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31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 09 Pilgrim

TITLE-Pilgrim
SOURCE-Hulu

Last year in October I covered the film School Spirit. After getting Hulu right at 2 years ago I saw that Blumhouse was doing 1 horror film a month that was exclusive to Hulu. They were usually themed after a holiday in the month their premiered.

Since at least 85 I have wanted a good Thanksgiving themed horror. But the only ones I know of are that bad slasher with the Body By Jake guy,and the Thankskillings series. The latter isn't horrible.

Wanting more Thanksgiving set/themed horror I remembered Into the Dark. That is the title of the monthly series of films from Blumhouse.

One thing I have noticed is since Hulu considers this a TV series you will get like 3 or 4 ad breaks during the film.

Now yea the Into the Dark films usually get horrible reviews. The only one I had started before Pilgrim and finished was School Spirit,which was a fun but kinda by the numbers slasher set at a modern high school.

So Pilgrim.... Yea.....this was well it was a gory and in parts fun Thanksgiving themed horror. A stepmom,father,daughter and sickingly sweet young brother live in a nice neighbor hood. The stepmom invites some Pilgrim re-enactors to her big Thanksgiving party.

But these Pilgrims are strict strict puritans. And anything they find sinful or evil is killed in a bloody way.

Now sure the gore is well done and appears to be mostly practical effects. It is the acting and kinda dumb as fuck script.

Let me explain the dumb as fuck script a bit more. After the party where the Pilgrims come off as creepy, the mom invites one to stay with them.

This guy looks that insane from the moment he appears on the screen until his death near the end. Plus he loves to chew the scenery and just comes off as maybe he is small town theater guy getting his first shot at a legit movie.So ya the stepmom invites this nutty looking dude to stay with them until Thanksgiving.

Speaking of the dumb as dirt stepmom,there she is on the right in the stocks. Took me a bit to realize it is the actress that plays Daniel Larusso's wife on Cobra Kai. She is the only person in the movie I had seen before. And besides her just being totally obvilous to the creepy Pilgrim dude being uber creepy she isn't bad in the film.

The dad is the normal can't put work away when he is home dad you have seen in hundreds of things. Nothing he does stands out.

This lady is the other main pilgrim. She was staying with the daughter's boyfriend's family. Then kills them and then comes to live with creepy Pilgrim dude.

She was not bad really. Even if I still wonder how if these people appear to be human she survived a huge turkey needle to her brain.... There is a great scene where she is stalking the annoying little brother. And yea I was wanting her to kill him.

The stand out actor/actress in the film was the lady that played the daughter. She managed to play a fairly believable teen. And you could buy that she was smart enough to finally pull a fast one on the Pilgrims and manage to use tradition to kill them.

Yea the twist near the end,well the first of two,isn;t bad. Even if it was so obvious from about 35 minutes into the film. THe lead pilgrim is forcing the daughter and stepmom to help prepare the Thanksgiving feast. "No do not touch the ones with the green stems those and Jerusalam berries they are deadly."

Now he might have said cherries instead of berries,I didnt have the subtitles on. But Cherries makes less sense to me. Cause I always thought a traditional Thanksgiving feast item,one I dont eat,is cranberry sauce.

I hear him say this I knew it would be how the family,wasn't sure who all would survive,would defeat these evil ass Pilgrims.

The daughter manages to palm some of the deadly berries/cherries. Then places them in the bowl that she is mashing the non poison berries. But why did the Pilgrims bring the poison ones?

Now that final twist. When I saw what it was I laughed cause I wouldnt have seen it coming. Early on in the film the daughter wishes on a wishbone,for the THanksgiving day to be a disaster. All because her mother doesn;t like the guy she is dating.

The sometimes dumb as fuck script plus some of the acting being just janky hurt this movie. But the gore helped make up for those flaws.

Pilgrim gets a C+