ThanksKilling Review

To be honest, I don't know how to even write an intro to this movie. So I'm going to cut to the chase and say "I've got a real good movie here for you to watch", and this movie is called ThanksKilling. Now to be fair, I don't know many movies that are about a cursed Thanksgiving turkey out on a killing spree. In fact, I don't know any movie at all like that. So the idea is unique and it makes you wonder how can someone make a movie about a killer turkey.

ThanksKilling is directed and written by a man named Jordan Downey. Jordan's other films are shorts called Craw Lake, Suck, and The Cannibal Ad. The cast for the film include Lindsey Anderson, Natasha Cordova, Ryan Francis, Lance Predmore, and Aaron Ringhiser-Carlson.

Plot Synopsis

ThanksKilling is about a group of college students who decide to go out and spend their Thanksgiving break partying. When their vehicle breaks down in the middle of the woods, they decide to camp out for the night and have their party there. While setting up camp, Darren discovers a town sign that causes him to tell the legend of "ThanksKilling" to the group. Spooked at first, the group refuses to believe the tale... until strange occurrences begin to happen....

First Impression

My first impression begins with the cover art of the movie. I would of uploaded a photo of it but it's almost impossible since every cover art I could find had a big ol F-bomb written across it. That's why at the top I decided to use the opening title card for the movie. Anyways, the cover art shows the turkey with a weapon in it's hand. The turkey smirks at you while the title ThanksKilling is written underneath it. So my first instinct was I need to watch this movie, there's no possible way it was going to let me down. But geez, things start getting out of control as soon as you press play.

Review

So the first thing I want to talk about is boobs. Why boobs? After the opening credits, the first scene... in fact the very first second of the movie itself, we are greeted with a big pair of boobs. It's common to see nudity in horror films, but I guess the director wanted to grab the audience's attention immediately by opening the movie with a close-up shot of boobs. Soon after that we find out that the woman is being chased by the turkey. As she is being chased, the woman trips on the ground and the turkey catches up to her. Then... we see that the turkey can talk! And it isn't done in a CGI kind of way, the turkey is actually a puppet, and it's clear that someone is opening and closing their hand while they talk. But the turkey has a sense of humor, complimenting the woman's breasts before killing her.

All of this is only in the first 2 minutes of the film, so it should set you up on an example of what's to come. After the opening, we're introduced to our main characters of the movie. All five of the characters are portrayed in a stereotypical way, such as Darren the nerd.

The group is out of college for Thanksgiving, so they decide to celebrate by going out and partying. I have never heard of going out to party for Thanksgiving break, but from where they're from I guess it's a popular thing to do. Along the way, their vehicle breaks down so they decide to camp out for the night and have their party there. Darren discovers a town sign that causes him to freak out, and since no one else in the group knows about the location of where they're at, Darren tells them of the legend known as "Thankskilling". The group gets spooked out from the story, but they refuse to believe it. The turkey is awakened when a dog by the name of Lassie wonders by a totem sticking out of the ground and urinates on it. After that, the wrath of the turkey begins...

Now, apparently the turkey can pass off as a serious being. There's a couple of scenes where he fools the group into thinking he's a human being by wearing a disguise. Actually he doesn't even need a disguise, check out this shot where the turkey is hitchhiking and is picked up by a random car.

Even a friend of mine who was watching with a group of us shouted, "WHO IN THE WORLD WOULD PICK UP A RANDOM TURKEY ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD?". Apparently this person does.

The comedy is just hysterical in this movie. It's not just the jokes either, some of the things the turkey does, even just the scenes themselves will have you laughing. I'd tell you some of the scenes but I think the movie is worth it just to watch them. In fact, I'm gonna stop talking about movie all together. This movie is one of those "you have to see for yourself" kind of things.

Visuals/Effects/Audio

I decided to combine the visual and audio into one section since there wasn't a whole lot to say about the audio.

I shouldn't even have to emphasize about how much the movie looks and feels like a B-Movie. You can tell that the movie had an extremely low-budget cost, in fact the website of ThanksKilling proudly states, "The Ultimate Low Budget Experience". But even with a low budget, the movie has some pretty good gore effects. Not to mention that there are a lot of unique deaths in the film, and a few of them will even give you a chuckle.

There's not much to say about the audio in this movie. The sound effects of blood and gore are what you would expect. The opening and close theme music were nice but seemed a little too dramatic for this movie. Occasionally you'll hear a couple of rock songs through out the movie.

Final Thoughts

This movie so bad that it's worth watching for the laughs. From the bad voice acting to.... actually forget it, the whole movie will have you laughing from start to finish. If you ever get the chance, I would suggest watching it. Get some friends, get some snacks, sit back, relax, and enjoy the murderous tale of ThanksKilling. Gobble, gobble, everyone.