11 Recent Movie Plot Twists You Never Saw Coming
5. Thanksgiving - Eric Did It
As already stated, quite a few contemporary Hollywood films are dragged down by lacklustre plot twists, and one thing Hollywood just cannot seem to get right at the moment is the twist villain - something there's many terrible examples of in recent years (Spiral: From the Book of Saw, anyone?)
That's one of the main reasons why Sheriff Eric Newlon (Patrick Dempsey), the antagonist in Eli Roth's infectiously enjoyable slasher romp Thanksgiving, is so satisfying. Newlon, who's killing everyone he blames for the human crush that killed his pregnant lover on Black Friday one year earlier, is a twist villain who actually works.
As well as being a generally effective villain who benefits from viscerally intense murders and a motive that, unlike with many twist villains, doesn't feel petty, the reveal that Newlon is doing all the murders is a startling one.
Roth filled Thanksgiving with clever red herrings to lead viewers away from Sheriff Newlon, and it was a clever subversion in more ways than one. Authority figures are rarely the killer in slasher movies, and casting such a likable actor as Patrick Dempsey - who was just voted 'Sexist Man Alive' by People Magazine, no less - was a masterstroke. And Dempsey, to his credit, played against type well.