Writer/director Erick Lorinc’s low-budget horror indie The Last Thanksgiving delivers big time on the practical effects gore and gags, but falls a bit short on its humor and social commentary goals. Set on the titular holiday, the story sees a group of restaurant employees made to work on Thanksgiving attacked by a cannibal family.
The reason for the invasion and violence has to do with the family’s history — I’ll leave out details here so as to avoid spoilers — but their focus of attacks is on those who disrespect the holiday, in their viewpoint, by working on the holiday. The set-up is there for the aforementioned social commentary, but the delivery falls a bit flat with jokes about indigineous peoples — delivered by the villains, who are corrected at one point by an understandably upset near-meal protagonist — and the other attempts at comedy don’t land much better. The acting ranges from good to scenery chewing to a bit on the corny side, with the cast members giving it their all in each of those variations and shades in between.
Lorinc’s affection for fear-fare cinema is clear, and there are plentiful nods to the work of John Carpenter and others on display. The practical effects work and kills are impressive, and certainly plentiful enough to satisfy gorehounds, including a unique way to use a whisk. The Last Thanksgiving is recommended for those in the mood for copious bloodshed and for holiday-themed slasher movie fans.
The Last Thanksgiving screens as part of the Another Hole in the Head Film Festival, which runs online from December 11–27, 2020. For more information about the festival, visit https://www.ahith.com/.
