4 Thanksgiving Horror Movies (Yes, There Are THAT Many) For You to Gobble Up This Holiday!

It's Not Just the Turkeys That Should Be Watching Their Backs This Thanksgiving!
Photo by: Jack Lawrence, via Flickr. (CC BY 2.0)

I bet you didn't know that there was even one Thanksgiving Horror Movie, did ya? Well, there are, and boy, are they camp (both intentionally, and unintentionally, if we're being honest). As Halloween lovers will tell you, Christmas is king at retailers from about mid-September, all the way through January, and while it's super frustrating to be bombarded with Christmas Cheer while you're still picking out your Halloween Decor, Thanksgiving's got it way worse - I don't see inflatable turkeys out on people's lawns with their Santas!

So, in the spirit of giving, and giving each holiday its moment to shine, we've put together a list of some Thanksgiving Horror Movies that you're sure to love...or, at least get a kick out of.

• Blood Freak (1972) - Fresh off of his tour in Vietnam, veteran Herschell returns to the states just in time for the holidays. But all that goes awry when he pulls over to help the beautiful damsel in distress, Angel, who takes him home for the holiday. Her evil sister ends up drugging him, Herschell becomes an addict, and somehow, this leads to him working on a turkey farm.
  
  While working at the turkey farm, he is told to eat some experimental lab-grown turkey, and, well he transforms into a hideous human-turkey-hybrid with a taste for blood (you can't make this stuff up - seriously).
  
  This Thanksgiving Horror Movie is a classic for all the wrong reasons, which makes it a must-watch for slasher flick lovers this holiday.
  
  
  
  
  
• Thankskilling (2009) - Thankskilling is one of the newer Thanksgiving Slasher Flicks, and I think it's safe to say that this movie is undoubtedly an intentional send up to the iconic grindhouse and slasher films of yesteryear. It's intentionally campy, over the top, and insane - the opening scene dates back to 1492 and features pilgrims being terrorized by a giant evil turkey, and then flashes forward to present day (Leaving many questions to be answered, I might add - did the turkey continue to kill for centuries after it was first sited in 1621? Why is no one looking into this giant, murderous bird?)
  
  The story then follows a cabin full of characters who are obvious horror movie stereotypes - Billy - the redneck, Johnny - the jock, Kristen - the good girl, Darren - he nerd, and Ali - the dizty girl. They start telling the ghost story of Feathercloud, a Native American Shaman who was dishonored by none other than Billy's ancestors, and as legend would have it, Feathercloud used dark magic to create Turkie, the murderous bird seen back in 1612, and he awakes ever 505 years to exact his revenge.
  
  From there, your typical slasher flick hijinx ensue, and the ending is pretty epic, so I won't spoil it for you. Though the film has comically low ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, that was kind of the point, and it actually received funding for a sequel in 2013, aptly named "ThanksKilling 3" through a successful Kickstarter Campaign.
  
  If you love camp, then this is definitely a movie for you, but be warned, this is definitely not a movie to watch with your elderly aunt or young, impressionable cousins on Thanksgiving night.
  
  
  
  
  
• Home Sweet Home (1981) - In Home Sweet Home, one of the more obscure Thanksgiving Horror Flicks (seriously), Jay, a PCP addict that's recently been released from a mental institution, crashes a Thanksgiving gathering of friends (what some may call "Friendsgiving", nowadays), after killing one of the celebrant's cars, cutting the phone line at the house, and then joining the party as if these are totally normal, reasonable things to do. 
  
  Similar to Blood Freak, the theme of this movie seems to be more "stay away from them drugs, kids, or you might go crazy and slaughter every one on an important holiday", which frankly, is super 80s. What's even more 80s?
  
  Someone who's a total KISS fanatic getting killed with an overcharged electric guitar. If you're into Slasher Flicks that you find yourself asking "Why? Why is this happening? Why is this "a thing?" throughout, and you find that sort of horror-turned-comedy amusing, then Home Sweet Home might just be the Thanksgiving Horror Flick for you.
  
  

• The Giant Claw (1957) - So, full disclosure, this is my absolute favorite Thanksgiving movie of all time, and in my opinion, it's the best one out there. Part of the reason for this is because the film, which was made in 1957, was supposed to be genuinely terrifying - not - funny, which makes it all the more funnier.
  
  The film is black & white, and was definitely designed to instill fear in your heart a la Godzilla, Dracula, King Kong, or the other "Giant Monster Movies" that were popular at the time, but the problem is, well, with all that build up of suspense and tension, when the big reveal is, er, a giant turkey, it's just so ridiculous that it's impossible not to laugh.
  
  After an aeronautical engineer spots a mysterious flying object on a radar test, panic ensues as the military tries to figure out just who - or what - is flying at high speed toward New York. There are all sorts of theories throughout the movie that help build the suspense - could it be an attack pilot, could it be a UFO from outerspace, or something more sinister?
  
  It isn't until a local farmer explains that there's a giant angry turkey flying around, and numerous planes start disappearing out of the air, that everyone realizes that (duh) the giant ominous high speed beast is in fact a giant turkey (the irony being of course, that turkeys typically cannot fly).
  
  This flick has all the makings of your typical "Giant Monster Movie" Films of the time - dramatic tension building, a big monster reveal, and of course an epic showdown with the monster. All of that is well and good, but the fact that the monster is a giant turkey? Well, that turns horror into hilarity pretty quickly.
  
  

What's Your Favorite Holiday Horror Movie? Let Us Know in the Comments Below!