Eli Roth’s New Slasher Horror Movie Is One Of 2023’s Highest Rated On Rotten Tomatoes

Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving is one of the highest-rated horror movies of 2023 on Rotten Tomatoes, and the highest of his career as a director by far. Based on a fake trailer from Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse, the slasher film follows a Thanksgiving-inspired killer who terrorizes the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts, the birthplace of the holiday, following a tragic Black Friday riot. The cast includes Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Rick Hoffman, and Gina Gershon.

Now that its release date has arrived, Thanksgiving reviews have been published, and the movie’s Rotten Tomatoes score is 86% based on 59 reviews at the time of writing. According to the critical consensus, Eli Roth’s slasher combines his signature exaggerated gore with rib-tickling dark comedy to much success, which should be “a feast for grindhouse fans.”

How Thanksgiving’s Rotten Tomatoes Score Compares To 2023’s Best Horror Movies & Eli Roth’s Career

At 86%, Thanksgiving is among the highest-rated horror movies of 2023 on Rotten Tomatoes. The Spanish-language film When Evil Lurks is the highest-rated of the year with a near-perfect 99% score. Other international titles, Huesera: The Bone Woman (97%) and Attachment (95%), are right behind it. A24’s Talk to Me (94%) is arguably the best English-language horror film of 2023, with Blumhouse’s M3GAN (93%) right behind it. Shudder’s Influencer (92%), Kiernan Shipka’s slasher Totally Killer (87%), and Kevin Williamson’s Sick (87%) round out the list. Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool (87%) deserves a mention, though it was divisive among audiences.

As one of the highest-rated horror movies of 2023, Thanksgiving is also the best Rotten Tomatoes score of Eli Roth’s career by far. The horror maven is best known for his splatter films, Cabin Fever (62%) and Hostel (59%), neither of which have overly impressive scores. Before Thanksgiving, Roth’s previous high as a director came outside the horror genre with The House With a Clock in Its Walls (65%), which is also his most commercially successful film. Critics clearly consider Thanksgiving one of the best horror movies of 2023, though how it fares with audiences remains to be seen.