Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving is getting the board game treatment from Stop the Killer Games

Over the last few years, Stop the Killer Games has brought us board games that were inspired by classic slasher movies like My Bloody Valentine, Halloween II, and Silent Night, Deadly Night. Now they have a new slasher movie-inspired board coming our way this November – and the inspiration for this one is more modern than the movies that previously got the board game treatment. In fact, this one was just released last year! It’s Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving (read our review HERE, check out our interview with Roth at THIS LINK) and Thanksgiving: John Carver’s Carving Board Game is available for pre-order through the Stop the Killer website.

Designed by Roth and Jon Cohn, Thanksgiving: John Carver’s Carving Board Game has the following description: In this game based on Eli Roth’s hit film, players start by attending an in-store Black Friday sale that gets way out of hand, with people dying in horrific ways in every aisle! But things go from bad to worse because a killer wearing a John Carver mask is also on the loose murdering the townsfolk in droves! Unlike the movie, you are rewarded for dying… A LOT! The player who dies the most is revealed to be John Carver, triggering a final battle between the rest of the players and Carver! Who will win? And more importantly, will they be thankful for their victory?

The game was produced by Anthony Masi and Nate Ragon, with promotion and development by Fright Rags, and illustration by Zachary Jackson Brown.

Roth told our friends at Bloody Disgusting, “When we started production on Thanksgiving, Jeff Rendell gave me the board game Silent Night, Deadly Night. I had it in my office during shooting, I thought it was so hilarious and perverse, we actually said, ‘What if we made a board game out of Thanksgiving?’ By complete coincidence, the team at Stop the Killer reached out to me after the film was released, and I said not only do I want to do it, I had specifically been thinking about all the things we could do if we were ever to make one. I worked with the incredible team of game masters, writers, designers, and horror uber-fans to come up with something that was not only fun, but was playable multiple times with different ridiculous results. I dreamed of making a game that you could play after you watched the movie, or if you wanted to live in the world of the game and go deeper into the strange characters and twisted killings, you can go inside the film through the game. I wanted real participation not just in trying to win, but in audience creativity. If you’re good at coming up with great kills, you just might be able to survive John Carver’s Carving Board. I was deeply involved in every aspect of the game, and wanted something that could ruin any family Thanksgiving gathering.“

Cohn added, “Eli laid out three very clear mandates for the game: create the most offensive holiday game ever, make it easy enough for Grandma to learn, and make sure Grandma absolutely hates it. I’ve made a number of licensed games in my career, but this was the first time I had a chance to co-design a project alongside the actual creator. Eli has been an incredible collaborator on this game, he’s been dedicated every step of the way to push the experience into something tailor-made for anyone who is a fan of Thanksgiving. In every meeting, Eli has been incredibly supportive of the game’s direction, and is always ready with an idea to elevate the game to the next level. He even went as far as writing an entire deck of trivia cards specifically for players visiting McCarty’s Party (the only safe place in Plymouth)! During each round, one player assumes the role of John Carver, then acts as Judge, Jury, and Executioner as the rest of the players take their turns. Those players will be prompted to provide the most outrageous, gory, and gross answers possible, leaving it up to the current Carver player to choose who dies at any given moment. One of the hardest aspects of making games based on horror films is figuring out how to deal with the fact that there’s a murderer going around killing all of the characters you’re supposed to be playing as. Thanks to Eli’s mandate, I came up with an idea that’s sort of the opposite experience of most horror games. In Thanksgiving, you actually WANT to die… a lot!“

I haven’t had the chance to play the Stop the Killer games yet, but they sound like a blast, and this Thanksgiving board game definitely sounds like something I would like to add to my collection.

Will you be buying Thanksgiving: John Carver’s Carving Board Game? Let us know by leaving a comment below.