Eli Roth’s Long-Anticipated Slasher Begins Production

After 16 years of waiting following the release of his fake trailer in Grindhouse, Eli Roth is finally putting the turkey in the oven. The Hostel director, along with Sony Pictures, announced that the horror slasher Thanksgiving has officially begun production. To kick off the beginning of the cameras rolling, they shared a picture of Roth’s director’s chair with an ax sharpened and ready to do some carving.

Roth has teased Thanksgiving would become a reality for years now, only finally making good on that promise earlier this year when it was revealed he’d be directing the project. The fake trailer paid homage to the (mostly) bygone era of holiday-themed slasher films, taking place in a Massachusetts town where Thanksgiving is taken very seriously. Absurd and gory, it saw the town become a proverbial carving board for an outsider hungry for murder. Utilizing a number of old-school slasher tropes along with a borderline-comedic number of decapitations, the short trailer is one of the enduring memories of Grindhouse with plenty of shocking moments including the grand finale of a head separated from its body and now sticking out of a turkey.

Most of the fictitious trailers would live on to be more than just beloved fake films with Machete and Hobo With a Shotgun becoming real features and Rob Zombie‘s Werewolf Women of the SS turned into a song performed by the director as part of his 2010 album Hellbilly Deluxe II. Thanksgiving might be the most anticipated, and most divisive, of the bunch, however. Roth is bringing his signature style from the controversial and gruesome The Green Inferno and the Hostel films with Jeff Rendell, his co-writer from the original fake Thanksgiving trailer, joining him as a writer yet again. It’s one of two films he has on the docket including the starry game adaptation Borderlands, though Tim Miller was tasked with handling reshoots while Roth finally cooks up his slasher.

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Who Will Join Roth for the Thanksgiving Feast?

A starry cast will sit down with Roth and Rendell for Thanksgiving dinner, including Patrick Dempsey who is believed to be starring as the town sheriff. Also starring in the film will be Addison Rae with Jalen Thomas Brooks, Milo Manheim, Nell Verlaque, Gina Gershon, Tim Dillon, and Hostel alum Rick Hoffman rounding out the cast. Gershon notably jumps over from Borderlands where she’s set to play the fan-favorite Mad Moxxi. Roth and Rendell will also be joined on the production end by Roger Birnbaum who previously collaborated with the director on his ill-fated Bruce Willis-led film Death Wish.

Stay tuned here at Collider for updates as Roth starts cooking on Thanksgiving. Check out the announcement posts below along with a mysterious post of a school hallway from “John Carver” as part of the production’s beginning below.