‘Gobble, gobble, motherf#!@er!’
ThanksKilling is a 2009 American comedy horror film about a cursed turkey killing off college students during the Thanksgiving break.
The movie stars Wanda Lust, Chuck Lamb, Ryan Francis, Aaron Carlson, General Bastard, Lance Predmore, Natasha Cordova, and Lindsey Anderson.
The film was mainly shot over the summer of 2007 by Kevin Stewart and Jordan Downey on an original budget of just $3,500. It was later given a small investment to help complete marketing and distribution.
An even more bizarre sequel, mockingly titled ThanksKilling 3 (as there was no part 2) was made in 2012.
Plot:
At the first Thanksgiving in 1621, a female Pilgrim is slain with a tomahawk wielded by an evil demonic turkey…
Centuries later, five college students (good girl Kristen, jock Johnny, ditzy Ali, redneck Billy, and nerdy Darren) head home to Crawl Berg (formerly Crawberg) for Thanksgiving with their families. After Kristen calls her father, the local sheriff, the car overheats, forcing the quintet to camp out for the night.
As they are setting up, Darren tells the settler-era folktale of Feathercloud, a Native American shaman who was dishonoured by hedonistic pilgrim Chuck Langston, one of Billy’s ancestors. The outraged Feathercloud used necromancy to create Turkie, who is said to appear every five-hundred and five years to slaughter all Caucasians he encounters…
Reviews:
“ThanksKilling is what you get when a couple of college kids with $3500 to burn decide that there just aren’t enough movies like Troll 2 or The Room in the world, and set out to make one of their own. In practice, though, it plays more like Beavis and Butt-Head handed in a holiday-themed slasher flick as their final project for Mr. Van Driessen’s art class.” Scott Ashlin, 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting
“This Thanksgiving the Geek would like to give thanks to the filmmakers for having the balls to put together a script about such a ridiculous antagonist, gathering the actors and funding, and then actually making this film. There is no reason for this movie to exist, but I’m glad it does.” B-Movie Geek
“ThanksKilling is completely ridiculous, but in a way that does not ruin the enjoyment level. Dumb, but actually funny in an absurd kind of way. Maybe a guilty pleasure sort of way.” Best Horror Movies
“The characters are genre stereotypes, their acting is just as bad, the effects get an A for Effort but are nothing new. The film fits neatly into the genre of new wave B-movie horror comedies that are so self-aware and obviously aim for the so-bad-its-good appeal.” Cosmic Catacombs
“The really sad thing about this whole misfire is that fans of bad movies are almost guaranteed to be disappointed. Like any art form, bad films cannot be premeditated; they need to organically grow from a collective belief on behalf of the filmmakers that they’re making something good. It’s the enjoyment of their failure that makes such films so enjoyable to watch.” Sam Bowron, Digital Retribution
‘Turkey himself still manages to be a star; sort of a feathered Chucky, he’s stuffed with bad puns and one-liners (“that’s what I call fowl play!”) and a real mean streak that results in some legitimately effective gore work; there’s a cool Alien riff in there in addition to the Leatherface-esque face-peeling, among other fun gags that validate ThanksKilling as a fine, over-the-top splatter film.’ Oh, the Horror!
” …it’s not egregiously written, embarking on an ambitiously bizarre campaign of surrealism from the very get-go. It’s just a little bit less schlocky in its construction than you would expect a film about a killer turkey to be […] Thanks to scenes such as the turkey impersonating a girl’s father by wearing his severed face, Thankskilling has made itself into a self-aware but still transgressive holiday classic for the modern age.” Jim Vorel, Paste magazine
“The movie doesn’t take itself seriously for a second and the laughs come fast and furious. Plus, it’s only 70 minutes long so it’s like a Ramones song: If you don’t like it, don’t worry. It’ll be over soon. Great film to watch with a group while digesting the pumpkin pie and waiting for the effects of the tryptophan to wear off.” Really Awful Movies
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“ …ThanksKilling really is good, stupid, disposable fun, with lines so cheesy you have no choice but to groan, production values so substandard you can’t help but laugh, and the best homicidal turkey this side of the classic Blood Freak (not, in fairness, that there have been very many — or even any — in between).” Trash Film Guru
“Downey and Stewart show a droll sense of humour piling on equal amounts of offensiveness and horror film homage, Francis easily walks away with the best performance of the flick thanks to the enthusiasm he brings to Darren, and you’re definitely not going to see anything quite like this anywhere else…” Chris Hartley, The Video Graveyard
Related:
Blood Freak (1972)
Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (2006)
ThanksKilling 3 (2012)
