Summerfest 3 Day Three: ThanksKilling

Continued from earlier today:

Back to ThanksKilling.... ah yes, where was I? After making the audience sit through The Navy vs. the Night Monsters, it only seemed fair to reward them by showing a movie nobody was going to regret seeing. Oh sure, it's hard to regret anything that's 66 minutes long, but it should be telling to you, dear readers, that the Cap'n wanted to watch the same movie twice in one day.

There may not be anything I can do in a review that does justice to the demented work of Jordan Downey's ThanksKilling. It is a movie that, by its own math, takes place in the year 2126 (if you follow the title card that the first Thanksgiving was in 1621 and that the Killer Turkey strikes once every 505 years) and opens with Wanda Lust running around topless in a Party City "Pilgrim" outfit.

Of course, when you're watching a movie about a talking Killer Turkey, things like "Turkeyologists" and a Tipi made out of sheets that might as well be a TARDIS (it IS bigger on the inside than on the outside), getting picky about the details is a moot point. Downey and co-creator Kevin Stewart are aware of the inconsistencies of his low budget film and compensates by pointing them out whenever possible. For example, the turkey kills one character's father, and then wears his face (and fake moustache), and everybody buys it, hook, line and sinker. It's not surprising when the turkey says "You guys are retarded!"; this is the kind of film made by the young and fearless, the kind of filmmakers that have nothing to lose. In that sense, it's a lot like Blood Car, another anarchic genre picture that works as hard as it can to subvert audience expectations.

As long as the turkey is on camera, ThanksKilling is essential viewing. The periods when he isn't are laden with amateurish acting, wooden line delivery, and not one but three Jon Benet Ramsey jokes, so while they aren't the turkey, things roll along enjoyably. There's a daffy montage, a near-death vision, an actor named General Bastard, a text book on killing the turkey written in mathematical equations, and what I can only imagine is a reference to A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 4. Oh, and possibly the best comeback you're likely to find in a movie like this:

Darren: I've got something you'll never have!

Turkey: What's that Darren, a vagina?

At a certain point, you can only admire the audacity of Jordan and Stewart, who continue to push your expectations further in what barely qualifies as a feature film. Kudos, gentlemen, and I look forward to ThanksKilling 2... in space!