The Mosley Review: Thanksgiving

Back in 2007, two legendary directors came together to create a wonderful horror double feature called Grindhouse. It was a fun tribute to the classic 1970's horror exploitation films that had wild concepts and insane amounts of gore. In between those films, there were fake trailers that were just as amazing and one in particular was the second highest on my list of concepts that I wanted to be made into a feature film. Now that day has come and it didn't disappoint. This film truly took the idea of the trailer and carved out its own spot in lexicon of the slasher genre. I can't tell you how much fun the opening scene was and as a former retail worker, it was almost everything I experienced and a dream/nightmare scenario that was gloriously created. The rest of the film follows the classic small town horror tropes that I haven't seen done in while with such reverence. The dialogue was actually smart and well written as the characters deliver the slick jabs at the situation and commentary on modern societies glorification of shopping on a holiday and how vicious they get.

Nell Verlaque was excellent as the lead Jessica Wright and I liked her strength. She exudes that classic final girl formula confidence mixed with the right amount of fear and dread as everyone around her starts dying in creative and horrible ways. Rick Hoffman is always a joy to see on screen and as Jessica's father, Thomas, he portrayed the greedy corporate retail business owner perfectly. He just really knows how to play a scumbag that you want to see get hurt. Patrick Dempsey is always fun and as Sheriff Eric Newlon, he was great and charismatic. Tomaso Sanelli nearly stole every scene with his energetic and adrenaline fused performance as Evan. Addison Rae was good as Evan's girlfriend, but didn't really have much to do. Gabriel Davenport was awesome as his friend and fellow football team mate, Scuba. Jenna Warren as Yulia, Suba's girlfriend, was fun and she has one of the best scenes in the film that solidifies how much fun the director is having. Adam MacDonald provided the voice of The Carver and it was a straight up tribute to Scream. I loved his sadist joy and veracity when it came to the kills and torture scenes.

The score by Brandon Roberts was serviceable, but it was a missed opportunity for the film or even the main villain to have a dedicated theme. That being said, I truly think it was a missed opportunity for the film to stay true to the original fake style trailer's style. I understand that it may be too niche for today's audience, but it would’ve had that extra charm to it. Also, the original trampoline scene returned but with the new "cuts" and I wish it had the same ending. I also thought the ending was a little lame. The amount of foreshadowing was wonderfully done in the dialogue, but I didn't feel like there was enough of the "cat and mouse" chase in the last act of the film. Overall, I still had a delightful time with this throwback to the classic style of slasher films. Like I said before, the opening scene is worth the price of admission alone. Let me know what you thought of the film or my review in comments below. Thanks for reading!