Eli Roth’sThanksgivingis a Plymouth-based slasher adapted from his memorable mock trailer featured in theGrindhousedouble feature. The horror film starsPatrick Dempseyas the town’s sheriff and marks the first collaboration between Dempsey and Roth. The film also marks another first for Dempsey, and it’s kind of surprising. According to Roth, Dempsey’sThanksgivingNew Englander accent is no acting job, and the film is the first time the actor uses his native accent on-screen. If you need clarification on what that accent sounds like, think of Jeremy Renner inThe Town, Robin Williams inGood Will Hunting,or Jack Nicholson inThe Departed.
In a recent interview with MovieWeb, Roth shared:
“Boston guys, we love the accent. And even if you don’t have it, you still love it, or you grew up with it. Certain kids had it like wicked hardcore, other kids less so. And when Patrick Dempsey reached out to me about being in the film, he said, ‘Should I do a New England accent?’ I was like, well, one of my pet peeves, I hate movies where someone tries to do a Boston accent and fails, it ruins the movie for me. And he goes, ‘No, no, I grew up in Maine. I got like a light accent.’ And I’m like, ‘Are you? That’s perfect.’ He goes, ‘I had to lose that accent when I became an actor.’ This is the first time Patrick Dempsey ever used his real accent in a film. He really talks like that. So we knew that was meant to be, and once you get Patrick and me and [co-writer] Jeff [Rendell], we start like talking like Massholes.”
Related:Thanksgiving: How Eli Roth’s Fake Trailer Turned Into a Real Slasher Horror
Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving’s Boston Ties
Roth’s slasher follows a Thanksgiving-inspired killer, who goes by the name of John Carver (after the well-known pilgrim and the colony’s first governor), who terrorizes the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts - the birthplace of the infamous holiday. Due to costs,Thanksgivingwas filmed in Canada, but the New England connections don’t end with Dempsey’s dialect. When someone with a “wicked” accent auditioned at Roth’s Toronto-based Cream Productions, the director and writer learned that the woman was a direct descendant of Carver:
“I’m like, ‘How are you so good?’ ‘She’s like, I’m from Hanover.’ She goes, ‘Not only that. I’m a descendant of John Carver. He’s an uncle.’ I’m like, what? She’s a direct descendant. The woman who is in the diner is a direct descendant of John Carver. So we have people with authentic accents.”
Remaining as authentic to the area as possible was essential to Roth, who was born in Newton, Massachusetts, so if non-native actors could do the accent, that worked, but if they couldn’t, then “no worries.” While Mika Amonsen, who portrays Lonnie, is not a native New Englander, he mastered the accent. How did he learn it? Well, he only watchedThe Departed"600 times."
“What I like are those slasher movies like ‘The Prowler’ or ‘Don’t Go in the House,’ that feel like regional horror movies. There’s a Masshole horror film called ‘The Children from 1980’ […] it’s all made with like local Massholes, everybody has an accent in the film. So I love [Thanksgiving]. I felt like I was right at home,” Roth said.
Roth’sThanksgivinghits theaters tomorrow, and according to early reviews (including ours), the holiday-themed slasher is wicked cool. Directed by Roth, the film stars Dempsey (who wasrecently named People’s Sexiest Man Alive), Addison Rae (He’s All That), Jalen Thomas Brooks (Walker), Milo Manheim (Zombies), Nell Verlaque (Big Shot), Gina Gershon (Chucky), and Tim Dillon (Boston Psychiatrist).
Thanksgiving
