Eli Roth Reveals The Real-Life Tragedy Behind Thanksgiving's Black Friday Scene - Exclusive
While writer-director Eli Roth's fake trailer-turned-movie "Thanksgiving" naturally focuses on a twisted look at the festive holiday, the long-awaited horror thriller is actually rooted in another traditional day that immediately follows it.
New in theaters, "Thanksgiving" is based on the fake trailer within director duo Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's 2007 double feature "Grindhouse." Finally fleshed out as a feature film, "Thanksgiving" follows an axe-wielding serial killer donning the mask of historical pilgrim John Carver who goes on a sadistic, murderous rampage spurred by a Black Friday tragedy.
Chatting with Looper in an exclusive interview, Roth said he and "Thanksgiving" co-writer Jeff Rendell initially struggled in coming up with a premise for the film, since both of them felt the fake trailer in "Grindhouse" helped them lived out their fantasies as 12-year-olds who wanted to make a slasher movie surrounding the holiday.
"Growing up in the golden age of slasher films, Jeff and I always believed that this could be a real movie," Roth recalled. "This was our obsession to make it, and 'Grindhouse' was a fantastic opportunity to try out the idea. After we did [the trailer, we realized] there was no plot yet. We just had our kills. Since we felt like we had already done the best parts, [we thought], 'Why even make the movie? We did it and the response was so great. We loved it. All right, it's perfect. We'd never have to make the movie now.'"
What the duo didn't anticipate was that audiences wanted more than just a taste of their faux feature "coming attraction" about a Turkey Day massacre.
Videos of Black Friday shopping madness sparked Thanksgiving's premise, Roth says
As the "Thanksgiving" trailer from "Grindhouse" took on a life of its own and fans wanted to see a fully realized version of Eli Roth's and Jeff Rendell's fresh idea, the filmmaking friends needed to find a definitive hook for the film's premise. Eventually, they discovered that the traditional madness surrounding stores' annual Black Friday sales perfectly fit the bill.
"Over the years, the fans kept nagging me, but we had no story. Once we saw the Black Friday trampling videos that were going viral, [we thought about it]," the "Hostel" franchise filmmaker recalled for Looper. "Every year, there were videos of these superstores and their midnight Black Friday sales of people who, a few hours earlier, were so thankful but now wanted to crush each other to death for a waffle iron. That was when we said, 'There's something really here. This is fertile ground.' It gave the movie a theme and a reason to exist, and that's when it started in earnest."
Roth says greed, not the actual consumers is to blame for Black Friday madness
While on its face it appears the horrific Black Friday stampede in "Thanksgiving" calls out the ugliness of consumers making the mad dash for the best deals possible, Eli Roth told Looper that the plot turn — as well as real-life Black Friday incidents — cannot be blamed on specific individuals. Instead, the filmmaker said, the finger should be pointed at society itself, since it fuels shoppers' collective behavior on Black Friday year after year.
"There's an even darker truth underneath it, which is that the reason people need Black Friday sales is because they're not being paid enough money and because the minimum wage and the rates they're being paid are not matching the rate of inflation," Roth said. "People are forced into these horrible gladiator games for electronics, because it's the only chance they can get all the Christmas gifts that their kids want. It's easy to say it's based on greed, but there's a reason people need those sales, and it's the greed at the top that's the real problem."
Starring Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Rick Hoffman, and Gina Gershon, "Thanksgiving" is playing in theaters.