10 Recent Horror Movies That Had No Right To Be This Good

2. Thanksgiving

If there's one horror director today who won the Hollywood lottery, it's Eli Roth. He's made close to ten features now, and almost none of them have actually been any good. Although Roth's love for horror is always evident in his cinematic homage, his movies have tended to be shallow, excessively cruel gore-fests filled with repulsive characters. 

That's why Thanksgiving is such a shock. No word of a lie, this is a bloody good romp. As is often the case with Roth, Thanksgiving pays homage to past horror films - slasher cinema, in this case - and this time around, it's a legitimately strong pastiche that's actually considerably better than most of the movies from the slasher genre's heyday. Alongside the references, Roth adds a gripping murder-mystery story, some well-executed dark comedy, and a multitude of brutally tense set-pieces, making this an enormously entertaining time at the cinema. 

Better still, despite the grotesque gore, Thanksgiving doesn't feel overly mean-spirited, unlike, say, the Hostel films or, worse still, The Green Inferno. Also, Roth's characters are actually likable for a change, and in an era where so many horror movies bungle their twists, this one manages to come up with a clever rug-pull that you probably won't see coming. 

Thanksgiving has its flaws - most notably, there are some glaringly obvious reshoots in the final act - but this is still delightful Friday night fare. Who knew Eli Roth had this in him?