The Eli Roth slasher Thanksgiving has stormed to the top of the movie charts on Netflix. The horror film is part of an older universe from which three feature film adaptations emerged from five fake trailers
The Netflix charts dominance of the shark horror In the Waters of the Seine is over for now. At the top of the current film top 10 is the latest Eli Roth slasher Thanksgiving, which was released in cinemas last year.
What many may not have known is that the nasty genre trip saw the light of day as a bizarre fake trailer. As part of a larger universe, Thanksgiving is one of three ideas that made it into longer feature films.
Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez paved the way for Thanksgiving with Grindhouse event
In 2007, cult directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez released the so-called Grindhouse double feature with the films Planet Terror and Death Proof. In the USA, the films were shown in one go as an event, accompanied by a total of five fake trailers in the shrill, bizarre style of the B-movie wave of the 60s and 70s.
The five fake trailers for Tarantino and Rodriguez’s grindhouse spectacle were:
Thanksgiving (Eli Roth)
Machete (Robert Rodriguez)
Hobo with a Shotgun (Jason Eisener, John Davies and Rob Cotterill)
Don’t (Edgar Wright)
Werewolf Women of the SS (Rob Zombie)
The first three titles were finally actually adapted as feature films. Machete was released in 2010 and even got a sequel called Machete Kills. Hobo with a Shotgun followed in 2011, while Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving was released in cinemas much later in 2023
Read it yet? Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving gets a sequel
In addition to Thanksgiving on Netflix: Another Grindhouse adaptation can be streamed directly
While you can stream Thanksgiving with a Netflix subscription, the feature-length version of Machete is currently available with a subscription to Sky’s WOW.
In the plot of the film from director Ethan Maniquis, Danny Trejo plays the titular ex-cop who now takes on jobs as a hitman. However, before he can take out his latest target, the evil Senator McLaughlin (Robert De Niro), he is betrayed by his own organization. He survives badly injured and seeks revenge
