Get ready for a spooky holiday season with these horror movies perfect for Thanksgiving! This video dives into the realm of slasher movie madness and ranks the best of the best in a horror movies tier list. Check out these scary movies and get your fill of Thanksgiving horror this holiday season!
Watch below or at YouTube. Video by @AVAPopCulture:Hey everybody, it’s Chase with AV Pop Culture, and yeah… Halloween may be in the rear-view mirror now, but around here? Horror never actually leaves. It just curls up for a short seasonal nap. So it’s officially time to swap out pumpkins and haunted houses for something far more chaotic:
Thanksgiving horror.
Now, sure — it’s not as stacked as Halloween horror or even Christmas horror, but trust me, there is plenty of grimy, twisted quality stuffed inside this tiny subgenre. So today, we’re carving into the 10 best Thanksgiving horror movies ever made. From murderous pilgrims to homicidal dads to Black Friday wipeouts, we’re digging into all the madness.
Pop that tape in. Let’s do this.
10. Pilgrim (2019)
Blumhouse took a big swing with this one — and it’s Thanksgiving horror done right.
A suburban mom hires a group of “authentic” colonial reenactors for a historically accurate feast… but these people take authenticity to homicidal extremes.
Fake smiles, creeping tension, family dysfunction, and a dinner table you absolutely do NOT want to sit at. If you’ve ever had an awkward Thanksgiving go off the rails, Pilgrim shows you just how lucky you really were.
9. Chopping Mall (1986)
Okay, okay — technically this isn’t a Thanksgiving movie. BUT it’s 100% a Black Friday movie in spirit, and that counts in my book.
Teenagers trapped in a mall + rogue Johnny-5-looking murder robots = the purest post-turkey B-movie fun imaginable.
Exploding heads, neon lights, food courts, Kelly Maroney, Barbara Crampton — the full 80s buffet. When killbots chirp “Thank you, have a nice day” after vaporizing somebody, that is Thanksgiving retail energy.
8. Thankskilling (2008)
A talking, murderous turkey stalks college kids over break. That’s the movie.
It’s vulgar. It’s stupid. It’s perfect. A foul-mouthed puppet bird, terrible puns, “gobble gobble, motherfucker,” and pure Troma-style chaos.
Best watched with friends, drinks, and zero shame. Not all Thanksgiving meals need subtle flavors — sometimes you just want junk-food horror in its purest form.
7. Kristy (2014)
A sleek, underrated little thriller.
A college student stays behind on campus for Thanksgiving break… and is hunted by a masked cult targeting women named “Kristy.”
Minimalist, cold, tense, and beautifully shot — you can feel the empty dorm halls and flickering fluorescent lights. If you like The Strangers or You’re Next, this one is worth adding to your plate.
6. Blood Rage (1987)
The definitive Thanksgiving slasher.
Twin brothers — one homicidal, one framed — and suburban turkey night turns into total chaos.
Cranberry sauce murders, over-the-top gore, VHS fuzz, and the legendary line: “It’s not cranberry sauce.” If you want real Thanksgiving carnage, Blood Rage is your bird.
5. Thanksgiving (2023)
After years of teasing his faux Grindhouse trailer, Eli Roth finally delivered the real thing — and it’s nasty in the best way.
Set in Plymouth, it follows a masked pilgrim avenger picking off townsfolk after a deadly Black Friday stampede.
Mean, funny, gory, and gloriously over-the-top. Time will tell if it becomes the definitive Thanksgiving horror… but the leftovers are strong.
4. Deadly Friend (1986)
Wes Craven crafted a bizarre hybrid of teen romance, robot resurrection, and exploding head basketball kills — and somehow it still feels cozy and autumnal.
Kid loses girl next door → brings her back with a computer chip → chaos.
A strange, melancholic little fall horror story with Craven’s fingerprints all over it.
3. Addams Family Values (1993)
Not strictly horror, but it has the full macabre flavor.
Wednesday Addams burning down an overly sanitized Thanksgiving play is one of the darkest, funniest moments of 90s cinema.
Gothic production design, razor-sharp satire, and a vibe that fits perfectly into the late-November mood. Creepy, kooky, rewatchable — ideal holiday comfort viewing.
2. The Stepfather (1987)
This is Thanksgiving horror disguised in a warm cardigan.
Terry O’Quinn gives one of the greatest horror performances ever as a man obsessed with the perfect American family — and when they fall short, he simply kills them and starts over.
Suburbia, fall leaves, Norman Rockwell aesthetics… with a serial killer simmering under the surface. A family dinner from hell and the most quietly “November” horror movie ever made.
1. Black Friday (2021)
Bruce Campbell. Devin Sawa. Mutant shoppers. What more do you need?
Toy store workers are trapped during the biggest shopping day of the year when an alien parasite infects customers.
Part Dawn of the Dead, part retail nightmare, part holiday chaos — and 100% B-movie joy. If you’ve worked retail, this will feel like a documentary.
Final Thoughts
There you have it — 10 terrifying turkey-day horrors to keep your spooky season alive long after October ends. From killer pilgrims to dysfunctional dads and retail monsters, these films will make your stuffing curdle in all the right ways.
Which one is your Thanksgiving go-to?
Blood Rage? The Stepfather? Thankskilling? Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving?
Let me know in the comments — argue it out over some pumpkin pie.
More Thanksgiving videos are coming, and then we’re heading straight into Christmas nostalgia land. Hit that like button, subscribe, and if you want bonus content or support the channel directly, join the Patreon — link’s below.
Thanks for hanging out, and as always:
Be kind, rewind.
This is Chase with AV Pop Culture — see you soon!
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