Behind The Mask Of Thanksgiving

A fake trailer doesn’t usually earn a second life, let alone a cult following—but Thanksgiving cut a clean path from Grindhouse gag to modern slasher icon. We pull back the curtain with the team who wore the mask and took the hits, tracing how a simple holiday hook became a full-feature blueprint: clear geography, practical gore, and a killer whose movement tells the story before any line does. From first day in costume to the moment the prosthetics clicked, you’ll hear how on-set improvisation and smart use of the environment shaped kills that feel inventive, readable, and brutal in all the right ways.

Working with Eli Roth meant moving fast without losing detail. We talk about his TV-honed pace, the enthusiasm that powers a long day of blood and latex, and the little choices that keep a slasher grounded instead of campy. The conversation dives into tone—how to keep the old-school spirit without getting stuck in homage—and why practical effects and tight blocking make even the wildest set pieces feel “real.” You’ll also get a candid look at the surreal milestone of seeing your own villain turned into an action figure, and why collectibles matter for building a lasting horror myth.

Beyond the gore and gags, we explore why this story reached beyond hardcore horror fans. The concept is immediate, the silhouette is memorable, and the craft rewards repeat viewing. If you’re curious about stunt performance, creature acting, or the anatomy of a great kill, this is your front-row seat to the process that turns ideas into nightmares. Hit play, then tell us your boldest sequel prediction. If you enjoyed this conversation, follow the show, share it with a horror-loving friend, and leave a review to help others find us.

Chapters

• 0:00 Meet The Thanksgiving Team
• 0:34 Old‑School Slasher Roots
• 1:55 Bringing The Trailer To Life
• 2:10 Inside The Killer’s Movement
• 3:16 Sequel Rumors And Merch
• 4:16 The Collectors Confess
• 5:54 Eli Roth’s Fast, Bloody Vision
• 7:35 Genre Revival And Mainstream Reach
• 8:44 Wrap Up And Goodbyes

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Sam Fitch official here at Horror 2025 with Terry and Alex Armburg from Thanksgiving. Amazing uh tribute to the old school style of the slash movie uh originally from uh Grine House. Yes, which was I saw that for my birthday when it came out in the theater way back uh almost almost like 20 years ago now. What was it like uh working on the film with Eli, uh who also missed on my birthday?

SPEAKER_05: 0:41

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 0:42

Uh it was awesome, great experience. Um for me, I'm used to working on uh a lot of the action shows, but I guess I do watch pills and stuffing, but that's the one that's particularly unique because of all the different types of kills we got to do, and Thanksgiving themed, of course. Yeah, everything's very unique from that point of view. So awesome, awesome.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02

Yeah, and uh I just love everything about it. Chocolate water, the cast that was evolved.

SPEAKER_04: 1:14

Better not have it again either.

SPEAKER_02: 1:17

Yeah, yeah, exactly. No, it was great. It was very awesome, awesome.

SPEAKER_00: 1:22

Uh what was involved in like the kind of like if if you could say how they kind of go through. Two machete would be still uh to to try and come into uh big uh real film.

SPEAKER_01: 1:55

Fifteen years later, yeah. I think it was in his mind for quite a while. And like him and his best friend wrote the movie, so I think they've been kind of trying to get it made for quite some time, and um they spent a lot of time to sort of uh stew over what they wanted to do with it and affected Lines. So um, yeah, in terms of like the killer, um I basically I didn't know much about the movie or the whole concept before even like being hired for it. And um, yeah, I just uh for the first fight scene that's what the first time that I was in the costume, I wasn't sure about what to do exactly, and uh he gave me some directions once I got across that. Yeah. Usually we do all these reverses and stuff, but this one showed up. And he uh he kind of just came up with something in the moment using our environment, so it just behaved very organically. Yeah. In terms of like the movement, so he kind of told me like you know like where to go from pointing me and stuff, but he didn't give me much direction on like how to carry myself. So I just kind of try to t you know, take it um under uh try to do it myself basically and figure out okay, if it use the character, what is the background, how would he learn? So I I incorporate that. So is it the character and then see the like it and then?

SPEAKER_00: 3:16

There's uh another Thanksgiving or supposed to be in March.

SPEAKER_01: 3:24

Um yeah, we'll see if that's uh the last I heard anyway, so I'll see if that keeps going. But uh yeah, it's gonna be coming soon. Awesome, awesome. And they they do have an action figure, right? There's several actually, yeah. Yeah, I think there's there's three neck the ones that are out now, and then I think there's another move from the gamut, too.

SPEAKER_00: 3:42

So yeah, they're doing a really good job with all of the working things. What is it like when someone brings an action figure? Like much like you know, like Jason, Myers, the other face, and all these like iconic slasher elements to the after still portrayed them. What is it like to kind of see essentially yourself in like uh you know when a fan comes and it's like you know, I want to uh awesome in this, you know, can you find this?

SPEAKER_01: 4:16

It's pretty sweet. Yeah, it's like you know's dream. Yeah, exactly. It's your trying to get dreams coming through. It's crazy. And I'm a collector myself, so I like to I get all of these things too just to have them. You know, maybe they'll be worth something one day for my kids or whatever. Right.

SPEAKER_05: 4:30

So like, yeah, it's um stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 4:34

Charizard TV. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 4:37

I'm just bringing up a dramatic memory, just as a part of Kathleen's revenge, right?

SPEAKER_01: 4:41

I used to have Charizard graphic card when I was younger, now it's worth a bunch of money. My mom maybe cared a bit more. She learned a lot about it, basically.

SPEAKER_00: 4:50

I I am an avid collector as well. Yeah. I had to put them hold because they were getting different. Not in a hobby. Yeah, yeah. It was for me too as a kid. Yeah. So it was like an obsession. I I mean as a kid, I I went ahead and you know, bought all the stuff, and of course, you know, or open the box, I had to play with it, you know, and then as as an adult selectors come on.

SPEAKER_04: 5:15

Um, I feel like this is a therapist session, boys. Tell me about your childhood addictions, traumas. Right, right. How can mommy help with? What can I do?

SPEAKER_00: 5:32

How does it make you feel? Right, right. No, really, but um uh anything about Eli uh that you might not have a friend and uh for his fans and everything. Um I don't know. Not not his address. No, no. I don't even know what he's doing.

SPEAKER_04: 5:53

Well he just had a baby. Does everyone know that he did that? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 5:57

No, he's definitely uh really fun to work for. I love fast pace. Like I started my career in TV mostly, so it was like nine months of like, you know, 20 pages a day. I love that pace, and he kind of works at that fast kind of print.

SPEAKER_04: 6:10

Um, but when he like we talked about passion for this sick shit, it's real. Like it is to me, like you should see my monitor when he watches everyone's like, yeah, and like at one point when uh when I had gone into the trailer to get all my prosthetics on to be like, you know, like my extra crispy version of being going until the end of it, I walked in, you know, and he looked at me and literally I think I saw a heart out of his eyes, and he was like, wow, you look amazing.

SPEAKER_02: 6:37

And I was like, I don't like the ugly I've ever been on like a Christmas and he's just like wow, he's like, oh yeah. When I was a bit of a lady, and he was like, Yeah, whatever, but I guess because I was just like the grossest version, he's like, wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 6:53

So he is that guy. Awesome, awesome. I mean, I I've been a fan of this since you know the starter sports Carantino as well as Elizabeth.

unknown: 7:08

I like the sports screen right here now.

SPEAKER_00: 7:10

It's Mario's published on Amazon. Dorothy Zombie Love Story, Ambrose Pearson's great. Check it out, you books. Um I mean all their films, including Rodriguez on the show, um amazing pieces like on the entire world on Amazon. Um I kind of think they're gonna revive like you know how they think outside of the box, you know, and bring something new to the table, especially uh reviving Thanksgiving and the slasher, you know, genre tranch, which you know had dwindled a lot, you know, since like probably you know with the last one we thought was like National Friday the 13th.

SPEAKER_04: 8:11

We were really surprised at how mainstream they were in the game. We were like, wait, we thought it was probably horror fans only, you know. Like people who weren't horror fans on, they were like, it was fun.

SPEAKER_00: 8:22

Right, and and sick individuals like me who uh you know threw up with Rhine House, you know, seeing all those trailers in there was like only this was real. I mean except they called that machete and we literally got like machete shot for shot in the trailer in the movie, you know. So it's it's been a pleasure uh having you guys uh swim in the bowl. Uh I hope the temperature was just right. Just right.

SPEAKER_02: 8:58

Lukewarm, nice. Perfect. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00: 9:01

Awesome, thank you so much. Awesome, appreciate it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02: 9:05

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 9:05

Absolutely.