The Last Thanksgiving

It is low budget and amateur all the way, but it obviously seemed to have the passion of the cast. Acting ability didn't seem a criteria for being in the film. It started out when the woman was making sandwiches, and added some blood to it for flavoring. One knew this was not going to be a normal movie. Some good quips, when they talked about getting "food". It started out with just one, but if the boyfriend showed up, that meant they got leftovers. And the person in the wheelchair was referred to as meals on wheels. If a family member died, family isn't food. What detracts is the apparent lack of a coherent script; many of the scenes seem to be improvised or ad lib. Sure, refining a script takes some time, but it has its rewards. On the zany side and certainly a different take on Thanksgiving. Thankfully short.

....but this is something else.

You could say the terrible acting and cheesy delivery is trying to recapture 80s low-budget horror, but this isn't just badly acted, it's almost deliberately acted in a way that feels too forced, rather than simply being bad actors. The falseness of the acting was hard for me personally to overcome.

When it comes to the characters, they're predominantly annoying, unlikeable and insufferable, so even if you could get past the bad acting, story, direction, production values and horrific script you're probably going to hate the film because of the obnoxious people in it.

It felt a bit like a student film project, which had somehow managed to get picked up and released, but how the director/writer/editor Erick Lorinc and producers managed to sit through the entire film and still think "yeah, we've got a good film here", I'll have no idea. I can't say I'm surprised that he's done nothing in the few years since as this feels like a failed experiment.

Even if you love badly-acted cheesy low-budget horrors, I think you're more likely to dislike this than enjoy it.

If you're a fan of the cheesy holiday horror movie this is the ideal example. It's got it all: some good acting, a lot of amateurish acting, subdued gore (mostly in close up so as not to be too gross), puns, comic moments, a low budget, silly premise, cannibalism, knives, cleavers, guns, vans, and a spunky heroine. Thoroughly enjoyable, again: for the connoisseur of this genre.

If you're a fan of 80's slasher movies, especially of the cheesier variety, then you will probably enjoy this! I had a lot of fun with it. Plus it's always nice to see Linnea Quigley again!

The Last Thanksgiving (2020) is a movie I recently stumbled upon on a random streaming site. The story follows a cannibalistic family who believes not enough people appreciate Thanksgiving, so they decide to target a restaurant and its employees for staying open on the holiday.

Directed by Erick Lorinc in his debut, the film stars Samantha Ferrand (Helter Skelter), Linnea Quigley (Night of the Demons), Madelin Marchant (Miami Vice), and Francisco D Gonzalez (Plantados).

Trudie's character had me laughing with some sarcastic lines here and there, but overall, the concept was pretty weak. The kill scenes and gore were let down by blood effects that unfortunately looked more like mud. The final kill was decent, and there were a few clever uses of props.

Overall, this is a low-budget film that misses the mark. I'd give it a 2/10 and recommend skipping it-even if you're in the mood for a Thanksgiving horror film, this one isn't worth it.