Thanksgiving Films To Watch
Generally speaking, Thanksgiving gets the shaft in pop culture. Usually it’s a straight jump from Halloween to Christmas, with those Hallmark movies coming down the pike faster and earlier every year, edging out turkey day even further. There’s no pop song/novelty bop devoted to the holiday. The one go-to movie is that Peanuts special from 1973…which, let’s be honest, ain’t that great. Decorations don’t really exist and the iconography is non-existent outside of a turkey (awkward), cornucopia (lame), and some pilgrim stuff (problematic).
There are many reasons why Thanksgiving gets the short end of the stick in entertainment. It’s a strictly American holiday. There’s not a lot of fun characters/events associated with it for lore purposes. There’s also not a group of the population whose identity is closely related to the day. Goths and Christians can revel in Halloween and Christmas, but who is Thanksgiving’s demographic with whom it resonates? Colonial re-enactors? Steampunkers? Fuckin’ yikes.
Also, it’s essentially a celebration of a genocide’s big kickoff dinner. So that’s…not great.
But there are plenty of offerings that COULD become hallowed Thanksgiving viewing. A title or two to form an annual tradition for cinephiles and other movie nerds to watch. Many of them are genre films and even more of them are oft overlooked. But they shall be overlooked no more thanks to a new video and recent article!
Over on GoodBadFlicks, Cecil Trachenburg lists out five turkey day-related movies to seek out, with three of them being horror, one being a drama, and one being a family film (specifically, a Bridges Family affair from Disney). See that brief but informative video below.
Meanwhile, over on Bloody Disgusting, Meagan Navarro runs down five Thanksgiving horror films that are entertaining (and, if not explicitly taking place on the holiday, at least have those same vibes and themes).
I’m sure this year’s THANKSGIVING will be added to the rotation soon, but in the meantime you can seek out these titles to watch on streaming and physical media.
If you like the video, be sure to subscribe to the GoodBadFlicks YouTube channel, follow Trachenburg on Twitter (I’m never calling it “X”), and considering supporting his Patreon.
For those digging on the article, check out other posts by Meagan Navarro and follow her on Twitter. And read more on Bloody Disgusting as well as follow them on Twitter (see?!?).