Thanksgiving: That Time of Year When Evil Turkeys Scare the Stuffing Out of You

There aren’t a lot of Thanksgiving action movies. Frankly, a discussion with some fellow film lovers turned up a grand total of none. Several people mentioned the comedy Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, but that’s no action movie. Addams Family Values at least includes a strangely violent Thanksgiving play at summer camp.

Last year the Chick had no trouble filling December with weekly Christmas action (Die Hard 2: Die Harder, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Reindeer Games, and Home Alone even though it actually has less action than what you might remember – maybe shouldn’t have used up Die Hard during the previous September). Finding a Thanksgiving movie fit for this site seems to require falling back on horror flicks. There aren’t a lot of those either, but they are out there and boy do they love their taglines!

Let’s start with one that comes out this month, ThanksKilling.

ThanksKilling (2009)
Tagline: “This is one turkey you will not be giving thanks for!”
Lindsey Anderson, General Bastard; directed by Jordan Downey
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1129441/

Blood Freak (1972)
Steve Hawkes, Dana Cullivan, Heather Hughes:
directed by Brad F. Grinter & Steve Hawkes
Tagline: “A Dracula on Drugs!”
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0132888/

Home Sweet Home (1981)
Tagline: “This year, it’s not the turkey being carved for Thanksgiving!”
Jake Steinfeld, Vinessa Shaw; directed by Nettie Peña
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082522/

Thanxgiving: Dead Harvest (2006)
Tagline: “No meat too tough…”
Ari Lehman (Friday the 13th), Suki Peters; directed by Bobby Ray Akers, Jr.
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0878717/

And don’t forget Eli Roth’s faux trailer from Grindhouse for Thanksgiving.
Multiple taglines, including: “You come home for the holidays – in a body bag.”

Thanks go out to all twitter discussants who gave this some thought when the topic first came up: @JohnVFerrigno @aboynamedart @marisstar @JerryBFlory @ianbaran @johnny_williams @Shadowbat @Chuck_st_chuck @parksdesign @TheKappa023 @uwillbeheard @shaneandrew82 @FreddysFingers @wyldride @Houstondog @mrsdellison and @garthranzz (who pointed out that Adrian Paul had done a horror film, Seance, set around Thanksgiving)

Finish with this parting suggestion:

@Chuck_st_chuck: jason statham is THE PILGRIM!

“When turkeys mate, they think of swans.” – Johnny Carson