Thanksgiving: parents' guide
Best for ages 17 and up. Rated R for strong bloody horror violence and gore, pervasive language and some sexual material.
An extremely gory holiday slasher from Eli Roth, made for adults and only the most horror-hardened older teens. A year after a deadly Black Friday stampede, a killer in a pilgrim mask targets people in Plymouth, Massachusetts, who were tied to the riot. Victims are dismembered, impaled and even cooked, with lingering, graphic shots. Plugged In counted about 130 f-words. There's brief rear nudity, a woman's naked corpse with private areas hidden, teen drinking and talk of Adderall. The dark humor softens little, and the extreme gore and pervasive language put this at 17.
What's in it
Violence
StrongRelentlessly graphic: a store riot crushes and scalps shoppers, people are beheaded, impaled with axes and pitchforks, stabbed with an electric carving knife, run down by vehicles and torn in half, and one woman is roasted in an oven.
Language
StrongPlugged In counted about 130 f-words and a dozen s-words, plus "bitch," "asshole," more than 20 misuses of God's and Jesus' names, crude anatomy references and rude gestures.
Sex and nudity
ModerateA teen girl removes her underwear on a trampoline, briefly baring her bottom, before the moment is cut short. A woman is tied up, stripped and killed, with her nude body shown but private areas hidden. Also kissing and an affair.
Drinking, drugs and smoking
ModerateTeens drink heavily at a party, with vomiting. A teen buys Adderall and offers prescription pills to a friend, an adult sells alcohol to high schoolers, ketamine is mentioned, and the killer knocks victims out with drug darts.
Scary or intense scenes
StrongStalking, jump scares and grisly images throughout, including severed heads and a body served at a holiday table. The opening stampede is chaotic and intense, and the masked killer taunts the town online.
Sensitive topics
- Death of a parent
Worth talking about
The film opens with shoppers trampling each other for deals while teens film instead of helping. Talk about consumerism, chasing viral moments and what people owe each other in a crisis.
On our lists
Similar picks around 17+
Checked October 13th, 2026 against Common Sense Media, Plugged In, Wikipedia, the MPA, bbfc.co.uk. The age is our judgment, not an official rating, and every family draws its lines differently: read the notes, not just the number. Spotted something we missed? Tell us. How we rate.