MacabreDaily's Turkey Day Watches: Horror Carved Up

Thanksgiving, a time when we get together with our family and friends, eat way too much food, share awkward small talk with that cousin you haven’t seen in 5 years, and in our case (and hopefully yours too) watch horror movies. The holiday horror genre has come a long way over the years, pretty much adapting any holiday you can think of into a film; but today we’re talking about cannibalistic pilgrims, killer turkeys, and infected shoppers. Here’s a couple films that will really spice up Thanksgiving dinner with the family.

ThanksKilling (2009)

College kids on Thanksgiving break, and a homicidal axe-wielding turkey, ironically named “Turkie,” that’s on a killing spree... what could go wrong? Directed by Jordan Downey, ‘ThanksKilling’ is the perfect amount of black comedy and shlocky B-grade horror that makes you ask yourself “What the hell did I just watch?” With a budget of only $3,500, ThanksKilling has become somewhat of a cult classic and also received a sequel ‘ThanksKilling 3’ which was released later in 2012 and was marketed as “the first film to skip its own sequel.”

Alien Abduction: Incident In Lake County (1998)

Tommy McPherson (Kristian Ayre) is making a home video of his family’s Thanksgiving dinner when the power suddenly blacks out. As Tommy and his two brothers go outside to investigate, they notice an unusual, large object in the field nearby. They watch from a distance as two extraterrestrial beings emerge from the object… I’ll leave you with that, no spoilers here. ‘Alien Abduction: Incident In Lake County’ was written and directed by Dean Alioto. Originally aired on UPN (United Paramount Network), it is actually a remake of the 1989 version which was also directed by Alioto and titled ‘UFO Abduction’ (The McPherson Tape). Just goes to show you that anything can happen on Thanksgiving even alien abductions.

Black Friday (2021)

So although this one isn’t technically a Thanksgiving film, it’s still something we generally associate with the holiday. What’s more gratifying than waking up at four in the morning to head to your local mall and shop with hundreds of other people for the best deals? Parasitic infected shoppers, that’s what. ‘Black Friday’ follows the workers of We Love Toys as they prepare for their late-night holiday shift. They soon enough come to realize that the already insane mall-goers have been infected by some sort of parasitic organism and have become rabid monstrous creatures. Directed by Casey Tebo and written by Andy Greskoviak, Black Friday embellishes the hectic retail holiday with plenty of gore and laughs to go along.

Blood Rage (1987)

You just can’t go wrong with 80’s horror, there’s nothing like it. Don’t get me wrong though, sometimes they succumb to the niche in a way that it gets forgotten along with the other tons of slasher films, but ‘Blood Rage’ gave us something a little different. Directed by John Grissmer, two identical twin brothers Todd and Terry are at the drive-in theater when Terry sees his mother kissing her date.

A fit of rage begins building inside him, possibly triggered by seeing his mother being so coy, Terry takes a hatchet and murders an innocent couple in the back seat of their car. He then smears blood on Todd and gives him the hatchet, remember when I mentioned they were identical twins? 10 years later on Thanksgiving day, Todd comes back for vengeance after being framed for Terry’s murders. A classic tale of “Who did it?” Well, we know who, but you get what I’m saying.

The Last Thanksgiving (2020)

Directed and written by Erick Lorinc, ‘The Last Thanksgiving’ is every server’s worst nightmare: working on Thanksgiving. Oh, and also cannibalistic pilgrims. Unfortunately, since this film came out during the COVID-19 pandemic, it didn’t receive a proper release. It premiered online at the Pasadena Horror Film Festival, Salem Horror Fest, and the American Horror Film Festival, and was then released on Blu-ray and VHS in November of 2020. The film’s premise is about a hoard of cannibalistic pilgrims who go to a restaurant that is open on Thanksgiving, and when the workers fight back, anarchy ensues.

Into the Dark: Pilgrim (2019)

‘Pilgrim’ aired in November of 2019 as a part of Hulu’s anthology horror TV series ‘Into the Dark’ and has become a staple Thanksgiving film that I watch every year. Anna Baker, played by Courtney Henggeler, wants to host an authentic first Thanksgiving for her family and friends, but she really wants to make it special. She hires pilgrim re-enactors, Patience and Ethan, to produce the perfect Thanksgiving and to help teach her kids about what the holiday is all about, gratitude.

The family soon realizes that something is off about Patience and Ethan when they don’t break character and ultimately “move in” with the family due to circumstances out of their control, and slowly becoming more odd by the day. Without spoiling too much, Pilgrim embodies Thanksgiving horror to the fullest extent. The acting, the score, the theming, the blood; exceptional.

Stay up to date with “The Dark Side Of Pop Culture” by following MacabreDaily on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.