Recalling the most annoying opinion anyone can have about moviegoing, the most best part of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse double feature was the trailers. That’s not to take anything away from Deathproof, which remains Tarantino’s most underrated effort, but the trailers lingered with viewers longer than the words Planet Terror. The ideas were so rich in that brief, connective montage that it inspired two feature-length movies: Robert Rodriguez’s Machete in 2010 and Jason Eisener’s Hobo With A Shotgun in 2011. More than a decade later, we’re getting a third.
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Eli Roth’s long-threatened holiday slasher, Thanksgiving, the one that features a conspicuously placed hunting knife on a trampoline where a cheerleader is practicing splits, now has a trailer. And, yes, that cheerleader bit is teased. Set a year after a Black Friday riot that seemingly left several dead, a murderous pilgrim is “out for revenge and turning it into a sick holiday game.”
Thanksgiving stars Patrick Dempsey and Gina Gershon and opens on November 17, which gives us plenty of time to ask, where are Edgar Wright’s Don’t and Rob Zombie’s Werewolf Women Of The S.S.? There were five Grindhouse trailers, and these were easily the two most interesting and original ones.
On the other hand, maybe they should remain trailers. It’s been proven twice over that expanding a phony trailer into a feature-length movie saps the idea of its originality. The Grindhouse trailers showed the artistry of the movie trailer, with Wright and Zombie, specifically, playing on the tropes and gimmicks that lure audiences into movies that can’t possibly be as good as the advert. They’re all played like comedy sketches, quickly heightening the premise until the point is made and getting out before the laughs die down. Some of that magic, which of course, remains wrapped up in this being a fake advertisement for something we’ll never see, is lost when directors drag it out to feature length. However, the same thing could be said about all short subject movies, and for every Pixels there’s a What We Do In The Shadows.
Who knows, maybe Thanksgiving will outdo its trailer in the end. But, for what it’s worth, the original Thanksgiving trailer is still better, funnier, and scarier than the new one. Though there’s also much more nudity, decapitations, and Michael Biehn, which might turn off some moviegoers. Viewer discretion is advised.