Thanksgiving's Wild Black Friday Scene Was Twenty Years In The Making
This post contains spoilers for "Thanksgiving."
Eli Roth's "Thanksgiving" is a mean, lean slasher that ramps up on the gore and goes all out on the humor. While the kills are stylishly excessive, and the central mystery is perfectly paced, the film's most dramatically shocking aspect is its extended opening scene that depicts a Black Friday sale gone wrong. Right after the central group of characters — who are all unlikeable to a certain extent, yet not completely irredeemable — are introduced, they unwittingly trigger a stampede-slash-massacre at a local store holding a Black Friday sale. While the situation starts with an overexcited crowd hell-bent on hogging up products at low prices, things escalate when the crowd cascades inside the store, leading to several people being heavily injured or instantly dead.
There is a deliberate kernel of dark humor embedded within this sequence, coupled with a blunt look into mindless consumerism that comes at the cost of innate humanity. As the sea of consumers wrestle over waffle irons and grab whatever they can get, scalps get torn out and arms are twisted horribly during the stampede. This incident acts as the catalyst for the terrifying events to come, and sets the tone of Roth's film from early on: there are no limits here, there are no genre rules to be followed, and no one is safe from the chaos that unravels in Plymouth over a year.
Roth broke down the mechanics of shooting this intense sequence in an interview with ReelBlend Podcast, speaking at length about how this scene, which was twenty years in the making, came together.
Mapping out chaos in Roth's Thanksgiving
Roth explained that the Black Friday scene was shot in four nights, with the duration divided into capturing interior and exterior shots that were blended seamlessly. More than one camera was used to set up various angles, and with the help of "The Hunted Museum" director Justin Harding, Roth was able to translate the chaos of the stampede massacre without it feeling too rushed or haphazard:
"...For me, a great chaotic sequence works when you can follow what's going on and you see it through the eyes of the characters. So now I need these moments from Jessica, and she's with Bobby, and this is what Evan's going through, and this is what Gabby's going through. It's – if you keep it intimate, you feel the chaos more."
The POV shots of several characters helped ground the sequence despite its exaggerated nature. While some characters watched in horror and prioritized survival, others captured it on camera with insensitive glee. Roth went on to say that the dynamic nature of the sequence would have been impossible to capture without the film's "amazing, amazing stunt team," comprising 20 stunt experts and 600 extras who rehearsed everything meticulously. There was a real chance that someone might have gotten accidentally hurt, but Roth made it a point to guide everyone in a way that ensured that safety came first:
"We all have to act like we want to kill each other. But as soon as I yell cut, you look to the person to your right, [and say] 'Are you okay? Are you hurt?' Like, if you're gonna shove someone, let's discuss it and say, 'Are you okay? What are you comfortable with?' And it was great."
Ramping up the tension
The Black Friday sequence plunges "Thanksgiving" into brutal territory very early on, as the visceral nature of the shoppers is demonstrated even before the stampede begins. Crowds of people insult one another just to grab appliances they don't need, someone shouts into a megaphone just to rile up an already impatient mob, and people get so blindsided by their consumerist greed that they don't notice the dead bodies piling on the floor. The casual cruelty that weaves through the sequence has been demonstrated with remarkable skill, and Roth amped up the intensity by paying minute attention to the reactions of background extras:
"I was like, 'Okay, this – you gotta build the tension...If this is level one to ten, one being the lowest, ten being the most terrifying, now we're at a six. Okay, now we're gonna go to level eight of panic. But now we're at this moment, I need you guys at a four.' And they understood that...So you could really direct the background. And they had the time of their lives doing it."
Apart from talking about helping mesh the background action with the focal points of drama, Roth explained that the four-night shoot went smoothly because the cast and crew formed a close bond during filming. After all, Roth's "Thanksgiving" started with a fictitious trailer from "Grindhouse," and took years to plan and develop, and the director is thankful to the cast and crew for making the impossible happen:
"...It took, you know, nine years, or twenty years – nine movies and twenty years of making movies – for me to really have the mastery to stage a scene like that and pull it off. And it was the crew, we had a great crew."
"Thanksgiving" was released in theaters on November 17, 2023.