Directed by Eli Roth, “Thanksgiving” starts off strong, combining elements of a parody into the slasher genre but fails to continue this theme, missing the mark for a slasher based around the Thanksgiving holiday.

The premise of the film began as a fake trailer by Eli Roth featured in Robert Rodriguez’s and Quentin Tarantino’s “Grindhouse,” potentially starting the film along the path as a fun fan favorite.

“Thanksgiving” may sound like an odd title for a slasher film, a genre usually relegated to Halloween, but this change fits into the DNA of the film, as it initially toes the line of parody.

The parody aspect is definitely evident from the start of the film, where the inciting incident features hilariously executed deaths that are unnecessarily over the top. This, along with the premise that there is a killer at large that exclusively themes killings around the titular holiday, makes for a fun experience despite the gore.

While “Thanksgiving” is not afraid to have fun, it does not falter as a slasher. The kills are gruesome and over the top, with many characters designed specifically for the viewer to be comfortable with watching them die.

It does not shy away from excess blood, with a lot of the absurdity coming from just how much blood the film portrays coming from the victims with blatant disregard for reality. Beyond gore, Roth is not afraid to incite disgust, in some peculiar holiday themed means.

Unfortunately, after the opening of the film is over, it slowly plays the slasher genre more and more traditionally. The unique death scenes and pacing of the film remains enjoyable for slasher fans for most of the film, but it fails to deliver the same level of amusement seen at the start of the movie.

While it does not ruin the film, it definitely proves disappointing, as there was a lot of potential in the initial theme of the film. Even the killer is not particularly hard to decipher, which could have been a clever way for the film to have fun with the genre; instead, it became just a predictable, so that by the time the reveal was made, it was already incredibly clear.

The third act struggled incredibly, not just because of its predictableness or lack of fun that the film had at the beginning, but because it loses the core messaging in which it started.

The way in which the opening of the film tackles the lack of attention the Thanksgiving holiday gets due to Black Friday is a clever one, especially when the film itself is literally carving out a piece of the slasher genre usually relegated to Halloween.

In the end, “Thanksgiving” succeeds in showing the promise of an interesting approach to one of the more forgetful holidays, but eventually loses sight of the very thing that made it unique.