait, didn't he? think Grey's Anatomy is what he's most famous for, right? I want to say that I read somewhere, or maybe i even thought this myself, that...
00:26:58
Speaker
He was given sexist man alive shortly before this movie came out as marketing for the movie. Like that, like that title has been so watered down. Wow. Like that's a tech that a company can just, or a studio can just pay you. Yeah. Dude, he won 2023.
00:27:15
Speaker
When, when this movie came out, November eighth right before the film came out, the release date. Oh, interesting. I just think you can buy this shit now. Yeah. He's like, how old is he? He's like 57. I mean, he's still really good. Look, he's kind of like a George Clooney. He's a silver Fox. Yes. yeah But I just thought, I don't know. A little little convenient.
00:27:41
Speaker
um Patrick Dempsey, also in Scream 3. So it's not his first time in a slasher film. Outside of that, screen not too many horror films. yeah um The rest of the cast, though, like Nell Verlake is Jessica. She's our protagonist. She's absolutely fantastic in this movie. Why don't we see her more? I don't understand. It's a great question.
00:28:01
Speaker
um They had some... i This is going to be embarrassing because I'm sure some of our listeners know her, but... Addison Rae, apparently a very famous TikTok influencer. I've never heard of her before. How quickly can we go past She has a sporting role.
00:28:15
Speaker
yeah Had you heard of her before this film or outside this film? Oh, you have? Yes, I just know that she is like one of the first huge TikTok stars and DMed Eli Roth and was like, can have a part in your movie? And Eli Roth's eyes turned into little money symbols and was like, yes, get the youth in the theater. She does jack shit in this movie. She does nothing. She sits there and looks at her phone and says a few things and it's it. Yes.
00:28:40
Speaker
Very, very small role. Sorry, Addison Rae. But, you know, and then the rest of the cast, I'm just going run through these because not really many other films of note, but Milo Manheim is Ryan. These are all the teens and like the core group. Jalen Thomas Brooks is Bobby. Tommaso Sinelli is Evan. Jenna Warren as Yulia.
00:29:00
Speaker
Gabriel Davenport, Escuba. And then notably, um one of my all-time 90s babes, Gina Gershon. Oh, gosh. She's in Face Off, Showgirls, The Insider, all these big ninety s films. She's so great. And she plays a role in this film.
00:29:18
Speaker
I love Gina Gershon, a movie that I don't think you've seen, Travis. It's a it's a lesbian thriller film no noir movie called Bound.
00:29:29
Speaker
I have not seen it. Made by the Wachowski siblings. From The Matrix, of Matrix. Yes, of Matrix. It's the film they made before The Matrix. Huh. But think about that. Lesbian film noir thriller by the but the people who brought you the Matrix.
00:29:45
Speaker
yeah Yes, it's they are clad in leather. There's smoking going on and there's cool guns. ah Really good movie. She's fucking hot in it. um Weird note, always thought she looked like my ex-girlfriend Amanda and she's named Amanda in this movie.
00:30:01
Speaker
Just a note. Just a thought. I'd say that note. Shout out Amanda. Shout out Amanda. She listens to this pod sometimes. um I want to give you two casts, the three casting notes, Trav, that you did not mention.
00:30:12
Speaker
oh perfect. One, Tim Dillon, the comedian. Who does he play? yeah The security guard. He's hilarious. Oh, really? Yeah. Okay, so I'm not familiar with his work. I don't watch him a lot, but he comes up in my feed, and you know I haven't seen a full special by him, but he's he's ah he's a well-known comedian. So oh a great little fun stunt casting there. um All right, another one. is What was the name of Ryan's? ah what What is that actor's name? Ryan's played by Milo Mannheim.
00:30:43
Speaker
Little fun note about him. ah Eli Roth has known his mother since they were both like 20 years old and he's known um again. Sorry. What's his name? Milo. Might be Milo. Now now I'm second guessing myself, but pretty shy allow drive your your pronunciation has never been the best. Uh, it's horrible, but I do think it's Milo like Milo. But yes, he's known Milo since Milo was one day old.
00:31:10
Speaker
So oh that's cool. Fun little thing there. But the, my favorite little fun casting note is this. Um, The woman who plays Lizzie, who is the angry mass hole, who's also the diner waitress slash yeah ah hostess slash manager. She like runs that whole thing, I guess. Yep. um Her real name is Amanda Barker.
00:31:32
Speaker
She is actually from Hanover and is that's her actual accent. And as she is the ninth great niece of John Carver, the real John Carver. Really? Yeah.
00:31:43
Speaker
So Eli Roth did his research, man. Keeping Thanksgiving spirit alive. I have so many things to say about her. She has she made so many of my awards. I i love i love Lizzie in this movie. Yeah.
00:31:54
Speaker
And then ah last point, John Carver, real famous pilgrim. I think he was, what, the first mayor, or one of the first mayors of Plymouth. And even outside of this film, like his figure has been used in like the film Pilgrim. And there's a there's a lot of other... tribute so i don't think he was mayor he was there he was the first he was the first governor oh governor yeah he was the governor of the of the summar of the plymouth i apologize to uh john carver's family and fans here how perfect that his last name was carver though to to be the the the representative antagonist here came over on the mayflower i think yeah like he's an og at age 25.
00:32:35
Speaker
Okay. But um yes, so John Carver is the figure in the mask that you see throughout the movie and the identity the killer takes. he also he also wrote the Mayflower Compact and was was the first person to sign it.
00:32:49
Speaker
Oh, first signer. Okay. A real John Hancock. First governing document of Plymouth County. um How cool is it that like you can be, you can have a Wikipedia page where you can be a person where you're known as an adventurer and a tradesman. Like I i want to be an adventurer or a tradesman or both. That is so cool. Yeah.
00:33:11
Speaker
Do you think Lewis and Clark are credited as adventurers or just explorers? Wow. That is a great, what is the difference? i don' I don't know. that's why I feel like I feel like an explorer can all explorers are adventurers, but not all adventures are explorers because some people who go to adventures just go to have fun and and consume the the land and have fun and be have adventures. Whereas if you're an explorer, you're doing you have a purpose. You're going out there and doing something.
00:33:41
Speaker
That CEO who took the sub down to go see the Titanic adventure or explore adventurer and um probably shouldn't have used a what a GameCube joystick to man his little like dinky submarine. RIP. RIP. It's still pretty soon. maybe that's very hot dickky I don't think he felt anything. So he's all right. um Anything else in the way production notes?
00:34:07
Speaker
No, no. I can't think of any. Well, let's get to spoiler territory ahead. Yeah, I'm with you. Give us the sequel. One of the horror films I'd be happy to see a sequel for. um Let's get to spoiler territory and let's get to our scarometer.
00:34:24
Speaker
Scarameter. All right. We did this last episode. um Let's try it again, Trab. Let's see if we can make this thing. On the count of three. On the count three, you count us down and we'll say our Scarameter rating out of 10.
00:34:38
Speaker
One, two, three, three. Four. wow okay we're pretty close god damn it we still don't have a four and my ocd is like so mad because if you we have all these numbers but now this is going to be a 3.5 we don't have a i think you anchored you gave final destination bloodlines a one i was a two and what i thought with this film is this is similar but slightly scarier than final destination bloodlines and so that's how i got up to a three So if this is a 3.5, we now we have to, we have to litigate where among the 3.5s it should be, because I think we have a couple now, right?
00:35:14
Speaker
I'm not sure. It's, it's what in the territory, same territory as Jaws, i' swim in the same ocean as Jaws. I will tell you right now. So in this little area, okay, we have final destinations to Frankenstein's three, him is three, Jaws is 3.25 because you gave it a three and a half and I gave it threes i give it to three. And a half ah and then 28 weeks later is 3.5. 28 years later is 3.5. Trick or treat is 4.
00:35:42
Speaker
Yeah, I think that seems right. I think it is below the two 28 days later sequels. I think it's above Jaws and below 28 weeks later.
00:35:53
Speaker
Yeah. Which is right where we can slot it in. I agree. Yeah. This one, not overtly scary. There are lot of gruesome kills, but not necessarily freaking you out. Yeah.
00:36:05
Speaker
all right. Deep cuts. Deep cuts. What do you got for us, Rick? All right. First one is, and it's such great timing, and I'm glad we are being seasonally specific here with our movies, but...
00:36:18
Speaker
loved, loved the Halloween nod. The first, the first fucking shot of this movie POV of what, what I'm, we were in spoiler territory now, right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
00:36:32
Speaker
we are in POV of what we learned to be at the killer. We you see somebody approaching a suburban house. They're walking up almost steady cam esque like John Carpenter did. And lo and behold, it's Patrick Dempsey, uh, opening the door for, to go on a Thanksgiving dinner. So I just love that. hallow I just, I clearly a nod to John Carpenter in my eyes.
00:36:53
Speaker
Yeah. And there's some very on the nose dialogue right away where he's talking to Gina Gershon, who you find out later in the film, he was having an affair with talking about, ah you know, putting something in the oven, but you find out she was pregnant with his baby. Oh, yeah.
00:37:09
Speaker
I said the clues are there. The clues are there. It makes for a good rewatch. If you go back and see this movie once you know, well, I remembered obviously Patrick Dempsey was the killer. So I'm listening for and that. He had an affair and I'm listening for those things, but I totally forgot she was pregnant and that fuels his anger. So I didn't catch the button in the oven thing. So nice.
00:37:28
Speaker
um All right. This is a fun one. When we're at the Fight Mart, the Fight Mart night, which where they have a fight. fight markt I know, but they call it Fight Mart because there's a Oh, yes. Yes. Okay. That's on the news labels. that makes for the fact Yeah, exactly. um There's two women fighting, like, jawing at each other verbally in the beginning of the movie.
00:37:52
Speaker
And one of them is Lizzie. So the moment I was talking about earlier, this girl says to her, Two hits. I hit you. You hit the ground. Does that sound familiar to you?
00:38:04
Speaker
Yes, but you have to remember the movie. It's a very famous In Glorious Bastards by Eli Roth. Eli Roth says it. so That's right. Donnie Berowitz. Donnie Berowitz. They bring out for the first time. he He comes out with the bat, and he's trying to get information out of the German. And one of the things he says is he has the baseball bat in his hand. And he goes, two hits.
00:38:23
Speaker
I hit you. You hit the ground. So just... el Eli Roth just throwing in his own line in his own movie. Pretty cool. That's amazing. um Did you notice when a when Bobby, the all-star pitcher who's coming home from college for the holidays? Yes. When he gets in the car, somebody calls him Bobby Boucher as a joke. Oh, I did not catch that either. Little Waterboy reference. And then the rest of these are music and sports related, and I'll i'll go quickly. Mm-hmm.
00:38:52
Speaker
A lot of music in here um that we don't have time to go through all of them. But one of my – I'm big into um like early 90s hip-hop. And one of my favorite groups, probably my favorite aside from Wu-Tang and Beastie Boys is Farside. Yes, I was – I should have. That's what I was going say is I was hoping you'd go Farside. Dude, talk about it.
00:39:15
Speaker
Talk about it. Yeah, well, just – Have you seen Keegan Michael Key's show it ran for only, i think, two seasons before it got canceled called Friends from College. Mm-mm.
00:39:26
Speaker
There's an iconic episode with the Farside song in there. And ever since then, you know, was it passing me by? or so but Yeah, of course it was passing me by. but um So that's, well, this was, ah this is, that's an amazing song. And it even though it's, it is the hit from them. I still, I still love it. I also really like drop, but they played a song that isn't played in many movies or anything called, Oh shit.
00:39:47
Speaker
And it's truly a deep cut. Huh? It is. Yeah. truly a It's a deep cut. It's off, but it is off that 92, uh, debut album of theirs, Bizarre Ride to the Far Side. And it's just great. i think And I think it it, it resembles the, in the same way that Far Side was, um embraced wholeheartedly by, by critics and music lovers as being like this antidote to the, you know, gangster rap that was really dark and, and violence oriented, um I think Farside was celebrated for being lighthearted and fun. And they still like De La Soul did the same thing. They were, they were kind of peaceful, but they still had social commentary about racism and police brutality and stuff. Uh,
00:40:32
Speaker
In the same way that Thanksgiving is very playful and lighthearted and kind of poking fun in itself, I think Farside was too. So get great, great hit there. I like it. um And then Crunk Ain't Dead by Duke Deuce, another great song they drop in there um that they then lay over the their their ah chanting of fuck Hanover for some reason. i don't know why. Fuck Hanover, fuck Hanover.
00:40:55
Speaker
ah and then Where Eagles Dare by the Misfits in 1979. Good little punk track. um Anything else on music before I move into sports before we get out of the podcast trap? Okay. was going to save this for dull knives. we have I think we're going to have a lot anyways, so I'm just going to slot this into deep cuts. So Ryan is trying to earn the respect and love of not just Jessica, but Jessica's friends.
00:41:20
Speaker
They think he's kind of boring. He's kind of milquetoast, right? He's kind of conniving, though, you find out throughout the film. Yes, but they don't know that. you know yes All they think is like he's just kind of a square. Mm-hmm.
00:41:33
Speaker
Ryan shows up to a diner with five of these people and slams six tickets NFL tickets to the 50-yard line of a Pats game. playing the Steelers.
00:41:45
Speaker
So I did a little bit of research here. That's a storied rivalry. Okay. They played each other 36 times. These are the two teams with the most Super Bowls in the league. Now the dates are a little wonky here. Cause the last time, the last time that the Pats play the Steelers at home in November was 2013. okay. Yeah.
00:42:04
Speaker
and oh okay I see this is a 2023 game. So you got like Mac Jones, like playing quarterback. I don't even, i just look at the dates. Both franchises are at pretty low lows there. So the the Pats won in one 55 to 31. Then, um if you don't care about the month and you just want to go, when is the, when is the last time before this movie was made that the Pats played the sealers at home? that was 20, 2019, that was in September.
00:42:30
Speaker
I bring this up because regardless of how you look at it, that is an astounding a pile of money for just a high school kid. All right. So the average ticket cost for a 50 yard line ah seat for a Steelers Pats game in 2013 was about 650. So if you multiply that by you're you're getting about $4,000. He just dropped $4,000 on his friends. He really wanted to win their friendship. And if this movie took place in 2019, and we just moved the month to November, it's like $6,000. So almost like 10 grand just try to impress his friends. I was like, you're just putting six NFL tickets on the table. Be like, all right, guys. He doesn't even know if they can make the game.
00:43:14
Speaker
even ask them. He just this just brings it up. So quasi dull knife, quasi deep cut. I just had to bring that up. Money can't buy happiness, but sometimes it can buy some friends, you know? Yeah. At least for a year or two, I guess. Yeah.
00:43:29
Speaker
I still don't like them after the fact too. That's the best part. Yeah. know. I know. I don't like this guy fucking sucks. The entire movie. Oh, that's great. Yeah. So that's all I got for deep cuts.
00:43:40
Speaker
Let's talk highlights. What was your highlight, Trav? So, A few scenes I really like. um you know i Honorable Mentions is probably the Black Friday scene that sets up the whole film as you see you know all the shoppers leaning against the glass, then all the chaos that then unfolds.
00:44:00
Speaker
Also the dinner scene where John Carver is now captured all his victims and you get to see them all interacting. Well, take the cake for me. What would ah take the turkey for me oh god is there is a scene again.
00:44:12
Speaker
Love the character. Garrity doesn't necessarily need to be in the film, but I love that Eli Roth put him in the film. And because of that has a scene where two characters, Scuba and Jessica go to a party. He is hosting for minors. McCarty yes sorry mccarty where he is uh what did i say garrity yeah ah gary oh that's straight out the long walk yeah it's a long great movie it's just always top of mind uh mccarty's hosting this party for miners just giving them booze letting him party at his house charging them he's a captain he's he's a he's an entrepreneur oh 100 and so scuba just gotta go there looking to buy firearms But as he lets them in the home, you know, just all the dialogue, they're like, oh, these are the VIPs. We got to let them And then when they're walking upstairs, they pass by just some kid on a couch. And McCarty says, watch out. This kid's been here for two days. Drink too much Zinfandel.
00:45:11
Speaker
I'm just like, sweet, great. Some kid's on a Zinfandel bender and cannot remove himself from the couch. what Just the whole scene, probably completely unnecessary, but just fun, right? It's a great example of, yeah, of course it serves a little bit of plot because you want to feel like the characters are strapping up, getting firearms, which I don't even think they use. Does he not? or he goes use it and it doesn't fire. Yeah. I think he had the safety on, he tries to fire it later in the movie. So if you think about it, this whole scene is not really necessary to the plot at all. It's just, yes it just provides color and it just provides like high school life and humor and just, you know, being scared in a town where thought something bad is about to happen.
00:45:55
Speaker
That's a great scene. I'm glad brought that up. Um, Yeah, I'm going to be boring here, but it's it's probably between the big three scenes for me. Fight Smart or sorry, Fight Mart in the beginning.
00:46:09
Speaker
um Black Black Friday incident, as you talked about the Thanksgiving parade, which. Oh, yes. Just some great kills, which I'm not going to step on, but. ah just ah We'll get to them. We'll get to them, especially one, of two of them actually that are just great.
00:46:28
Speaker
The Thanksgiving dinner is like, you make a movie like Thanksgiving, you are you are ah writing a contract with the audience. And in some ways you want to surprise the audience, but in other ways you got to just deliver on that contract. And one of the things in that contract is,
00:46:47
Speaker
you got to see someone burn alive in an oven. Like if you're going to make a horror film called Thanksgiving, someone's got to be the roast turkey. So getting cuted it was so well executed. It's it's horrific and funny. And you're also a little bit like you feel a little vindicated because Kathleen is like not a likable character. Yes. So you're a little guilty and feel icky. But like that's part of horror films to make you kind of feel that way. um there's just little moments, and little touches in there that I just love.
00:47:17
Speaker
ah One of them is when he he uses the dead cheerleader as a source of wine. And he pokes the fucking wine cork opener into her neck.
00:47:29
Speaker
And then as blood... Jets out into a cup and, you know, he's getting a cup of wine. ah He says something like, oh you're that's going to need to breathe or something like yeah you're going to want that to breathe. um It's just a lot of joy and and sick joy. You know, you're you're dealing with death and murder and gross shit. But it's like that's what you sign up for to watch a campy slasher holiday film like this. Yes.
00:47:54
Speaker
Thanksgiving dinner. Just classic. Yep. Yeah, I'm with you. I think those are all the really big set pieces. Mine mine is ah a little less of a grand set piece. more No, it's not. It's a hangout. It's big set pieces he did really well. Thanksgiving sometimes weirdly becomes a hangout movie sometimes. Like it yeah it veers into it, you know? Well, isn't that true? I mean, we haven't really talked about that, but for years, like people go back to their hometowns after college often or even as you age into adulthood.
00:48:24
Speaker
And usually the night before Thanksgiving, I feel like the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving is always a hopping night at the local bars where you run into people from high school, old acquaintances, old friends. And so you got to have the ah the party scene as well.
00:48:37
Speaker
Yeah. Very fitting. For us, as it was Malarky's. You got to go to Malarky's. Ours was Henry's Bar in Louisville. Great spot. Henry's Bar. Nice. Yeah. All right. Well, ah let's get to our awards then with our Ben Gardner jump scare.
00:48:53
Speaker
out of This movie lends itself to plenty of awards. Not too many jump scares. um I have one, but i don't love it even for my own. So I'm curious, do you do you have anything that stands out? Well, I have one that I really love, but I have four in case I had to have backups. but i'll poo i had I thought this had a few. What what was yours?
00:49:12
Speaker
Mine is at the very end of the film. you have which you see this in horror occasionally jessica wakes up um she was sleeping she's just encountered they they think dempsey's dead died in this giant fireball and she goes to open her door and she opens it up and you have like a fiery still burning patrick dempsey like a coaster right before it goes to the end credits yeah that got me um with a little bit of a scare It is a weird way to a movie, though, if you think about it. It's like a door slash closet that opens to fiery credits. It's like Thanksgiving.
00:49:48
Speaker
Yeah, I like it. it was fine It's fun it was fun. If it was a self-serious movie, it wouldn't fit. But for something just purely entertainment movie here, I like it. Two of mine took place in the, you know, the iconic Thanksgiving dinner sequence. um One of them is when Kathleen opens the fridge and sees a, that cheerleader wrapped in plastic and yes seemingly she's dead, but she's not, she wakes up. So that got me.
00:50:17
Speaker
Another one. I think my favorite one was a really well done chase pursuit sequence within a house between John Carver and Kathleen.
00:50:28
Speaker
Mm hmm. she's behind. She's behind a wall ah right next to an opening to the kitchen. And you think that he can't see her.
00:50:39
Speaker
He goes through the gap, then goes back and then boom, the like pitchfork goes to the wall. So yes, pitchfork going through the wall really got me. Yeah, um I did like that sequence as Kathleen's trying to escape and get away. Yeah. The evil stepmother. The end of that pursuit with the javelin, like using the pitchfork as a javelin into her back, like he tosses it at her.
00:51:02
Speaker
Yes. It's so great. Well, let's go to our cantaloupe award. This is one that I thought was great as far as a gross, you know, cover cover your eyes, hard to watch scene. Because when we're talking about Kathleen, who gets cooked in the oven and served up for Thanksgiving dinner, you see her now husband, the mayor, and everyone's reactions really when they realize that- He's not the mayor. He's the owner of RightSmart, right? And and the mayor, I think. I think he's double duty. Really?
00:51:33
Speaker
Yeah. Or he's at least running for mayor. There's like a lot of campaign. What's his name? Rick Hoffman. We didn't mention Rick Hoffman, by the way. Yeah, that that's a good point. He's one of the out of a cast of lesser known actors. He has been in other films. He's even been a Roth film. He's in suits as well.
00:51:54
Speaker
Okay. um Yeah, he's he's great in this as well. But I love i love everyone's reactions when John Carver you know reveals the the main course for the dinner, especially... the Is he the mayor? Is he the governor?
00:52:08
Speaker
Is he just a business owner? When did you think he was the mayor? Because I just thought yeah he was a he's a business owner of RightSmart and he's all guilty because he's the one who is... deciding to keep it open and the only marriage thing he does he like cuts the this ribbon but that's just him doing charity work i don't think he okay okay but his reaction specifically when he sees kathleen on the table because he has the gag in his mouth but can't help himself to start throwing up and it's it's a very graphic puke where you see everything coming up and getting obstructed and it's it's tough to watch they they linger on that shot for needed days long enough to turn your stomach
00:52:47
Speaker
Needed to happen. and It was like clam chowder. gunhowa ah Mine actually literally takes place right before yours.
00:52:58
Speaker
And that is when John Carver is slicing the inner thigh of Kathleen into a little cut. He's trying to get Rick Hoffman's character to eat that, which causes him to throw up. by cantaloupe award was that was was there is something about putting a knife to flesh anyways. But then you start to fillet and then you start to fillet a really sensitive part of the body like your inner thigh.
00:53:25
Speaker
Dude, I was getting i was like yeah getting... I actually have more notes on that, but I'll save it for later in the app. I'm glad you brought it up now. but ah It is a good one. I'll i'll quickly rattle off some other honora and mention honorable mentions, but the key is not being able open to the door in the beginning to the right smart thing. Just like that tension.
00:53:44
Speaker
Two was when Bobby's wrist got stepped on and it all breaks. That's a good one. Oh, fuck. That looks like it hurts. A star pitcher. The scalping of Amanda was... which Yeah, Gina Gershon. They killed her so early in the film. Good move. It disappointed me. After Hitchcock, you know taking something after Hitchcock. got Got to kill a main character early. Throw the audience off track. What's funny about the scalping is that It's really horrendous and hard to watch, but they throw in this shot that I feel like Eli Roth was just doing it to be a little like just a sicko.
00:54:20
Speaker
You just see a shopping cart wobble off and like her scalp is tied to the wheel and it's Yeah, her hair has gotten cotton all around the wheel. There's no reason for that other than just like to show the inhumanity that's happening.
00:54:36
Speaker
ah And the last one I had was a Lizzie's face. being smooshed to the ice, the the frozen door and then having, yeah, being ripped Yeah, like flash frozen where dunks her in the water and then puts her right up against the freezer door. It's it's like, you know, Dumb and Dumber where he licks a pole at a ski resort on the chairlift, but way worse because half of her face is pressed up against that freezer. Yeah, I would i would say a ski degree a few degrees worse. Yeah. Yeah.
00:55:05
Speaker
um Yeah, some good, you know, in Eli Roth fashion, they're all the ones that are visceral, hard to watch, extra gory. All right. Well, should we go to our best or ah cannon fodder? Cannon fodder, maybe.
00:55:18
Speaker
I hope we have the same one here. I feel like there's a clear choice. Well, you go ahead. Go for it. Okay. I was hoping you'd try to guess it. At the very beginning, during the strike mark, all the customers coming in, There are three deaths that happen. One is a security guard gets trampled beneath the door as it falls on him. One is Jean and Gershon being scalped. What's the cannon fodder of war, baby? There's this chopper that walks in and gets really pushed in through the door. There's a shard of glass off the doorframe. That's remaining from the window.
00:55:53
Speaker
Yes, that just cuts his throat wide open. great. And he's gushing blood. And he just kind of like still moves through it. and what makes this the best kill is you... You see the film cut to him multiple times through the rest of the sequence where he's still like, well, it's not the best kill. It's the best cannon fodder.
00:56:09
Speaker
It's the best can of potter. He goes and picks up like a waffle iron later. He's still trying to like loot the store, get what he came for. And my favorite part is this was so impactful to me. i was like, who was this guy? And in the credits after the film, he's credited as neck glass guy. That's like literally what they gave his role as. That's exactly what they probably call them in post-production.
00:56:32
Speaker
Oh, we need another shot of neck glass guy. I have the same exact one as you. And my notes are very simple. I said, one, glass to the neck. Two, slowly dying in a Boston Bruins jersey. Three, gets his waffle iron taken by some woman. He is dying on the ground, and some woman just comes up and takes it from him.
00:56:52
Speaker
Yes, I ah yeah, we're definitely on the same page. That is great. Cannon fodder. kill the The cannon fodder kill of the of the movie. Poor guy. All right. Well, best death. There's a few nominees here, right? Like ah we already mentioned Gina Groshawn getting scalped. Yeah, end to be in consideration I do think I do think Lizzie. oh Sorry, Kathleen.
00:57:15
Speaker
being roasted into a turkey is like the definitive best death. But since we've already talked about those so much, I'm really open to finding something else. There is one big one we haven't mentioned. that I think you've been chomping at the bit to talk about at the Thanksgiving parade.
00:57:28
Speaker
ah Well, I'll let you take that one because I agree. But the only other one I'd bring up, because we also talked about the waitress getting flash frozen. We didn't mention that. That doesn't kill her. She tries to run away. true. She's running towards a dumpster. And somehow while she's like hanging over the dumpster with her lower body on the outside, upper body on the inside. The car hits it with such force that a plastic lid cover from the top just completely bisects her, cuts her in half.
00:57:54
Speaker
um but Yeah. ah i well well I thought it was the car that it's the plastic lid. He hits the dumpster, not her, and the lid comes down, I think, with such force it cuts her in half. That is hilarious. Yes. But the the other one I wanted to mention, can touch on that one briefly, is Yulia, who just gets thrown onto a table saw and weight of her own body on top of it. You see like her hand get cut and then she falls because it cuts her arm and then her chest is on it and then her face is on it and just gets completely torn up. And then like the scene right after where Scuba is like, what do I do? Like, how do I help her? It has a mix of terror in it, though. It's like it yeah it does capture the harrowing confusion one might have when your loved one has their entrails hanging out. but it is a very creative kill. ah Yeah. so So those are so mine, but it also call out the one at the parade. Cause that's another great. well there's two best out there There's two. Yes. ah Yes. I'll start with the main one. And it is, I just think it's so funny.
00:58:56
Speaker
There are three different times. They want to make, make sure we know that there is a human being in the Turkey costume called Lionel. All right. that There's like, Oh Lionel, he's always a Turkey Lionel. Where's the head? Like,
00:59:09
Speaker
It'd be one thing if if you decapitated a a turkey mascot and you didn't know who was in there, but like they make sure to tell us there is a person. You have to humanize him. His name is Lionel. Count for more, yeah.
00:59:20
Speaker
And so, yeah, the the parade is going on. There's a bit of a misdirect in that Mitch, Gina Gershon's husband in the film. He's one of the many people you think might be John Carver, and he has a mask on and he's he's moving kind of secretively and he's getting out. He's going out to the parade. You think he's going to do something real bad.
00:59:40
Speaker
And then he's just protesting. He's just saying, hey, close down. Right. Smart should be open on Thanksgiving. Other protesters come up. Well, the real John Carver, Oddly, still don't know why he was in this mask at all. It's straight out of the Dark Knight, like one of those clown masks. It really Like he's in the Joker's posse. It's a scary clown mask.
01:00:01
Speaker
And basically to start things to start the killings at at ah the parade, he just goes up to Lionel inside the turkey mascot. with his ax and just lops his head off. And then it's just, it's a, it's a smash cut to a kid just screaming. We don't know who this kid is, but he did not like seeing the Turkey get his head chopped off.
01:00:22
Speaker
Great, great kill. Great kill. Yes. Um, but it's not the one I'm most excited about to talk about the parade float driver, parade float driver, grandpa, uh,
01:00:34
Speaker
Because of all the pandemonium, we don't have to get into details about the physics that everything happened, but all that you need to know is that this driver has his two grandchildren next to him.
01:00:45
Speaker
and maybe someone behind him too. doesn't really matter. ah The float that he's he's driving has a is a is a wooden boat with the pointy end of the boat right behind him in the truck. Something happens, they crash, and that thing just goes through his back of his neck, out his mouth, and it fucks up his nose, and he's bleeding and everything.
01:01:11
Speaker
I just love that there's a separate shot, two separate shots of one of the girls going, Grandpa! And then it shows him again. And then a second shot of the two other gri grandchildren with his blood getting spurted onto them.
01:01:25
Speaker
They're just like, oh my god! like It's so morbid, but it's so over the top that you can't help but laugh. Yes. there There might be a third kill during the parade. I don't know if you remember this. I can't say it's a confirmed kill, but in the pandemonium, Patrick Dempsey's killer, now wearing a clown mask, also takes out a gun and he just shoots a cop. And I don't know if that was a crank gun or a live round, but I think it's so funny. It's slashers where like you know it's called a slasher. Usually the killings are
01:01:56
Speaker
not just someone going around shooting people, but more gruesome deaths. And when you give the slasher villain just a gun to start firing. I wrote that down. I was trying to count how many deaths were because this is one of our highest body count movies that we've seen. Yes. um I stopped counting because i we don't really do kill counts or anything, but I took it off because then when I saw him trank the other people, I was like, well, maybe that was a trank. I'm not sure. It it sounded silenced, whatever it was. but It was that cop who gets shot and then Yulia's dad and the policeman in their home. I don't know if those guys were all tranked or if they were all killed, but that's kind of the variable in our kill count for not knowing if those were confirmed fatalities or not.
01:02:37
Speaker
Right. um Awesome. Yeah, a lot of good deaths in this film. Do you want to try to pick a winner or just acknowledge they were all great deaths? um I think we should start trying to pick winners just to have some history here on this show.
01:02:53
Speaker
i I mean, i I kind of already said, I think Kathleen. That's the signature death. yeah yeah Yeah. yeah Give the audience what they want. It's a Thanksgiving movie. Someone has to get cooked like a turkey, just like you said.
01:03:06
Speaker
Promises made, promises kept. Awesome. Well, that takes us to our Shyamalan twist. I think this one's pretty easy to arrive at. Yours is the winner. Yours is the winner. Yeah. John Carver is Patrick Dempsey's character, the Sheriff Eric. I said as a side Shyamalan twist, you also find out he was banging Gina Gershon, but that's the big reveal at the end Yeah. ah Like you said earlier, handled really well.
01:03:33
Speaker
ah Watching it a second time. Again, I keep teasing it, but I have some foreshadowing moments that I think were really fun. So it has rewatch value. So you can kind of feel like you're on the inside. But wasn't an obvious killer? Like wasn't an obvious bet for who that was? I thought it was Ryan at some point. I thought it was Bobby at some point. I thought it was Mitch at some point. So I think that's ah that's a great Shyamalan twist. um Don't go in there.
01:03:56
Speaker
um Mine was – all right, I know we've said a lot about the pursuit of John Carver versus Kathleen before she's pitched for javelin style.
01:04:08
Speaker
But there were so many so many bad decisions. just So she she takes extra time to go to the fridge – To then get a wine bottle and that's her weapon? Yeah. She didn't look for knives? She's in the kitchen. There has to be carving knives in there. That's a great point. Like going to the fridge. Horrible instinct for weapon for.
01:04:29
Speaker
And then that ends up being her undoing because she steps in the cheerleader's blood and tracks everywhere and John Carver can find her. But secondly, she goes right past what's seemingly an open window near near where all the phones are. It shows you where the phones are like streaming and stuff and there's like a window with wind blowing and I'm like, Kathleen, get your dumb ass out there.
01:04:49
Speaker
So that was my don't go in there. It Kathleen's poor decision making in the house. Mine was more general, but By my count, I clocked five deaths within a 48-hour period.
01:05:04
Speaker
And their decision to still go through with hosting a parade in the small town was a pretty pretty bold all-time take with a serial killer still on the loose. And they say it's like supposed to be a trap, but it wasn't really that well flushed out of an idea where I'm like, I don't know.
01:05:19
Speaker
what we're doing here like clearly you know whose fault that is whose hank morton of eight mass news not getting the word out there tries to be this on the beat journalist and get all the scoops but hank morton if he did a better job of getting clips out there on social media maybe more people would be like hey don't have this parade but i i'm sorry ah morton initially was going to be a winner for me but now that you're now that you've made me realize that Parade still went on. that that is a that is That is a news problem. That is exposure problem. And who are all the people going to the parade? And they're dressing as the serial killer? Like they're wearing John Carver masks? Or they know like like, this is just a series of horrible decisions by the entire town. That's a good dull knife. What were they expecting? What were they expecting?
01:06:03
Speaker
Yeah. um Okay. Best lines. Oh, man. i have I have quite a few. should we we do We do alternating now, right? so we're not Sure. Yeah, let's alternate. All right.
01:06:14
Speaker
I did mine's in order of when they were said in the film. So the first one is ah i love when a character like. Calls a character, not just by his name, but like what he means to the movie just for us, really. So Bobby is a local celeb because he's such a good pitcher and he's getting stopped at right smart when him and his friends are all there. The very beginning opening scene. And some guy goes up to him and says, Bobby Goldenarm, all-time record holder for strikeouts at Plymouth East. like Would you ever do that? Just stat-dropping. Describing. Great great exposition, Tom. But if the thing is, we already knew that. it's This guy's just doubling down. Bobby Goldenarm.
01:07:02
Speaker
Yeah, I said my white Zinfandel McCarty quote. my like probably The most I laughed in this movie is there is, again, I'd say almost a throwaway scene. I think it's just to show us that Evan, part of the group, he's been paying this guy to write his essays.
01:07:18
Speaker
And he's now stiffed him on payment. So you get Evan's reading of ah what he thinks is an essay that was written for him. Turns out was just plagiarized from his own teacher's writings on her blog. But it is not Evan's recitation of his essay. But there's a clip that opens the scene with a student who is named Chad. And all you hear is the very closing line of his essay. He's standing up reading. He goes,
01:07:42
Speaker
That's why I won't be celebrating Thanksgiving this year or any year. And then he immediately has girls just swoon to him as he tears up and he just lifts up his shirt and wipe his tears and he just has like perfect abs. Like no need for that at all. That was so funny seeing Chad read his essay. that felt lifted from, uh, not another teen movie is what literally, literally. Yes. That, that is probably as parody as this movie gets. And it's so good.
01:08:13
Speaker
Um, that was my favorite or any year. okay i had that on there too. My, my only other line, again, it's another Evan tangential scene, although it's not his line, but after the killing of the Hanover football player and his girlfriend on the trampoline,
01:08:32
Speaker
You go to seat of them. Is he a football player or a coach? Why does he have a whistle? And why is he coaching people how to weight lift? What's going on there? That's a great point. I mean, the mention one put like, isn't he 30? Like he's been at this high school forever.
01:08:44
Speaker
So I think it makes it unclear if maybe he's doing double duty. Like he's both on staff, but also still eligible to play for the team. But it's not that scene. It's right after where our main group of teens finds out that the football game was canceled and Evan is an emotional wreck. He was there to play football and he starts to walk away saying, I'm going to play anyways. And scuba yells after him going, you can't play football alone. It's true. Like it's a very hard game to play. But doesn't Evan say like watch me or something? Yes. Watch me. like walks, still proceeds to walk towards the field and Scooby just yells after him like can't. I can't play football alone. That scene has lived rent-free in my head since I watched that. Cause all I'm thinking about is like, so what's he going to do when he gets there? Is he just going to like, so he's 49. So he, again, he's probably an outside or inside linebacker
Football Tactics and Coaching Stubbornness
01:09:37
Speaker
something. Is he just going to like get into a four, three defense and just drop back or like blitz nothing? Like what's he going to do? Yeah.
01:09:44
Speaker
It reminds me of my toddler stubbornness where they insist on doing something that makes absolutely no sense and they can't do it, but they're going to try it anyways.
Subtitles and Viewing Preferences
01:09:53
Speaker
Godspeed. All right. Thank God. you know I'm not a big subtitles guy, but for the pod, I usually turn them on so I can catch lines I might have missed. Otherwise, I try to just you know get into the vibe and not read. but and I know that's a hot take. A lot of people like subtitles.
01:10:09
Speaker
Really glad I did it
Humor in Chaotic Retail Scenes
01:10:10
Speaker
for this one. ah I can't even tell you who said this quote, Trav, and I can't even tell you who said it too because there's such pandemonium going on. as This is after they break through to the Right Smart um ah store and everyone's running everywhere. Waffle irons are getting stolen. All this shit.
01:10:31
Speaker
A woman, I think it's Lizzie, honestly. here's the Here's the three lines she says in succession. The first one is, you know, you're a fucking Muppet.
01:10:42
Speaker
Then she says, you Jim Henson motherfucker. And then she finishes with, go back to Fraggle Rock. Wait. Oh, my God. I missed that. I should have watched with the
Muppets and Fraggle Rock Connections
01:10:55
Speaker
subtitles on. That's incredible. It's happening all like when when that guy in the Bruins jersey is like bleeding out and like, you know, has the the glass in his neck. There's this whole Muppet thing.
01:11:05
Speaker
Like dialogue. It just kills me. Were you big Fraggle Rock guy? I never got into Fraggle Rock. i know I know nothing about it other than my girls watch Mrs. Rachel and they have one episode where some Fraggle Rock characters make a cameo and they sing a song together. They are related to the Muppets. Like they are Muppets and there is some crossover element. Are they Jim Henson? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:11:26
Speaker
The Jim Henson creations. Oh, didn't know that. Uh, but Muppet verse does, does, uh, accept them, I believe. but Okay. You Jim Henson motherfucker.
01:11:37
Speaker
That's amazing. Any other lines or should we move
Relationship Dynamics in Subplots
01:11:40
Speaker
on? Uh, you said that there will be no leftovers, which is probably the, yeah the, the tagline came from the trailer. um I have one more though, that I'm going I would rather talk about, which is it's at the very end and Bobby's getting put into an ambulance And he's saying goodbye to Jessica. And he says, tell Ryan he's a dick, even though he's not the killer. like his last That's Bobby Goldenarm's last line of the movie.
01:12:05
Speaker
Oh, I like that. And actually, if you'll allow me to, I'll use that as a transition into the first of what is a few dull knives. What? This movie has dull knives? So the movie starts with Jessica and Bobby being in a relationship.
01:12:19
Speaker
But after the... fright Mart or fight Mart spectacle and his broken wrist Bobby disappears. He's gone. He's out of Jessica's life. Their relationship comes to an end and she begins to date Ryan, who you find out through the film. Not a great guy. She's definitely not in love with him She's lonely. Bobby gets reintroduced into her life.
01:12:40
Speaker
They have to now work together. You can see that spark rekindling. There's a little worry when she thinks Bobby might be the killer. But when she finds out, no, in fact, he's not. It was Eric.
01:12:52
Speaker
He saves her life. They escape together. it gets to the very next scene and she wakes up in bed with a Ryan again after all this. I was like, what the fuck? Like clearly she doesn't like this guy. She also snitched on him to Patrick Dempsey earlier in the movie to be like, yeah, you got to look, you knew the security guard there. Like you got to check him out. You know what they say? Nice guys finished last man.
01:13:11
Speaker
Yeah. That just killed me. I was like, what happened to the Bobby Jessica romance here? Dole knives. What do you have? Very similar. This is also Jessica oriented. Um, what and I'm, I was trying to say this respectfully, uh, because it is sad to lose a parent, but what was the narrative reason for her, her having a dead mother?
Critique of Unnecessary Subplot
01:13:30
Speaker
Why, why did, is it because she can have a charm bracelet and then she puts that in the musket? She keeps going back to the locket. Yeah. And then she uses that to shoot at the end, I guess. Well, But like, so she uses her mom's locket to put in a musket and shoot. I don't just, it just felt very, ah I was kept waiting. I was like, oh, there's gotta be reason, gotta be reason. then she just, there's a closeup of putting the charm into the thing. And I was like, oh, that's. I think ever since signs where the dying mom's last words are like swing away.
01:14:00
Speaker
lot of directors have tried to use like a dead relative or parent. Some memento they leave you with is, is the pivotal thing that could save your life later in the film. Yeah, I So this is just a cheap inversion of it. Just yes didn't need... a Not a great tie-in. Yes.
01:14:16
Speaker
I agree. I
Realism in Film Portrayals
01:14:17
Speaker
have... um They're looking... The police, which was compromised in fairness, and maybe this is why it happens, because Patrick Dempsey's sheriff is the killer, but they have a manhunt for a serial killer dressing up as John Carver, and they cannot find this guy.
01:14:35
Speaker
Coincidentally, when they do find him, He was held up and hosting this dinner in John Carver's historical house in Plymouth, if you remember. That's where they end up discovering him. And it's just like, should have that been near the top of the list? Why did you let go there first? Like the John Carver household for the killer who's dressing up as John Carver. like I don't know. like i'm I'm not a detective. I don't know how it works. But that would have been one of the first places I would have checked.
01:15:02
Speaker
All right. Another one I had was I didn't think like the they were trying to be like usual suspects asked like, oh, I noticed this thing and I knew he was the killer with like the blades of grass. He has a ramble and like, yeah, and like little stickies on his like, couldn't have he just been pursuing John Carver himself? Like he's been chasing after this guy. like It was quite the mental leap that Jessica had to take to quickly connecting connecting him as the killer because of that. It's like she's a very unsure person. and But for that, she's like, oh, because he's he's got some bramble on him. Is it bramble? Am I saying this right?
01:15:40
Speaker
Bramble, yeah. I like that. um Do you have any more? My last one, but it's a fairly big one. Have you ever cooked a turkey before? Not myself. I've seen i've i've like helped my brother or helped my brother and my dad. and like I did some part. I put the grease in or something. I don't know. Are you generally aware if you bake it that typically you're setting your oven to around 350 degrees and depending on the size of the bird will dictate how long you have to cook it for until it's fully cooked? I'd assume the second part and now I know the first part.
01:16:12
Speaker
Okay. It takes a while. It takes a few hours. You need to get up to like 165 degrees typically is where it's healthy enough to eat. Okay. So my point is when Patrick Dubsey cooks Kathleen, if he's actually going to cook her to the point where he could cut off a piece of her shin and feed it his meat,
01:16:28
Speaker
This would have been like 10 hours of cooking her in that, even though it's a commercial oven. Was everyone just chilling and waiting for a full day? You don't think that if you put convection on, if you put convection setting, that's not going I don't know, man. Or broil. It is a broil. Okay, so hear me out. Say he does cook her long enough and thorough enough.
01:16:47
Speaker
How the hell did her clothes not burn off her body? like She's still just like dressed fully clothed. Very little burn damage. Yeah, there's a lot of problems there. How he cooked her, so... Yeah, it's hard to to cook a turkey to the perfect temp. And
Humor in Cannibalism Curiosity
01:17:03
Speaker
there I question how well cooked Kathleen really was when he served her.
01:17:07
Speaker
A little curious, a little curious how that cut tasted, to be honest. And I don't know, I'm hungry right now. but like All right, Arnie Hammer. Do you not have a little bit of curiosity about what a human flesh tastes like?
01:17:18
Speaker
I mean, i've I've chewed fingernails. Okay, that does not count. I'm talking about charred flesh meat from human. Okay, so you're curious how well-cooked human flesh sounds, which is even worse of a cannibalistic trait than for saying, like, no, I won't just eat any human flesh. Like, if it's well-prepared, that's what I'm curious I'm just saying – I always want to try something at least once. That's all I'm saying. Oh my God. Okay. All
Impact of Stylistic Choices in Horror
01:17:44
Speaker
right. Winners and losers. Winners and losers. All right. We only have a few here. Can I start? Yeah. love, a long time.
01:17:51
Speaker
a love a long Delay till the title drop 13 minutes for this one 13 minutes until you get that nice big bloody Thanksgiving so winter is um a delayed title drop for me yeah one of them I love it horror films again this is like can count on a horror a horror film to do that Yeah, I've come to expect. Cold open. Have a cold open and have a good point to put it at, which this film does it pretty well. I've seen better, but it's pretty dang good. Yeah.
01:18:21
Speaker
You know what? Actually, looking at my winners, none of these are worth spending much more time on. We talked about John Carver. We talked about the ah McCarty family ring. I thought that was pretty funny, but we've touched on a lot of these. Okay. i don't have to I have a few. I can do rapid fire here. Yeah.
Foreshadowing and Plot Devices
01:18:35
Speaker
right. Another, another winner. People without dicks who say suck my dick. So women saying suck my dick. Women, yes. Were you just teeing me up just so would that? No, wasn't. No, wasn't.
01:18:50
Speaker
ah No, Lizzie. Also, I'm going to air public grievance here. In our last episode, I had multiple pop culture references that you do not get. You miss. And you cut them all out to save you your embarrassment. But you happen to keep in when I pronounce women the way I've always pronounced it. And you can shame me over that. So that sounds super out of place where you're like, oh, I'm going to shame you for this. we're Lucky for you. own and I have given you absolute gold on this episode if you really want to shame me. So there you go. um All right. Yeah, was Lizzie who says suck my dick, which is just, again, mass holes in general. I think Eli brought this very well. There's this whole fuck Hanover thing, which is funny. um That was one of my losers. I'm jumping on it, but i Hanover. Big loser. the big loser Fuck Hanover. Fuck Hanover. Don't know where Hanover is. Can't point to the map, but fuck Hanover. No one likes them at all. yeah um
01:19:45
Speaker
Another winner, Waffle Irons. Like this movie maybe want like to crave not just waffles, but the the device that makes them. Those were the hot product for Black Friday. Like you think people are going to be going for the big screen TVs, right? of These really expensive appliances, but everyone's going for the, the marquee display right at the front of the store is the waffle irons. See, this is where I think Ilaroth is smart about mass holes. He's like, we're going to make them seem brash and rude, but they're also practical because a TV is going to break down in a few years. That waffle iron going to last a long time.
01:20:19
Speaker
Yes. um All right. I keep talking about this foreshadowing, so I'll just do it now. um A lot of foreshadowing. All right. So I mentioned the one earlier. So the winner here is foreshadowing, I guess, slash Chekhov's gun. In some case, specifically, actually a gun. um But one is where, you know, Patrick Dempsey is through his POV evil feeling and then we see him in the house. So yeah, we how people don't even assume he's the killer. I don't know. It's just great. um Another one is after Gina Gershon gets killed, Travis, um she ah he shoots his gun in the ceiling
01:21:00
Speaker
And then it goes all red and it says Thanksgiving. And it's like, oh, he is seeing red. He is angry. He is so hurt. And of course, so the cold open starts with him and ends with him. So again, more foreshadowing about him. um All right, this one has an asterisk to it because initially it's a winner, but then it's a loser later. And I'll just say both now.
01:21:23
Speaker
a year like A year passes and Patrick Dempsey says something to Jessica about Kathleen. He's like, hey. Oh, no, he says it to Kathleen herself. He says, I'm sure you'll make an excellent dinner, Kathleen. And I thought that was so smart.
01:21:37
Speaker
That's a great double entendre. It is, Travis. But then Roth ruins it or or his screenwriter ruins it later because when he is pursuing Jessica – He goes, I meant what I said about Kathleen, that she would make a good dinner. And I'm like, dude, you don't have to like dumb the audience down here. Like yeah already said this great line. Let us enjoy it the second time we watch it.
01:22:03
Speaker
So a little, that's, I just wish that didn't happen. um Oh, and then they set up that he knows how to cook. Remember when, when Gina Gershaw was like, Oh, a single cop who knows how to cook. You're not going to be single for long.
01:22:15
Speaker
um So there's that. All right. Chekhov's gun. It's an old ah terminology to be used in storytelling where like, if you see a gun, you're,
01:22:26
Speaker
in a frame, you probably gonna, you know, it's going to be used later. Or if you see some item and it focuses on it, there's a reason you're seeing that. Um, and it happens several times here. One is where they do a closeup of him hitting the grass or at like his feet. Oh, okay.
01:22:44
Speaker
So that's how he gets discovered. You're saying the bramble. But the most obvious one is like Jessica is talking to one of her friends. She's like, yeah, you know, my mom used to teach me how to, you know, pack a musket and I know how to do it. I do it over and over yeah and over again. It's just like, okay, why did you just tell us that? Clearly a musket's going to be involved. Yeah. ah So yeah, just some, some, some fun foreshadowing, some dumb foreshadowing, but still like that. He's, they're making an effort to like make you think about something. Yeah.
01:23:12
Speaker
um All right, since you don't have any, I'm going to keep, I'm going to try to go quickly. I'll just say my favorite one. A winner for me, kicking people out of a party or not even letting them in a party for not knowing who Black Sabbath is. i agree with this. If you don't know who Black Sabbath is, you're not you're not fucking coming to my party. I'm sorry. Well, it's pretty funny because he chose to host a party really for underage kids, but they have to be cool, edgy underage kids to know who Black Sabbath is. He's very picky. He's an entrepreneur, but he has taste as well. God, cool. We haven't even mentioned, talk about Packet Musket, at one point in the film, McCarty just fires a blunderbuss up the back of his vehicle. Oh, yeah. like What a great character. Yeah, McCarty, dude, he's cool. I would hang out with McCarty. John Carver feeding the cat after he kills Tim Dillon. Yeah, gotta to respect the animals. Yeah, I often wonder in horror films what happens to the pets when people get killed. It's like nice that he's gonna be fed for a bit longer until the cops get there. um
01:24:10
Speaker
Another Tim Dillon one, cursing while trying to find something the way he curses while he's looking for his passport is exactly what i sound like he even uses some of the same curses he's like fuck fuck fuck god's fucking damn it jesus fucking christ fuck um that is so me i'm just talking to myself like fuck i'm looking everywhere so that's a winner for me what do you do when you lose something trav do you just like silently sleuth it out or what Now, you is it a St. Anthony you pray to to? the saint of helping you find lost things? I say Jesus fucking Christ and then you pray to St. Anthony. I do say Jesus Christ as well, just in a different manner.
01:24:49
Speaker
Very different approaches. um a loser? Posters of yourself. There's two characters here who have posters of themselves in their room. One of them is observers yes a poster.
Self-Promotion in Film Characters
01:25:04
Speaker
One of them is yeah one of them McCarty, and it's him with glasses, and its it looks like a movie poster, and it looks all cool, and the title of this movie is Death Neal. Like, Neal the name, like Death Neal.
01:25:18
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's like thats interesting interesting. And then Yulia has one. Yulia has a huge poster of herself in her room. And it's all like graphically done like a comic book and stuff.
01:25:29
Speaker
um Last loser here parking by a by a pillar or a wall or something that almost got Jessica killed. they The pickup truck, his his his tow truck, they're trying to escape John Carver at the end. He's parked so close to a pillar in that warehouse, she cannot get in the passenger seat, has to jump into the back of the pickup. That's why she's back there stuffing that musket.
01:25:51
Speaker
Interesting. Yeah. You don't have space to open the doors. That's what I'm saying, man. Good catch. Good catch. All right. Well, we're here. We're to our Scream King, Scream Queen.
01:26:03
Speaker
Who do you have for this film? I have my girl Nell Verlack, dude. I just... yeah I thought she was great. She's so believable. Good last girl, her final girl. She's she's beautiful, but she's not like um distractingly gorgeous. you know like If you cast somebody who's like alien or just like above and beyond beautiful, you're like, well, I'm just thinking about that. Yeah.
01:26:26
Speaker
She's just, she's she's pretty, but she's a good actor and she's strong and she's scared and she's he's uncertain. And then she gets, i don't know. I just, I liked her vibe. I don't want to say i like that. You know, she has one of those faces where I could have sworn I've seen her in movies before. She looks like Hollywood material. And then you look up her filmography and she hasn't been in anything really other than.
01:26:45
Speaker
other than this and so uh hopefully we can get more of her at the very least maybe in a sequel i like that i like again this is probably my high point for eli ross yeah career thus far at least when it comes to horror but i think his overall filmography like you know wasn't too crazy about the borderlands movie so like this might be i'm good on that So yeah, the last news that got picked up by like a legit trade, in this case it was Deadline,
01:27:15
Speaker
ah They were out of some red carpet. Oh, yeah. The premiere of Prime Videos overcompensating, which Nell is in. And she just this was May 2025. She told Deadline that, quote, she's really excited to get into production on the sequel to 2023 Thanksgiving, which she, quote, hopes to film after completing production of her upcoming MGM Plus series, American Classic. She said, I think we'll be filming in this year.
01:27:43
Speaker
I actually just saw Eli and we're talking about some plot points. So I'm really excited for it. So he announced a sequel a few weeks after the premiere of the original in 2023. But ah as you said earlier, nothing official and...
01:27:59
Speaker
you know, just shit like this happens to Hollywood all the time. People have a good idea. he they can also said he was going to make the original Thanksgiving, like right after the 2007 grindhouse film. Oh, really? trailer So it took him 16 years to actually deliver on that, which is why i wouldn't hold my breath for the sequel.
01:28:15
Speaker
Damn. Well, hopefully Patrick Dempsey is still walking by then. The guy's getting old.
01:28:23
Speaker
uh mcsteamy no mcdreamy dreamy my god i got the reference wrong well dreamy steamy works too i like that uh mcsteamy was another character on crazy anatomy it was a different doctor really there's two my yes yeah okay oh yeah anyways thank you guys um for listening to this week's episode i think we already said at the top but follow us on socials especially now because we will you will be soliciting your input for our spooky awards subscribe to our podcast if you haven't already we're taking the week of thanksgiving off and then we'll be coming back with our last new release of the year five nights at freddy's two neither of us have seen the first film yet so we got watch that beforehand as well or you did see the first I told you I went to the theater and it was like pandemonium. That's right. I have not seen the first film yet.
01:29:13
Speaker
I got some catching crazy. got some catching up. You do. it's They're definitely movies. I'll tell you that. They're definitely movies. Enjoy your Thanksgiving. And remember, for this year, there will be leftovers.
01:29:25
Speaker
Bye.
01:29:40
Speaker
You have to cut this part out. I'm just telling you as a friend right now. Okay. No, you've eaten someone. No, God. No. no