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.

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.

...the acting, the sound & foley, the script, the special fx, the cinematography, and the directing. Beyond that, it was great.

Seriously though...I had hoped for more, as low IMDB scores are not always indicative of my not enjoying a film, but in this case I found the low score to be a reflection of the movie. As for the highly positive reviews that sing its high praises, I just don't believe them accurate; even though viewers like their own things, the high scores which describe specific aspects of the movie as excellent are simply rubbish.

The minute the first scene opened it was evident how low budget and independent the movie would be. Again...that doesn't always equate to a bad movie, but the combination of poor sound and horrendously bad acting is often a giveaway of what to expect, and in the case of "Last Thanksgiving," it opens bad and only goes downhill after that.

I really enjoy the cannibal sub-genre of horror, but there aren't many decent ones made anymore so I often give them a chance when I see them pop up. Sadly, this one is really bad. Honestly, while there is a story there- and a story that could make a good film- every facet of the movie was poor. The acting is probably the worst facet, as there wasn't a single actor who could be described as competent in their role. This isn't an issue of "wooden acting," as is so often the case when reviewers criticize it, but just BAD acting. Each actor is just atrocious and unconvincing in his/her respective role...as in, it is painfully obvious they are TRYING to play a role. Line delivery is awful, reaction to occurrences is terrible (especially pain), and body language is benign. Quite honestly, there's nothing more to add...the acting is just bad.

Regarding special fx, they too are bad. Admittedly, i'm a gorehound, but I can often look past bad practical fx if most other aspects of a film are on par (especially the acting), largely because the cost of producing realistic fx is prohibitive, but in this case it is just another failure. I agree with another reviewer who compared the blood to chunky chocolate. The brownish gray goo that is supposed to pass as gore is really hokie, as if someone forgot what color movie blood should be. The producers knew what they wanted but simply failed at doing it.

Every other facet of the movie is on par with what I've described...simply bad, which is a drag. I get that movie budgets for independent filmmakers can be virtually non-existent, but there is no excuse for bad acting. There are loads of people out there who can play convincing roles, and in most movies that suffer from this type of thing there is often at least one or two actors who rise above the mediocrity and "save" the project, but when EVERYBODY is bad, it never allows a movie to get off the ground. I admit that I'm often more tolerant of bad movies, as many microbudget independent horror films suffer from one challenge or another, but I always appreciate a good try, which usually allows me to find at least something redeeming to discuss. That is NOT the case with "Last Thanksgiving." The only reason I did not give it a '1' is that it was not filmed on A DTV camcorder, so at least it had the look of a "real movie." With that, I can say very succinctly that I do not recommend anything about this movie. It's simply not worth even a single watch.

For the gorehounds hoping for something bloody that makes up for poor acting, don't bother. There are very few bloody scenes and virtually no gore. The couple of scenes that are meant to be gory aren't worth it either, due to the gooey chocolate mentioned above.

No nudity. A fair amount of bad language.

....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 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!