Movie Review: Thankskilling

Have you ever been afraid of a turkey? In December 2008, I finally saw one I would fear.

Directing this 70 minute comedy/horror/thriller is Jordan Downey.

Trying to make it to Thanksgiving is: Lindsey Anderson as Kristen, Lance Perdmore as Johnny, Natasha Cordova as Ali, Aaron Ringhiser-Carlson as Billy, Ryan E. Francis as Darren, General Bastard as Oscar the Hermit, Chuck Lamb as Sheriff Roud and Jordan Downey as (voice) Turkie.

Back in 1621 a native American shaman named Feathercloud took revenge on a group of pilgrims for dishonoring him. Reaching into the darkest of dark arts, Feathercloud used necromancy to create
something vile to exact his revenge. This creature rose up and took it's revenge during the first Thanksgiving, and legend has it that this evil creation that answers to the name... Turkie will come back every 505 years to carry on the slaughter. As luck would have it, guess how many years it's been since the last slaughter? Nope, not 505 years! Unfortunately, for five college kids on their way back home for Thanksgiving, a dog has released the feathered evil early... by urinating on Turkie's totem. Now, these college kids have to figure out a way to stop Turkie, before they're... gobbled to death!

So, you've run all over town, cooked everything on the menu, feasted on good food, laughed with friends and family, and you're looking for something to do while you settle down for the evening. Well, now that it's time to throw your feet up to let all that food work it's way through you, why not watch a movie... or two? How many flicks you watch is totally up to you, but, I've got a movie that's perfect for the Thanksgiving theme. Now, it's not exactly a caring, sharing or giving themed sort of film, like one would think of watching during the holidays. It's more along the lines of funny, cured, murderous evil turkey, which was raised during... yep, Thanksgiving. Fair warning, this is not one for the kids! Not that the title shouldn't be warning enough, but just putting that out there.

Now, this one has a few hands helping out with the script. You have (directer) Jordan Downey and Kevin Stewart as the main writers, then Bradly Schulz, Anthony Wilson and Grant Yaffee chimed in and helped with additional dialogue. Really, it's a simple storyline that falls into the supernatural slasher flick bag, however, Downey and Stewart threw in a fine feathered twist to make it their own. 
                                                     
 
I really liked the playthrough of this one. It's funny, punny and down-right bad, which makes this one (to me) an A+ in the B (borderline C) grade flicks. The cast does a great job at bringing over blown a-typical characters (jock, brain, partier etc.) to life. Another cool addition was the music by Kajmir Royale. Then throw in the skilled cinematography by Kevin Stewart, which gives you plenty of fun and messed up scenes to hold your attention.

I have to say, I'm kind of impressed with what Downey pulled off with only a budget of $3,500. All told, yeah things look (extremely) low budget, but it seriously works for the film. They used a puppet for the killer turkey, (with Downey as the puppeteer.) There was even enough cash for Anthony Wilson to throw in a dash of animation which was used to break things up a bit and tell the back story of how Turkie came to be. During the flick things get a little bloody/gory here and there, and that's thanks to the special effects done by Troy Smith.

Overall, after watching this one, it became one of my yearly Thanksgiving tradition titles that I have to watch every year. It's so bad, that it's too good not to catch at least once.

It's rated NR (not rated) but has language, violence and nudity.

3 stars


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