The sequel to the original movie about a demented, foul-mouthed, murderous turkey. Yes, part three is the sequel to the original. Yes, it’s explained. Finally, yes, this is about the only part that makes sense.
When I watched the original ThanksKilling movie, I did so basically to see how terrible it would be. Much to my surprise, I really enjoyed the movie. Sure it was done on a shoe-string budget, it was overly campy, and the acting and writing wasn’t the best, but it didn’t matter. The movie was funny in spite of itself. After the relative success of the first, a kickstarter campaign was launched to raise money for a sequel. This is the result of that crowd-funded campaign.
From the outset of ThanksKilling 3, it is apparent that this isn’t just an ordinary sequel. After the explanation of why it’s the third, not the second (which is pretty great) the movie is so far off the rails, it’s in the ocean. And that ocean is filled with insanity.
Turkie is on a mission. He must find the last remaining copy of his movie ThanksKilling 2. Look, I have honestly been sitting here trying to figure out how to explain the plot of this movie and can’t. Partially because the funny parts are best seen during the film and partially because I just don’t know what the fuck. Seriously.
ThanksKilling 3 is a good movie. As good as the first. However, it is not even close to the same style of movie. The first movie was a traditional horror movie about a killer turkey, doing just that… killing. The sequel attempts to tell several different stories at once. There is the Turkie’s murderous rampage to get his DVD, and so very much more. A puppet (yes it’s acknowledged by the movie) attempting to find it’s mind, as well as a man trying to build “Thanksgivingland” with his friend. Somewhere and for some reason, there is a talking worm, Rhonda, who is hunting Turkie, but I don’t remember there being a reason for it. Now, if you read that paragraph without wondering “what the hell is this guy talking about?” then ThanksKilling 3 will probably make perfect sense to you.
It took the majority of the movie for me to even come close to understanding what was going on. Even then, it was more out of the realization this was the movie representation of a fever dream, than some epiphany over how the plot came together. That said, Thankskilling 3 really stepped up their production value over the original. It’s very apparent that they used a lot of cash for sets, props, puppets, and especially the post production. Visually, the sequel looks ten times better than the first. What a difference better cameras and filters can make. The writing is much the same as the first. While it isn’t going to cause any deep philosophical discussions, it has better comedic timing and several times I caught myself laughing out loud at some quip from a character.
This is one of those rare times that I am willing to use the reviewer cliche’, “If you were a fan of the first, you’ll probably enjoy this.” Honestly, I don’t think anyone coming into this movie passing up the first, would 1) have any clue what was going on and 2) think any bit of this movie was funny. I did enjoy it, but I may be a fringe case. I really hope these guys get a bigger budget for another movie, maybe not in this series, but somewhere. Maybe, just maybe, tone down the insanity just a tick.
*Full disclosure, the director sent me a DVD copy of this film which I used for review purposes.
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