Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Thanksgiving (2023).

The Big Picture

• Director Eli Roth brings a vicious bite and gallows humor to his Thanksgiving slasher film, drawing inspiration from classics like Halloween and Scream.
• Roles in projects like Grey’s Anatomy, Enchanted, and Bridget Jones’s Baby have made Patrick Dempsey a trusting leading man for audiences.
• Patrick Dempsey surprises audiences when the real nature of his role in Thanksgiving is revealed, subverting expectations of him as the dreamy hero.

A killer pilgrim is set loose in the birthplace of Thanksgiving, in a slasher movie that has a vicious bite stuffed with gallows humor. In other words, it’s exactly the kind of movie that director Eli Roth would make. He is unabashed about showing his inspiration from classics in the genre, such as Halloween (1978), with a holiday-themed killer creatively and coldly dispatching human beings, and Scream (1996), within the mystery surrounding who is committing all these murders. But a secret weapon to making Roth’s Thanksgiving work as well as it does comes from an unexpected place: a certain actor in the cast. That would be Patrick Dempsey, who portrays the local sheriff trying to stop the killer. The actor is a familiar face on the big and small screen, with several roles that fans can be reminded of when they spot him. Don’t be fooled, though, Dempsey is not the dreamy hero here, despite what you may be expecting from him. In fact, those expectations are used to Thanksgiving‘s advantage. You’ve been warned, spoilers ahead.

‘Thanksgiving’ Has a Few Twists for Patrick Dempsey’s Sheriff

Eli Roth wants his November-set horror movie to kick off with the anticipation of a first kill. This is what the opening shot hints at; a terrific, moody callback to when six-year-old Michael Myers slowly approached his house where he would kill his older sister. In Thanksgiving, the camera is from the POV of a man, his breathing heard as he walks up to a house in the quiet of night. But no death follows when the mysterious, walking POV turns out to be Dempsey’s gray-haired, cheery Sheriff Eric Newlon and the home is that of Amanda (Gina Gershon), a married friend who coaxed him over for a Thanksgiving family dinner. Despite the horror movie callback, there is no immediate danger until later at a superstore’s Black Friday sale that goes to hell.

The residents of Plymouth, Massachusetts form a stampede, culminating in injuries to some and bloody deaths to a few others. Of those who die is Amanda, finding herself in the path of two shopping carts, her head then bashed and partially scalped. Understandably, Sheriff Newlon is horrified upon seeing her body. By the next year, a slasher emerges, determined to punish those for the Black Friday chaos. While Patrick “2023’s Sexiest Man Alive” Dempsey tries to keep Plymouth safe, he seems to be too many steps behind the masked killer who has taken on the costume of John Carver, the town’s first governor and a historical pilgrim the locals revere. That is until the big twist is revealed: Dempsey is not just Sheriff Newlon, he’s the John Carver slasher, with a personal rage over the November holiday — and Thanksgiving never makes you suspect him.

John Carver is a New, Vicious Holiday Slasher

Sheriff Newlon is not aggressive like Deputy Labelle (Jeff Teravainen), who never hesitates to swear at the residents. The sheriff greets everyone with a kind word, giving the impression he wants the residents to return to their family’s holiday plans rather than be fearful of an active killer. If there is a cop you want to encounter in this movie, without a doubt it would be Newlon. (Well, until it’s revealed that he’s the killer). Then there is the final girl, Jessica (Nell Verlaque), and it’s imperative we know who she feels safe around. When it comes to interactions with the sheriff, Jessica trusts him, not realizing she is getting duped.

Jessica’s family owns the superstore where the riot occurred and they have since hidden the camera footage of that night. Newlon, with Dempsey’s charm, disarms Jessica, urging her to hand over the footage. When she complies, she has no way of knowing she’s only adding names to his victim list. In a smart move, Eli Roth and screenwriter Jeff Rendell don’t restrict the John Carver slasher as an outright killing machine. In a scene that best sells the horror and the comedy to Thanksgiving, John Carver feeds the hungry cat of a fresh victim, whose corpse is shaking from an electric knife in their gut. Sheriff Newlon, under the mask, has that gentle side to him still, petting the cat before departing the house he just invaded. Thanksgiving does not fool Jessica alone, it fools audiences who might accept Dempsey as an ally should they remember the actor’s previous slasher role.

Patrick Dempsey Also Played a Slasher Detective in ‘Scream 3’

In 2000’s Scream 3, LA Detective Mark Kincaid (Dempsey) is put on the case to investigate a new Ghostface. Quite quickly, Kincaid turns into a suspicious newcomer through his adamant demands for locating Sidney (Neve Campbell) and dramatic lines that can be taken as ominous, such as when he states, “All I know about movie trilogies is that in the third one — all bets are off.” Adding to Kincaid’s potential for being Ghostface includes having a head busy with horror movie trivia and a poker face that might be concealing a lethal agenda. Lucky for Sidney, Kincaid is ultimately on her side. Not only that, but they get married; as hinted at in Scream (2022). If Dempsey tried to stop Ghostface, surely that means he would do the same with the Thanksgiving villain, right? 23 years later, Sheriff Newlon appears as an open book, warmer compared to the stern-faced, slightly off-putting Detective Kincaid. While he is never shown in the Carver outfit, in hindsight, this works with what the actor is known for. He often plays a familiar type of character in his career: the love interest, the authority figure, or both.

Patrick Dempsey Is Known for His Good Guy Roles

Dempsey’s Robert is a no-nonsense single dad in Enchanted (2007) who warms up to believing in happily-ever-afters when he meets Princess Giselle (Amy Adams). He is stuck in the middle of musical numbers, looking awkward and perplexed. He isn’t an adventurer at heart, he prefers to keep his life safe, which is not what happens when he revives Giselle with a true love’s kiss and subsequently gets himself snatched up by a dragon. The romantic side to Dempsey also includes Made of Honour (2008) and Valentine’s Day (2010), plus his clash with Colin Firth to win the affections of Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016). Of course, none may be as iconic as his long-running TV role. On Grey’s Anatomy, Dr. Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd is a brilliant surgeon at Seattle Grace Hospital, one of the ensemble’s central characters for 11 seasons. His love story with Dr. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) was at the heart of the show until his tragic death. Playing the swooniest doctor on television certainly established Dempsey as an actor that audiences could trust and feel at ease with. And who better to exploit that than torture horror maestro, Eli Roth?

‘Thanksgiving’ Lets Patrick Dempsey Show His Dark Side

The fateful Black Friday from the opening lays out what will cause Eric Newlon to become a villain. Amanda’s death deeply hurt him due to his admission that they were having an affair and she was pregnant with his child. He resolves to ensure his victims feel his pain through their punishment. Robbed of his romance with Amanda, Newlon is left with the ugly side of his heartbreak, in no way resembling the romantic leads Dempsey has played in past roles. Kathleen (Karen Cliche), the stepmom of Jessica, is captured for a special, gruesome death where she is cooked alive until the “bird” is done. The extra level of brutality applied here is not by mistake. Kathleen was a self-absorbed woman, the complete opposite of the late Amanda, and Kathleen’s demise afflicts Jessica’s father with the same pain of losing a significant other that Newlon is tormented by. When Jessica finally realizes he is the killer, with or without a mask, the slasher isn’t all brute strength as John Carver demonstrated in his kills. Newlon is sharp-witted and hasty, preventing Jessica from escaping in a tow truck by tying up the back cable on a beam. A shot of a turkey float getting inflated as the sheriff stands beside it with his axe is a perfect image for this holiday horror flick to depict the man’s hunger for revenge. His sense of duty is replaced with scorn for the people he was once dedicated to protecting.

Halloween and Scream deserve a further mention in how Eli Roth cooks up his villain. Eric Newlon is nearly devoid of his humanity while dressed as Carver, like the empty husk that is Michael Myers. Unlike the Haddonfield boogeyman, the Plymouth sheriff is mortal, resembling the Ghostface killers whose emotions (usually anger and grief) trigger their bloodlust. Messy behavior leads to a great moment for Dempsey. Brimming with over-the-top hatred, Newlon shouts from the original Grindhouse (2007) trailer, that he will make sure, “There will be no leftovers!” In Scream 3, Detective Kincaid delivered bits of campy dialogue, but Sheriff Newlon is where the actor can do that while tapping into an untamed fury — it’s about time Patrick Dempsey went ballistic in a horror movie! Thanksgiving ends with Newlon’s body never getting recovered, letting him slip away for hopefully another killing spree in a sequel. A villainous Patrick Dempsey is a reversal from the presence he is known for: he’s “McDreamy,” he is the “Sexiest Man Alive,” and by slashing his nice guy image, he can now be “Dark Dempsey.” In doing so, Sheriff Eric Newlon perverts various Thanksgiving traditions for a grisly feast perfect for any horror fan.

Thanksgiving is in theaters in the U.S. now. Tickets are available to purchase on Fandango.

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