PLOT: When a troubled family signs up to receive a special "Thanksgiving Experience" from a group of pilgrim reenactors, they get taught a painful lesson in gratitude.
REVIEW: While last year's Thanksgiving entry in Blumhouse and Hulu's holiday-themed series Into the Dark really could have taken place at any time of the year, this year's Thanksgiving movie fully embraces the holiday's history and iconography. Directed by Marcus Dunstan (THE COLLECTOR and THE COLLECTION) from a script he wrote with his longtime writing partner Patrick Melton and co-producer Noah Feinberg, who also receives story credit, PILGRIM begins with overachieving, status-minded suburban housewife Anna (Courtney Henggeler) revealing to her family – husband Shane (Kerr Smith), young son Tate (Antonio Raul Corbo), and teenage stepdaughter Cody (Reign Edwards) – that she has signed them up for a "Thanksgiving Experience" that will see pilgrim reenactors moving into their home for a few days to give them an experience just like the first Thanksgiving, complete with a holiday feast.
The first two pilgrims who show up at their door are Ethan (Peter Giles) and Patience (Elyse Levesque), and during the build-up to the holiday Ethan dedicates himself to trying to show this family that they need to appreciate each other more, and appreciate everything they have. This family does need the help. Cody has never been able to accept Anna as a replacement for her mother, who left on Thanksgiving when Cody was a child, and Shane is constantly keeping track of the stock market when he should be focusing on his wife and kids. If this movie were made for a family-oriented TV channel by a different creative team, a team that wouldn't have the teenage stepdaughter call a reenactment of the first Thanksgiving a way to honor "the whitewashed history of the Native American genocide", it's easy to imagine that it would have played out in a heartwarming way, with the pilgrim being able to open their eyes to what they have through some fancy speeches and acts of kindness. But this creative team has Ethan and his pals put this family through the wringer.
Dunstan and his collaborators gradually build up to the moment when everything goes wrong. Cody is always wary of Ethan and Patience, and even though she's a sour pain in the ass for most of the movie it's clear that we shouldn't trust them, either. There's something weird about these folks. Patience is the more reserved of the two, but Levesque is able to make her come across as a formidable threat when she unleashes. Giles, on the other hand, is allowed to go way over-the-top as Ethan, and he does a great job in the role, whether a scene requires him to try to genuinely connect with one of the family members or laugh like a maniac while inflicting pain.
Once things take a turn for the worse roughly halfway through the movie and the pilgrims turn to violence, Dunstan dials up the insanity of the entire movie to match the level of Giles' performance. He and cinematographer Lyn Moncrief, who has worked on several of the Into the Dark movies, clearly had a lot of fun shooting the pilgrims' antics, throwing a lot of quirky camera movements into the film's second half.
Fans of Dunstan's work from the COLLECTOR movies and the SAW sequels he wrote with Melton might also be glad to hear that he managed to work some old timey torture into this story. Characters are put in stocks, branded, strapped into a device that dips them in water… and that's not the worst of it. Eventually PILGRIM gets downright disgusting. But it's the kind of movie that's trying to make the viewer simultaneously amused and grossed out. If it's possible to chuckle while gagging, that's probably the response Dunstan is looking for.
One downside to PILGRIM is that I had trouble connecting with any of the characters, since they're all having trouble connecting with each other. Cody is our heroine, but she's not always likeable. These characters do need behavioral adjustments, the pilgrims just try to make it happen in a way that can't be condoned.
Even though I didn't always care about the characters, I enjoyed watching their journey, and I was entertained by the way Dunstan brought their story to the screen. PILGRIM is a movie about appreciation, and I appreciated the effort the filmmakers put into making this a Thanksgiving tale that's even more horrifying than the idea of having to spend the holiday with annoying family members.
PILGRIM will be available to watch through the Hulu streaming service as of November 1st.