Thanksgiving review: Eli Roth serves up gleefully gruesome holiday terror treat

Thanksgiving: Nell Verlaque just got word that a sequel is in the works.

Thanksgiving (R21)

Starring Patrick Dempsey, Nell Verlaque, Rich Hoffman, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Milo Manheim

Directed by Eli Roth

Move aside, Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees: there’s a new boogeyman on the chopping block! Eli Roth finally turns his fake trailer made 17 years ago for Quentin Tarantino-Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse double bill into a full-fledged feature, a satirical swipe at consumerism wrapped up as a retro slasher. The town of Plymouth, Massachusetts — the birthplace of the roast turkey-eating holiday — is in the grip of fear as an axe-wielding slayer dressed as a 17th century pilgrim goes around picking off its residents. The victims aren’t random; they’re all tied to a Black Friday mishap (ugh — the awful things people will do for waffle makers). The kills are gruesome (some reworked from the original teaser) but the real treat is the suspenseful lead-up to the gory doom. Solid unwholesome fun, that is if you have the stomach for it. (3/5 stars) in cinemas now

Photos: Sony Pictures Entertainment

The Mill: Lil Rel Howery is a big believer in the Conan the Barbarian workout routine. 

The Mill (NC16)

Starring Lil Rel Howery, Pat Healy, Karen Obilom

Directed by Sean King O’Grady

The Mill is what happens when your KPI appraisal exercise is reimagined as a Squid Game-meets-Severance psychological thriller. Get Out’s Howery plays a MNC exec who wakes up in an open-air prison cell next to an old grist mill. To, er, get out, he must push the mill (think the Wheel of Pain in Conan the Barbarian) and meet the daily quota of revolutions set by a faceless master; failure to comply will have deadly consequences. The set-up is intriguing but when the whereabouts of this corporate purgatory and its objectives are revealed, the Black Mirror-ish pay-off is somewhat underwhelming. (2.5/5 stars) On Disney+

Photo: Hulu/Disney+