Thanksgiving | 2023 | R | – 4.10.10

Why is “Thanksgiving” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “strong bloody horror violence and gore, pervasive language and some sexual material.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes some partial nudity, a couple of kissing scenes, an ultrasound image of a fetus, numerous scenes of people being murdered in gruesome ways with heads and body parts being cut off, bodies being dismembered, roasted and stabbed with a lot of blood and gore shown, many arguments, a lot of yelling and screaming, and nearly 100 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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When a superstore’s Thanksgiving super sale becomes the scene of carnage in Plymouth, Massachusetts, a killing spree ensues that involves some of the survivors of the tragedy, who then become the targets of a masked killer. With Patrick Dempsey, Ty Olsson, Gina Gershon, Lynne Griffin, Karen Cliche, Nell Verlaque, Rick Hoffman, Jalen Thomas Brooks and Tomaso Sanelli. Directed by Eli Roth. [Running Time: 1:46]

Thanksgiving SEX/NUDITY 4

 – A teen girl invites a teen boy to follow her into a darkened area, where she bounces on a trampoline and as her skirt flips up to reveal her bare buttocks, she removes her underwear and it is implied that she is trying to seduce him (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A teen boy and a teen girl lie in bed sleeping together and the girl wears a camisole top that reveals cleavage (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). Women wear low-cut tops and dresses that reveal cleavage in several scenes. Teens wear cropped tops that reveal bare abdomens in a couple of scenes. A teen boy raises his shirt to wipe his face and we see his bare chest and abdomen.
► A teen boy and a teen girl kiss in a couple of scenes, and a man and a woman kiss in a few scenes. A teen boy tries to flirt with a teen girl until her boyfriend interrupts him.
► We see an ultrasound image of a fetus and it is implied that a woman who died was pregnant.

Thanksgiving VIOLENCE/GORE 10

 – A woman who’s alone in a diner is slammed against a wall, slashed on the hand with an ax, dunked in a tub of water and pressed against a deep freezer door; she pulls herself free from the door as the attacker swings the ax toward her again (the flesh from her face and fingers is pulled away when it sticks to the frozen metal door) and she runs outside where she is chased by a car, she jumps into a dumpster and is cut in half when the car slams into the dumpster (we see the lower half of her body severed at the waist and intestines and blood are shown); the lower part of her body is shown perched on a store’s sign later with blood and intestines still evident and the upper part of the woman’s body and head are seen positioned at a dining table.
► Many people gather outside a store and push against barriers as security try to contain them: they yell and push until the barriers topple, a glass windowpane shatters crushing a security guard inside the store (we see him flinching on the floor with blood on his face as he dies) and a man pushing through the broken glass is cut around the throat by a shard (we see blood spurt from the wound as he falls to the floor dead); a woman is pushed and falls spilling food on the floor that causes another person to slip and fall on his back, two people slam shopping carts together pinning a woman’s head between them and her hair gets wrapped around a wheel pulling both the hair and a part of her scalp off as the cart is wheeled away (we see her bloody nose, the bloody scalp piece and the resulting head wound), people fight with punches and shoving and a teen boy’s hand is stepped on cracking it unnaturally as he screams in pain (a sheriff shoots his gun into the ceiling trying to stop the commotion and we see a video of this event played several times throughout the movie).
► An unconscious woman is laid out on a table and is arranged as if she were a turkey being prepared for roasting (basted, sprinkled with seasonings and adorned with parsley); the woman runs away when the attacker leaves the room and she is struck with a pitchfork in the back before being placed in a large oven with a doneness spike poking in her chest and screams as the temperature rises and her flesh sizzles (we see her roasted later with her skin charred and her eyes milky in color) and she is posed like a turkey with her legs and arms folded in and her head cut off; she’s then placed on a table where others are bound and gagged and the attacker slices a piece of meat from her thigh (one man seated at the table vomits and we see goo). A man sees a mask on his sofa and arms himself with a baseball bat as he searches through his apartment; he is stabbed in the abdomen with an electric carving knife and blood spurts as it runs, he is beheaded when a cord is wrapped around his neck (blood gushes from both wounds and his head and body flop to the floor as the knife, still in his abdomen, continues to run) and the head is placed in a bag and we later see it placed on a serving plate on a table. A teen boy’s head is slammed onto a table and struck a few times with a meat mallet and we see his head shatter and blood and brains are shown in a puddle on the table, as other people scream.
► A teen girl bounces on a trampoline as a teen boy watches her (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details), someone twists the teen boy’s head and snaps his neck (we see his neck twisted and it remains twisted and he has blood running from his nose and mouth) killing him; the teen girl remains unaware, until a knife is pressed up through the trampoline as she bounces on it, slashing her foot and ankle and when she falls she is stabbed repeatedly and lies in puddles of blood.
► A teen girl hears a noise in a hallway and calls for her father who startles her when he comes out of another room; the teen is stabbed in the ears with corn holders (we see blood), grabbed by the hair when she tries to crawl away, held by an attacker with a knife to her throat as a teen boy holds a gun on the attacker, and she is pushed forward onto a spinning table saw blade that cuts her fingers off, wraps her hair around the blade, and pulls her onto the table cutting her abdomen open (we see the open wound with a lot of blood gushing and her intestines pouring out) as two other teens watch and scream. A person wearing a turkey costume in a parade is beheaded by a person wearing a clown costume and swinging an ax (we see the person’s head separate and flop to the ground inside the turkey head, with blood and matter visible).
► A parade float crashes into a truck and a long pointed part of the display crashes through the glass and through the driver’s head (we see his face torn open and blood sprays on two young girls seated next to him in the vehicle as they scream). Two men are stabbed, one in the back and one in the chest, and they lie dead on the floor with blood pooling around them. A woman finds a teen girl in a refrigerator covered with a plastic bag (she seems to be bleeding and unable to get out of the refrigerator). A man pokes a dead teen girl in the neck with a corkscrew and drains blood into a wine glass.
► A teen girl is trapped in a room and threatened until the glass in the room is shattered and the person threatening her is knocked down, gets up and chases the girl as she runs away. A teen boy and a teen girl break out of their bonds and use a piece of a chair to hit a killer as they run away; the teen boy fights with the killer as the killer swings an ax at him slashing him on the arm (we see a bloody gash) and the girl climbs over a fence and narrowly escapes. A teen girl searches for another teen girl and finds the girl’s phone in a hamper and when she picks it up she sees the reflection of someone raising an ax over her head; the girl dodges the blow, runs away and the attacker chases her, she hides among many mannequin heads on a table and the attacker swings the ax hitting the table several times as she tries not to scream; she makes a noise and as the attacker lunges for her, she sprays the attacker with hairspray and runs away. A man is shot in the back with a tranquilizer dart and falls to the floor; a few other people are also tranquilized and we see them bound and gagged later. A parade entertainer walking on stilts is struck by a truck and falls onto the hood of the vehicle before rolling onto the ground. We hear gunfire inside a warehouse and a man exits with blood on his face saying that he thinks he hit someone. A large parade balloon is inflated and shot causing it to explode and consume a person in flames (we hear screaming).
► A teen girl has a nightmare that someone engulfed in flames grabs her and pulls her into a closet. A teen girl sees someone wearing a mask standing outside a diner and watching her and when she looks back, nobody’s there. Images of several of the murders are flashed on the screen during the end credits. Two teen boys shove each other and yell as other teens intervene and separate them. A teen boy and a teen girl walk through a darkened hallway in a school and someone jumps out in front of them as we hear the girl scream.
► A teen boy threatens another teen boy saying, “I would knock your teeth out.” A teen boy talks about getting into a fight with another teen boy and punching him in the face. A teen boy says, “I’m gonna kill him.” A man says that his boss told him that either he goes to work on a holiday or he’s fired. While at a gym, a teen boy yells at other teens urging them to work out harder and lift more weights. A teen girl says that a teen boy “ghosted” her.
► A man shows a teen boy a variety of guns and the teen leaves with one to use against a killer, and the man offers a teen girl a small knife that she declines. A teen boy vomits after drinking too much (we see goo). We see an ultrasound image of a fetus and it is implied that a woman that died was pregnant. A sheriff arrives at a house asking for the whereabouts of a headless suspect (a turkey). A man driving a car cuts off another man in a car and they curse each other. An historic landmark is shown after being vandalized and furniture is broken, and we hear that an ax has been stolen.

Thanksgiving LANGUAGE 10

 – At least 95 F-words and its derivatives, 3 obscene hand gestures, 2 sexual references, 20 scatological terms, 10 anatomical terms, 11 mild obscenities (possible additional terms in song lyrics), name-calling (morons, insane, creep, the man, braniac, dogs, virgins, dumb, psycho, freaking lunatic, scooba, greedy, Scooby snacks, idiot, loser, stupid, disaster, NPC, harmless, boring), exclamations (you’re toast, jeez), 7 religious profanities (GD and possibly more in song lyrics), 15 religious exclamations (Jesus Christ, God, Christ, Jesus, Jesus [F-word deleted] Christ, thank God, oh God). | profanity glossary |

Thanksgiving SUBSTANCE USE

 – A teen boy takes a pill and offers one to another teen (possibly Adderall) who declines. People drink glasses of wine at a dinner, a teen talks about selling liquor to teens being a recession-proof business, and several teens are seen passed out in a house (presumably after drinking too much liquor). A man smokes a cigarette outside a house.

Thanksgiving DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Murder, mass consumption, plagiarism, cheating, heartbreak, ambition, jealousy.

Thanksgiving MESSAGE

 – Greedy consumerism kills.