"This Christmas, your wishes will come true...and your nightmares too."
RLJE Films' It’s a Wonderful Knife will stream on Shudder and be available to rent on all digital platforms on December 1, 2023. The Christmas slasher made nearly $1 million at the box office in its limited theatrical release in November 2023. It's described as a comedy-horror twist on Frank Capra’s Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life.
Set in idyllic Angel Falls. A year after saving her town from a psychotic killer on Christmas Eve, Winnie Carruthers’ life is less than wonderful — but when she wishes she’d never been born, she finds herself in a nightmare parallel universe and discovers that without her, things could be much, much worse. Now the killer is back, and she must team up with the town misfit to identify the killer and get back to her own reality.
The film is directed by Tyler MacIntyre (“Tragedy Girls”) and written by Michael Kennedy (“Freaky”). It stars Justin Long, Joel McHale, Jane Widdop, Katherine Isabelle, Jess McLeod, Cassandra Naud.
“We’re excited to release It’s a Wonderful Knife and once again work with its amazing cast and filmmakers,” said RLJE Films’ Chief Acquisitions Officer, Mark Ward. “Over the last few years, we’ve been fortunate to have released horror/holiday films that have been embraced by audiences and we believe this one is no exception.”
"It’s a Hallmark holiday movie for outcasts and horror fans alike, delivering no shortage of holiday cheer perfect for this time of year. MacIntyre’s latest may not quite seamlessly nail its high concept genre mashup, but with some outstanding performances and a sweet gooey emotional center, it effectively tugs at your heartstrings and captures the spirit of Christmas." ★★★ Bloody-Disgusting.com
"...it may be a bit short on horror, but it fulfills its role as a Christmas movie...I don’t know if you could call It’s a Wonderful Knife a new holiday favorite, Its heart is absolutely in the right place, but it needs time to brew and gain proper retrospective analysis when the main takeaway isn’t comparisons to Capra’s Christmas classic (which it’s unlikely to escape given the name) and the likes of Freaky." 7 out of 10 ComingSoon.net
"It’s A Wonderful Knife is a final product that’s begging for a bigger budget and more time. A reported breakneck shooting schedule does leave a few scenes feeling like MacIntyre had to take what he could get under pressure. Line reads can land a little cold (depending on your sense of humor), and there’s a roughness to select practical effects. Any released movie is a minor miracle, but that doesn’t negate the reality that quality is judged via what’s on screen." 7.5 out of 10, SlashFilm.com
" …it riffs on many of the basic structures of slashers of the past and brings the format more into the present day, particularly with the use of alternate dimensions and LGBTQ+ representation. It doesn’t need to be an 80s pastiche; it is a fully realized creation of its time, complete with its particular brand of humor. Okay, maybe there is some traditional sleaze, but it’s welcome sleaze. It’s a Wonderful Knife is a slasher with a heart of gold." NightmarishConjurings.com
"It’s a Wonderful Knife is diverting enough to start with, as the plot clicks efficiently into motion with the requisite stabbings and impalings. Unfortunately, there’s not enough fuel in the engine – the characters don’t have quite enough to do, we can’t care quite enough about them, and the world-building is nearly-but-not-quite convincing." ★★ TheGuardian.com
TriStar Pictures and Spyglass Media Group will release Eli Roth’s highly anticipated new slasher Thanksgiving in theaters worldwide on November 17th, 2023. The film, an expansion/reboot of Roth’s faux trailer seen in Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse (2007), has been rated R for strong bloody horror violence and gore, pervasive language, and some sexual material.
SYNOPSIS: After a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy, a mysterious Thanksgiving-inspired killer terrorizes Plymouth, Massachusetts – the birthplace of the holiday. Picking off residents one by one, what begins as random revenge killings are soon revealed to be part of a larger, sinister holiday plan. Will the town uncover the killer and survive the holidays…or become guests at his twisted holiday dinner table?
Roth told Collider. “We were trying to get the script right. For years, I was just connecting the dots between the trailer, and then I was like, ‘Am I just filming the scenes in between what I already did before?’ The big revelation was, (Jeff Rendell) said, ‘I have to just pretend that Thanksgiving 1980 exists and that it was so offensive that every print was destroyed, and the only thing that survived was the trailer. This is the reboot of what that movie was. Every copy of the script was burned. Every print was burned. The only thing that survived was that one trailer, on the darkest corners of the internet. So, we have to make a movie based on that. This is the reboot of what that was.’ That freed me up creatively to go, ‘I can use a couple of my favorite things in the trailer, but I don’t have to worry about recreating the trailer.’ That trailer was for a movie where every print was destroyed. Now, this is gonna be its own thing.“
Roth wrote the script with Jeff Rendell. Roger Birnbaum and Eli Roth are producing. The cast includes Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Nell Verlaque, Rick Hoffman and Gina Gershon.
Roth mentioned other holiday-centric films that help serve as inspiration for Thanksgiving, including films like Friday the 13th, My Blood Valentine, Silent Night, Deadly Night and more.
“For sure. I mean, look, obviously, I grew up in Massachusetts, so every year at Thanksgiving, Jeff Rendell — who I wrote it with — we were waiting for a Thanksgiving slasher film,” Roth said. “It never happened. We had Halloween, you had Silent Night, Deadly Night at Christmas, you had My Bloody Valentine, you had April Fool’s Day, you had Mother’s Day. But there was never one for Thanksgiving. It seemed so obvious to us, so from the time we were 12 or 13 years old, we always wanted to do it, because Thanksgiving is obviously is a huge deal in Massachusetts with the pilgrims. You went to Plymouth Plantation/Plimoth Patuxet in Sturbridge Village and saw all these pilgrim recreation villages. So we really wanted to do a modern take and create a new mythology and a new slasher film. The way I think of it is that if you love Thanksgiving, you’re going to want your kids to be into horror films."
Eli Roth, director of the horror film "Thanksgiving," poses with costumed characters at the premiere of the film, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023, at the Vista Theater in Los Angeles:
Reviews:
“Bringing Thanksgiving into a contemporary setting is an asset here. All of the fake trailer’s highlights get woven in or repurposed in organic ways, but now there’s a meaty subtext (but mostly text) to the holiday’s history that presents a perfect setup for a slasher. Like curating the perfect holiday feast, Roth orchestrates a vicious, thrilling, and raucously entertaining slasher with a showstopper finale.” ★★★★ Bloody-Disgusting.com
“Roth’s reference points aren’t particularly obscure, but he earns the right to claim them through his proud commitment to horror for horror’s sake, a balm at a time when it feels like every other entry to the genre is buckling beneath the weight of its belabored trauma metaphors. He applies discipline to the disreputable, elevating choice cuts of trash not with put-on profundity but with a keener mastery of and appreciation for their foulest, basest pleasures.” ★★★★ TheGuardian.com
"It's been too long since a domestic theatrical slasher based on an original idea put an ear-to-ear smile on my face. Thanksgiving is one of the great modern American slashers, and Roth's return as a hardcore horror director feels right. It's been sixteen years since Grindhouse, and the wait was worth its reward. Hopefully a sequel won't take another decade plus change to release." ★★★★ DailyDead.com
“Thanksgiving is a mixture of Scream and holiday slashers like Black Christmas, but it gets its own, particularly nasty touch thanks to Eli Roth’s love for gore and grindhouse cinema. The pilgrim father, armed with an axe, fits wonderfully into the ranks of sadistic holiday killers, even if the film runs out of steam a bit in the final act.” Filmstarts [translated from German]
"Thanksgiving has everything you could want in a slasher: over-the-top kills, a wicked sense of humor, suspense, seasonal flair, the sexiest man alive, gratuitous Boston accents, and The Misfits over the end credits." @brokehorrorfan
"Last night I got to check out the premiere(ish?) of Thanksgiving which is every bit as fantastically twisted & disgusting as I dreamed it would be! 🥰 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Do not hesitate checking it out!!! Totally an instant cl-ass-sick I will be watching again ASAP!! AMAZING!!!! So much fun and great gore fx!!" Darcy the Mail Girl @dianaprincexo
“Roth manages to shake things up enough to keep you guessing how each act of violence is gonna play out. Sprinkle in a little Rick Hoffman and just a pinch of Gina Gershon, and you’ve got a pretty good dinner. Though the opening Black Friday scene alone makes this dish worthwhile, the bulk of the film may not measure up to the promise of the original trailer. But that will likely have more to do with the pressure of expectations of modern horror audiences…” ★★★½ Maddwolf.com
“Some of the dialog was funny, but the violence was frustrating. I couldn’t tell if some of the deaths were intended to scare me or just gross me out. It seems Eli Roth intended horror, laughs and senseless deaths. I’m split on the movie because there were entertaining scenes and forced scenes and the characters were so laid back as victims.” 6 out of 10, MJB784
“I’m not sure noting that the script is seemingly intentionally bad is an endorsement. That really plays into how stupidly easy it is to figure out “whodunit.” The misdirections and false leads are barely attempted. And the film’s utterly deflating finale isn’t amusingly awful. It’s just awful and in the most half-@ssed ways.” ★★ RogersMovieNation.com
“Thanksgiving definitely leans hard into its slasher influences and pays tribute to the ’80s throughout, still lingering on the final girl premise. And fortunately for audiences, it all works. The practical gore effects are hands down some of the best of the year. John Carver is a perfected reintroduction to the slasher sub-genre that reinforces exactly what drew people to these movies in the first place.” SpoilerFreeMovieSleuth.com
” …a movie like this needs a far more interesting final girl than Verlaque’s Jessica, who is as bland as unsalted popcorn. In attempting to line up potential suspects, the movie is filled with too many characters, some of whom disappear for long stretches as though the writers have forgotten about them. Thanksgiving does just enough to deliver on its premise, but despite some fun kills, it feels like a missed opportunity to kick off a new slasher franchise.” ★★★ TheMovieWaffler.com
“The film does not have the look that the fake trailer had, so do not expect that B-film cinematography, we are looking at a film totally of our time, with a current bill, more in the Scream style than the trailer that he proposed at the time. What you can expect is humour, even with scenes inspired 100% by the trailer. Nor does it skimp on blood and funny deaths, nor on the suspense of murderer and victim playing cat and mouse.” TerrorWeekend.com [translated from Spanish]
