When we talk about Thanksgiving, it reminds people of family get together, holiday throughout the country, watching football, family dinners. But there’s this creepy side to thanksgiving as well, though not explored to exhaustion but enough to add X factor or maybe ‘Y’ factor to your thanksgiving. Films centered around thanksgiving are few but we have picked the absolute peach for you.
Somewhere in the lucrativeness of Halloween and Christmas horror movies, thanksgiving as a potential genre of horror is largely ignored by filmmakers. But what we have in this micro-genre of horror is enough to keep your family right on the edges of their seats at the thanksgiving party!
You know what’s the fun part, you don’t need to wait till the next thanksgiving to have a bite of your favorite movie in the list to follow. You can anytime watch these movies and refresh your merry Thanksgiving memories.
List of the Best Thanksgiving Horror Movies of all time:
10. Boogeyman
Initial Release: 4 February 2005
Director: Stephen Kay
Being a young kid, Tim witnesses the gruesome event of his father being dragged into the closet by Boogeyman. His mother always reassured him that Boogeyman is not real. However, the incident left a lasting impression on Tim and he’s never the same afterward. After several years, Tim gets back to normal but still lives in a house with no closets and sleeps with mattresses on the floor. When he comes to know about his mother’s death, he’s obliged to return home and get face-to-face with his childhood trauma. Aaron Murphy is playing Tim in the movie and has managed to do justice with his role.
9. Grindhouse
Initial Release: 6 April 2007
Directors: Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Eli Roth, Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright
Grindhouse is a compilation of two short stories combined under one title, which means you will get two times the fear and goofiness. The first movie introduces a character named Mike who works as a stuntman. While performing one of his stunts, he accidentally kills a group of women with his car. The other story features a set of characters who get caught up in between a zombie apocalypse. They need to team up and fight for their survival against the flesh-eating zombies. Zombie movies are always a thrill ride to watch as you never know from where a zombie will pop up at any moment.
8. Kristy
Initial Release: 7 August 2014
Director: Olly Blackburn
It’s thanksgiving time and everyone’s going back to their homes from the college campus except a young woman (Haley Bennett). Left alone on the campus during the Thanksgiving weekend.
For what should have been an ordinary weekend for her, turned up to be a terrifying one for her. She witnesses a group of violent thugs who terrorize who were eager to get hold of her. She needs to find a way out of the campus to get away from the thugs, otherwise, thanksgiving is the last festival of her life.
7. PoultryGeist: Night of the Chicken Dead
Initial Release: 26 December 2006
Directors: Lloyd Kaufman
Houses built on burial grounds are the most common horror theme and we have tons of films in this format. But this time its an A fast-food chicken restaurant that is built on an ancient Native American burial ground. During the construction, the spirits get displaced from the land and unite with the ghosts of exterminated chickens to seek revenge as native American chicken zombies.
Yes! You heard me right, Chicken Zombies, PoultryGeist is something new for the horror fans and zombie world as well. The visitors in restaurants need to find a way out of the hotel to survive.
6. Home Movie
Initial Release: 10 July 2008
Director: Christopher Denham
A good-looking pastor named David Poe (starring Adrian Pasdar) and his wife Clare (starring Cady McClain) who work as a psychologist recently move to the upstate of New York along with their young twin children named Emily and Jack.
During Halloween, the couple starts noticing bizarre behavior in their children. In order to regain control over their children, the couple starts documenting the events to make their children aware of their violent and sociopathic behavior.
5. ThanksKilling
Initial Release: 8 December 2008
Director: Jordan Downey
During the Thanksgiving break, a group of college students decides to stay on the campus during the holidays and enjoy each other’s company. However, an evil spirit isn’t going to let that happen. A turkey gets possessed by the evil spirit and starts terrorizing the college students. Disturbed by the scary events happening, the group decides to get rid of this menace by finding a way out. They must eliminate the turkey, or the foul-spirited animal will get the better of them.
4. Krisha
Initial Release: 16 March 2015
Director: Trey Edward Shults
Krisha Fairchild, a troubled woman abandoned her family several years ago. During the Thanksgiving holidays of 2015, she decides to reunite with them and reattach the broken bonds. However, things don’t go as planned and the family faces a lot of troubles and tension after their reunion. Krisha and her extended family have to find a way out to solve all those troubles and continue living happily.
3. Turkey Hollow
Initial Release: 21 November 2015
Director: Kirk Thatcher
The classic setting for a thanksgiving movie, children back home on account of holidays, visit some new place and invite some unusual trouble.
During the Thanksgiving holidays, the Emmerson family decides to visit their Aunt Cly in the quaint town of Turkey Hollow. However, the place had no internet or any fun activity to pass time. Due to this, Tim and Annie start feeling bored and come to know about the Howling Hoodoo. Being curious, they both try to track down the monster and fall into a variety of troubles. Turkey Hollow is one of the best Thanksgiving horror movies.
2. The Oath
Initial Release: 12 October 2018
Director: Ike Barinholtz
A couple named Chris and his wife moves to a new city to begin a new phase of their life. In the new city, they were shocked to know that they needed to sign a loyalty oath with the president. The couple needs to sign the Oath before Thanksgiving. As the deadline approaches, the couple faces a variety of comical situations.
1. Pilgrim
Initial Release: 1 November 2019
Director: Marcus Dunstan
During a family’s Thanksgiving celebration, a woman invites pilgrim reenactors to join them. She does this to remind them about the privilege and help them form a close bond with each other. Anna Baker is fed up with her family’s patchy and awkward communications and invites.
This is where the horror element of the movie kicks in, some scenes like the scene where Shane’s head is placed on the center table, pilgrims vomiting are really disturbing and keep coming in a phased manner. This film is available on Hulu just like The Best Horror Movies to watch on Hulu.
Hope you have enjoyed the list and have prepared your horror list for next year’s thanksgiving.
