Eli Roth talks subverting the animal violence horror trope in Thanksgiving: "I'm seeing it from the turkey's point of view"
No matter how gory Eli Roth's films may be, the Thanksgiving director doesn't believe in the animal violence trope that remains prevalent in the horror genre.
"I'm an animal lover and I made a documentary called Fin about the slaughter of sharks. Sharks are completely misunderstood and killed for no reason. They keep our ocean healthy and keep our oxygen clean. But they've been demonized in movies and they're all being wiped out for nothing. It's complete insanity," Roth tells GamesRadar+. "So I'm always seeing things from the animal's point of view. I'm seeing it from the turkey's point of view. Whenever I watch a horror movie and I see a cat or a dog, I don't care about anyone else in the movie. I just go, 'Please don't let anything happen to the cat.'"
Addd Roth: "When I'm watching Alien, I don't care about the crew, I'm watching Jones the Cat. I don't care if everybody dies, as long as that cat gets off that ship and away from that alien."
Thanksgiving, which is a feature-length adaptation of a fake trailer that contains non-stop back-to-back violent kills, is more concerned with revenge of the human variety. One of the best scenes in the film involves a beloved pet who bears witness to something pretty gruesome – and we'll let you head to the theaters to see it for yourself.
A common trope that has existed throughout the slasher genre – and has made its way into modern horror – involves some kind of beloved pet being murdered by the killer. A good example of this occurs in Halloween 4, when Jamie's dog is hung by Michael Myers (and I cry a little just thinking about it). If an animal of any kind enters the scene in a horror film, it's hard not to be instantly on edge. Evil Dead Rises director Lee Cronin even cut a
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