‘Thanksgiving 2’ Horror Sequel Gets a Wel-Timed Update from Director Eli Roth

Eli Roth, the director of horror films like Hostel, Cabin Fever, and last year’s slasher gem, Thanksgiving, has offered a well-timed update about the continuation of the holiday horror movie that terrified slasher and Black Friday fans last year. The sequel to Thanksgiving was quickly greenlit in November 2023, and Roth is now preparing to begin shooting next March. He also confirms it won’t be a prequel, some characters will return, and he will not spend more money than is required to successfully bring the “John Carver” back for more.

Speaking to IndieWire one year after Thanksgiving was released to both audience and critical acclaim, Roth reveals his next step is to make an equally appealing sequel that will satisfy horror hounds. The first outing holds an 84% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and even though it’s a young movie, it has more than enough entertainment value to become a Thanksgiving horror staple. Check out what Roth had to say about Thanksgiving 2 below:

“We’re upping the ante but we are not going to do it with more money.That keeps it tight and lean and mean and forces us to make decisions. There’s a lot of setting up that we did in the first one that we don’t have to deal with now. It can just be all pay-off.

I’ve come up with stuff that is going to be a
challenge
. And I want it to be a challenge to pull off. Because if I’ve come up with the stuff that I think will make the best kills, then I’m going to do it like I’m never going to make another movie again.”

‘Thanksgiving’ Successfully Resurrects Slasher Tropes

Thanksgiving begins with tragedy, as the biggest store in town hosts a Black Friday sale on the night of the holiday. Frenzied customers break through the doors, mayhem ensues, and people even die as hundreds run inside the store and fight over cheaper appliances. One year later, a masked assassin uses the Thanksgiving holidays as the perfect revenge, wreaking havoc with impressively creative kills. Thanksgiving represented a major achievement for Roth, who teased making the movie for 15 years after a fake trailer appeared in the Rodriguez/Tarantino experiment Grindhouse. Today, Roth seems pretty excited to return to the genre he does best:

“I said, ‘If I’m going to make a return to horror, then it’s got to be with something that makes me hungry to do it again’…I could actually do horror movies for every holiday. I would just do them for the year. If someone was like, ‘For the rest of your life, all you’re allowed to do is holiday horror movies’? I’d go, ‘Great!’ and fill the calendar.

It’s all so perverse. It’s this meta-absurdity of merchandising a movie that is
also
a comment on merchandising — but we’re totally aware of it. Everyone is in on the joke.”

Naturally, a sequel follows for Roth, no doubt offering more memorable kills, another holiday setting, a “final girl,” and a relentless killer. Another successful entry will once again prove the value of micro-budget horror, something that Roth knows how to handle well, and which studios like. Let’s just hope they don’t send Thanksgiving 2 directly to streaming. Per Roth’s remarks about tackling the classic subgenre of horror:

“We had to come out with an opening that was so strong and so shocking that it demanded people pay attention. It needed to say, ‘This is a real slasher. We’re not making a joke. We’re not approaching it like a fake movie. It’ll be fun, but we’re not f*cking around.’ It really was a reminder of the deep satisfaction I get just knowing there is a Thanksgiving movie out there and that people enjoy it and that people are now watching the old slasher films because of it.

I feel like we have a new tradition. And that’s all you want to do is leave your mark — good or bad — on pop culture. Eventually, no one is going to remember. The only thing that will be left is the movies.”