At long last, Eli Roth's Thanksgiving is actually happening. It was all the way back in 2008 that Roth's idea for a Turkey Day-centric slasher film was previewed as a fake trailer in Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse, and 15 years later, the movie is now just months away from hitting theaters. It's been a long journey for the project to get to this point, and it looks like the stars and filmmakers, including Addison Rae, are having a whole lot of fun together making it.
Rae, who made her feature acting debut in 2021 with the romantic comedy He's All That, has posted photos and a video on Instagram of some off-set fun she has been having with Eli Roth and co-stars Milo Manheim, Tomaso Sanelli, Nell Verlaque, and Patrick Dempsey. You can check out her post below, which went up with the caption, "Let dolls be dolls please."
Nell Verlaque also posted her own photos from the night on her Instagram, including a closer shot of everyone together at the dinner table:
It was all the way back in 2010 when Eli Roth and co-writer Jeff Rendell first started getting serious about making a real feature based on their fake Thanksgiving trailer, and though it took nearly a decade-and-a-half to get cameras rolling, principal photography began last month in Ontario, Canada. It was just shortly before the start of production that Addison Rae was added to the cast (Patrick Dempsey had already been attached at that point). In addition to Rae, Dempsey, Milo Manheim, Tomaso Sanelli, and Nell Verlaque, the gory slasher film will also star Jalen Thomas Brooks, Tim Dillon, Rick Hoffman and Gina Gershon.
Thanksgiving will be the second fake trailer from Grindhouse that actually ended up being produced as a real movie – the first being Robert Rodriguez's Machete (which even spawned a sequel: Machete Kills). Fans will remember that the other previews "attached" to the Robert Rodriguez-Quentin Tarantino double feature were Edgar Wright's Don't and Rob Zombie's Werewolf Women Of The S.S.
A loving parody of horror-centric holiday movies from the 1970s and 1980s like Halloween, April Fools Day, My Bloody Valentine and Black Christmas, Thanksgiving is set in the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts and will see a celebration of the titular holiday turn into a nightmare as a killer dressed as a pilgrim starts kidnapping and butchering people.
Our Thanksgiving Quick Things guide has all of the info you need about the film, which is presently set with a perfect release date: November 17. Expect a trailer to drop in the coming months (it will be fascinating to see how it compares to the version from Grindhouse), and stay tuned for more updates about the project. To learn about all of the other films set to come out in the months ahead, head over to our 2023 Movie Release Calendar, and if you're specifically interested in only scary stuff, our Upcoming Horror Movies feature has you covered.
