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The Wright Family

Jessica

Jessica Wright

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2774bbd5_9e9f_4a4d_ae67_fa2d7b79e36a.jpeg

Played by: Nell Verlaque

Everyone Has Standards: She makes it clear that she doesn't like her stepmother Kathleen (and for good reason). However, she didn't want her dead and was just as horrified as everyone else when the Carver serves her cooked corpse on the table.
Final Girl: Basically this; other victims survive the Carver's rampage, but Jessica is the one who actively takes the fight to him.
Nice Girl: She's a polite and kind-hearted person.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- She admits that she shouldn't have allowed her friends to enter the store early through the employee entrance that angered the impatient crowd outside making them break down the doors leading to the Black Friday riot.
- When she finds the store footage of the riot that Kathleen tried to erase, her unknowingly revealing it to the Carver increased the number of people he chose to "bring" to his table for dinner.
- After Yulia's death, Jessica proposes a plan that she, Thomas, her friends (and Kathleen) all come out as bait in the Thanksgiving 2023 parade to lure out the Carver who is targeting them. The Carver had planned ahead of Jessica and uses a different costume (as a clown), colored smoke grenades to disorient the cops and a tranquilizer to sedate and abduct all of Jessica's group when they all stupidly grouped into the same police car just because a confused panicking deputy ordered them to do so.
Oh, Crap!: She has a big one when she figures out that Newlon is the Carver.
The Protagonist: Jessica is the main character of the story as she tries to survive the Carver's rampage alongside her friends and tries to figure out why he is targeting them.
Spoiled Sweet: She comes from a well-off family who owns one of the biggest stores in town, but remains a well-meaning person who cares about others.
Unwitting Pawn: Newlon exploited her desire to help by using the information she gathered to track down more of the rioters from last year, resulting in the deaths of Lonnie, Amy, and Lionel.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Right after Jessica gave Newlon all the info he needed on the rioters, he tries to kill her at her school. He then tries it again after "dinner" at the warehouse after being exposed and reveals he was the Carver this whole time angry at Jessica for both Amanda and his baby's deaths.

Thomas

Thomas Wright

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/82fe6d13_3926_4d42_a0b7_6b87e6d8a8b1.jpeg

Played by: Rick Hoffman

The Atoner: After the riot, he devotes part of his time to donating to public institutions in the town and starts a foundation to give money to kids going to college. He also apologizes to Jessica for pushing her away with his workaholic behavior and later cancels the Black Friday sale for RightMart after Yulia's death.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: The families of the victims of the RightMart riot try to paint him as this; Mitch and his (or Amanda's possible family or friends) boycott the parade for being sponsored by Thomas Wright and after Jessica gave away that Kathleen was the one who convinced Thomas to open the store early the Carver attempts to force him to eat a piece of his Gold Digger wife's leg.
Familial Cannibalism Surprise: The Carver cooks Kathleen alive and attempts to force Thomas to eat a piece of her leg's flesh.
Heel Realization: As the Carver's murders escalate, he realizes how short-sighted and insensitive he's become in regards to his business and how he's been with Jessica, giving her a genuine apology and making amends with her as well as agreeing to close the store down for Thanksgiving.
Innocently Insensitive: Thomas refuses to close RightMart on the one year anniversary of the riot, which prompts massive backlash from people accusing him of being greedy. It turns out he was just throwing himself into his work to deal with the pain of his wife's death but didn't consider how insensitive he was being until being called out on it by multiple people including Jessica.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He comes across as rather aloof, uncaring, and insensitive, but at the end of the day, he's really not a bad guy. He just didn't know how to deal the pain of his wife's death and so tried to cover up the grief by disappearing into his work. He genuinely apologizes to his daughter for ignoring her pain and agrees to try to do better. Later on, he agrees to shut the store down for Thanksgiving after more people are murdered.
Redemption Equals Life: He starts seeming like a greedy, workaholic asshole who neglects his daughter and is more concerned with keeping RightMart open on Thanksgiving while taking no accountability for the riot the prior year. It's gradually revealed that his worst tendencies got the better of him after his wife's death, something marrying Kathleen exacerbated. As the John Carver killings escalate, he has a Heel Realization and starts doing better, even declaring that he'll close RightMart on Thanksgiving. He thankfully survives by the end of the movie.
Vomit Indiscretion Shot: He vomits through his gag after seeing his second wife cooked like a turkey.

Kathleen

Kathleen Wright

Played by: Karen Cliche

Asshole Victim: She was the one who pressured Thomas to open the store even earlier and deleted the video footage of the riot to keep her company from being hit with lawsuits. It amounts to All for Nothing since there were witnesses who recorded the riot with their own phones, and later on Jessica found the store's video footage anyways and unknowingly revealed it to the Carver.
Cruel and Unusual Death: Kathleen is not only shoved alive into an oven and burned to death, but her cooked corpse is decapitated, desecrated to look like a Thanksgiving turkey, then presented to her family.
Dirty Coward: Downplayed. While in the Carver's house, she finds Amy stuffed in a plastic bag in the fridge and Amy begs her for help. Kathleen couldn't risk doing so because freeing Amy from her bag could take too long and make too much sound to evade the Carver, only locking Amy back in the fridge instead. Kathleen still fails to escape the Carver anyways since Amy's blood spilled onto Kathleen's feet and Carver tracked down her footprints.
Everyone Has Standards: While Kathleen is a selfish bitch who deleted video footage of the riot to keep the store from getting hit with lawsuits and bad publicity, even she still is horrified when she comes across other victims of the Carver.
Gold Digger: Highly implied to be this, having quickly married a rich widower very shortly after his wife's death, as well as convincing him to keep the store open on Thanksgiving, and deleting the security footage of the riot.
Greed: Cares so much for money that she's willing to let innocent people be slaughtered in her store if it means Black Friday sales will be bigger as she believes she can just erase the footage and get away with it. She learns nothing a year later when she tries arguing with Thomas for deciding to close the store on Thanksgiving when the Carver's killing spree arises.
Hidden Depths: For as greedy and selfish as she is, Kathleen's still got enough humanity to be horrified when she finds some of the Carver's other victims. She's also apologetic to Amy when she leaves her in the fridge, specifically because the Carver's after her and there's nothing she could've done to help.
Never My Fault: She throws blame to Jessica for sneaking into the store with her friends and unintentionally stirring up the crowd, only for Jessica to call her out for her own contributions to the riot.
Off with Her Head!: While it was being shoved into an oven and getting roasted by fire that killed her, the Carver also took the time to carve her head off to present the rest of her headless body like a Thanksgiving turkey with all the trimmings.
Villainous Valor: Kathleen may be a self-centered bitch, but damned if she didn't make The Carver work for killing her.
Villains Want Mercy: After failing to escape the Carver's house per poor planning, she is shoved into the oven having been coated with butter, salt and herbs and frantically begs the Carver to let her out to no avail.
Wicked Stepmother: To Jessica. It's clear the two don't like each other, which intensifies when Jessica finds out Kathleen deleted the security footage of the riot. Though despite this trope, Jessica's still horrified when she sees what the Carver did to Kathleen.

Jessica's Friends

Bobby

Bobby Di Stasi

Played by: Jalen Thomas Brooks

Amicable Exes: With Jessica, even though she's now going out with Ryan.
Big Damn Heroes: He pulls this during the climax, saving Jessica when The Carver is attacking her.
Career-Ending Injury: Bobby's broken hand is described as this word for word, given that he had a promising future as a baseball pitcher. He mentions that physical therapy might eventually return him to form.
Chekhov's Skill: His throwing arm was fucked up after a rioter stomped on it forcefully enough to shatter. Physical rehab, however, was able to help him recover from this, and the final battle shows that he still can throw a mean fastball, which he uses to knock out the Carver, a.k.a. Eric Newlon, to save Jessica.
Crazy Jealous Guy: Rightfully jealous of Ryan, who was trying to steal Jess away from him while she was still dating Bobby, even more so after they hooked up when Bobby skipped town and cut ties with everyone.
Lovable Jock: Though he stops being a jock after his arm is broken during the riot and leaves the town for a year to work with his uncle, it doesn't make him any less of a good guy.
My Greatest Failure: After the riot, he ghosted everyone and left town to work for his uncle after his pitching arm was broken; he blamed Jessica for what happened to him because he didn't want to go to the store in the first place. Coming back to town a year later, he apologizes to Jessica for what he did, but sadly for him, his actions lead to her hooking up with Ryan, the boy rivaling for Jess' affection even when she was with Bobby.
Red Herring: A huge one: he disappears for a year after the riot, is never around during the killings, and is seen unmasked wearing the killer's outfit by Jessica…
The Scapegoat: …But it turns out that he was drugged and placed in the costume by the real killer, Sheriff Newlon, and comes back to save Jessica.
Spanner in the Works: Sheriff Newlon, the Carver himself, tranquilized him, clad him in a spare John Carver costume, and was going to place the blame on him for the murders, but Bobby woke up too early, knocked out Newlon, and escaped. Bobby then returns to knock out Newlon and help escape the killer with Jessica.

Ryan

Ryan Baker

Played by: Milo Manheim

Crazy Jealous Guy: Downplayed on the crazy part, but it's obvious he's jealous of Bobby.
Dogged Nice Guy: He's introduced offering to guide Jessica through the crowd outside RightMart on Black Friday, and encourages her to hang out with him and his clique despite her being with Bobby at the time (with the implication that this isn't the first time he's done this). His niceness pays off, because he starts dating Jessica in the interim when she and Bobby have broken up following the massacre.
The Friend Nobody Likes: None of Jessica's friends (with the possible exception of Yulia) are exactly jazzed up about him when the two begin dating, with Evan outright calling him "an NPC". They're also very quick to assume the worst when he's suspected of being the Carver.
Red Herring: There are a lot of clues pointing to him possibly being the Carver, but he ultimately turns out to be innocent.

Evan

Evan Fletcher

Played by: Tomaso Sanelli

Ain't Too Proud to Beg: He's left screaming for help and sobbing loudly as Carver pins his head to the dinner table and smashes his head open while livestreaming it.
And There Was Much Rejoicing: After the Carver kills him on livestream; everyone tied up at the table are horrified, but the commenters on the livestream eat it up.
Asshole Victim: He's easily the least sympathetic out of Jessica's friend group. He not only thinks it's a great idea to rile up a crowd of angry customers by taunting them, but once the riot begins, cares way more about capturing it on film so that he can upload it to the Internet for clicks rather than actually try and help. Even a year after the events, he feels no remorse about indirectly causing the deaths of three people, and doesn't seem to understand why his friends were mad at him for posting the video online. On top of this, he's an all-around antagonistic asshole who insults people without provocation, and even has a younger student do his homework for him… but refuses to pay him what he's due. It's not terribly surprising, or even that upsetting, when The Carver bashes his brains in.
Attention Whore: He's an obnoxious clout chaser who recorded the riot on his phone for online fame. He even tried to make the riot about himself as he proudly does a close-up on himself with an arrow next to the word "Me" to make it out like he's some sort of courageous hero for capturing the footage but when the Carver's killing spree begins and it dawns on Jessica and her friends the Carver is targeting those involved with the riot he whines he wasn't the only one with a phone (and recording the riot).
Bad Influencer: His first instinct when the riot breaks out is to start filming it; seeing it as a gateway to online fame, even when it becomes extremely violent and people die. He's also confused when his friends get angry with him for posting the video online.
Bullying the Disabled: Right before the RightMart riot, he parked his SUV in a handicapped-only parking space.
Hate Sink: Evan is a selfish, abrasive jock who was one of the driving forces behind the riot which led to the death of the Carver's lover and unborn child. Not once feeling an iota of remorse or responsibility for it, Evan instead exploits the tragedy by publishing footage of the rampage online while feigning sympathy for the victims affected.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Downplayed. Despite being no saint, Evan does care slightly about his friends. Keyword being slightly.
Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: He feigns compassion for the victims of the riot so he could gain more online followers.
Jerk Jock: Basically Evan's entire character. He's oddly obsessive about the "jock" part of it, screaming that he's going to play anyway, by himself if need be, when the football game against a rival school is cancelled.
Never My Fault: Despite clearly taunting the crowd (specifically Lonnie) outside on Black Friday for the fact Jessica let him enter thru the employee entrance, Evan acts like he had nothing to do with the riot.
The Sociopath: He took immense pleasure in recording and watching the RightMart riot (where he also contributed by kicking down a customer over a waffle iron box he was guarding for himself) while Jessica, Gaby, and Yulia were clinging onto dear life trying not to get trampled, even ignoring Gaby's pleas to protect her.
Token Evil Teammate: He is the only member of the friend group who shows absolutely no remorse for his role in the riot, and even seems baffled by their anger at him.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Evan persuaded the rest of the group to go into the store early to make a few purchases, and then proceeded to taunt other customers through the door (knowing, if not because, they include a guy he punched a few nights before that's still mad at him for it), provoking the subsequent riot. The Carver also claims that his video inspired his actions, and while he might not be entirely honest about that part, the video is still how he managed to identify a number of his victims.
With Friends Like These...: Really, one has to wonder why Jessica and the others still hang around, let alone even interact, with this guy given how much of a colossal douchebag he is. Especially after the riot incident. Though in fairness, they make it very clear that they, besides Gaby, aren't that fond of him.

Scuba

Claude "Scuba" Dybing

Played by: Gabriel Davenport

Lovable Jock: Scuba demonstrates his selflessness early on when Yulia is knocked down during the riot and he jumps on top of her to protect her from being trampled, and is equally caring and proactive trying to help people the Carver is after.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Scuba prefers to be known by his nickname; his surname is "Dybing" and his first name is Claude. When a police officer hears that, he observes that he can understand why Scuba prefers his nickname.
Wrong Genre Savvy: Played with; he's smart enough to consider carrying a gun around, going to McCarthy to loan him a gun, but he underestimates his own ability to use the gun, which screws him over when he's unable to kill the Carver before he threw his girlfriend into the path of a table saw, all because he forgot to take off the safety.

Gaby

Played by: Addison Rae

Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: She is girlier than her best friend Jessica and wears multiple shirts that come to a stop above her stomach, although she spends more time in jackets due to the cold weather.
Mauve Shirt: Gaby's not as central to the events of the plot as several of the other friend group, mostly serving as Evan's girlfriend. This makes it all the more surprising when she survives the events of the movie.
Nice Girl: Despite being with Evan, Gaby is one of the sweeter members of the friend group.
No Accounting for Taste: Evan is a greedy, belligerent jock, bully, and all-around POS who craves viral recognition, even if he has to tastelessly film the riot and post the video online to gain likes and followers, but Gaby nonetheless seems to really love him and is in tears after the Carver kills him.

Yulia

Played by: Jenna Warren

Ear Ache: Part of the Carver's attack on her involved him shoving cornholders in both ears, leaving her with at least temporary hearing loss even before she was killed with a buzzsaw.
Gutted Like a Fish: She's killed when the Carver throws her onto a whirring table saw: which cuts off some of her fingers when she tries to save herself, ultimately disemboweling her and throwing blood everywhere.
Spoiled Brat: Zigzagged, as she comes from a wealthy family, argues with her dad and wants to go shopping on Black Friday without waiting in line, but is nice to her friends and defends Ryan when he's brought up as a suspect.

Plymouth Police Department

Sheriff Newlon

Sheriff Eric Newlon

Played By: Patrick Dempsey

The kindly sheriff of Plymouth County.

Nice Guy: He's quite kind and polite with everyone, and very compassionate to Jessica's ordeal.
Police Are Useless: At first. He's completely ineffective in quelling the riot, and resorts to firing his gun in the air to try and get the crowd's attention. Otherwise, this is averted as he takes good, strong measures in trying to catch the Carver, supplying police protection towards his intended victims and coordinating security during the Thanksgiving parade, concealing a sting operation to trap him.
Reasonable Authority Figure: He takes the time to gently reassure Jessica while asking her to give him any evidence she has about the Black Friday riot, and is quite competent at leading the manhunt for the Carver.
Revolvers Are Just Better: He uses a large, stainless steel revolver as a sidearm.

Deputy Labelle

Deputy Brett Labelle

Played By: Jeff Teravainen

Newlon's uncouth deputy.

Drives Like Crazy: He quickly makes a left turn into the Capotain Diner without making sure it's all clear first, nearly ramming Chu's car in the process and when Chu chews him out for this ("What the fuck?!") Labelle rudely lashes back without so much as an excuse ("Fuck you.").
Informed Attribute: He's apparently infamous around town for being a Jerkass, but outside of his introductory scene, he's generally professional and not particularly mean-spirited.
Red Herring: He's set up to look like an obvious Carver suspect: having just moved to the area, described as a jerkass, and being seen getting a Carver Mask. It turns out he's not the Carver, he just works under his civilian identity.

The Carver

The Carver [SPOILERS]

The Carver/Sheriff Eric Newlon

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_1014.jpeg

"This Thanksgiving, there will be no leftovers!"

Played by: Patrick Dempsey, Adam MacDonald (voice)

Accidental Murder: The one death he didn't plan was the old man driving the truck pulling the parade float Jessica and her family were on. The car behind it crashed into the float, causing the front of the ship to plow through the window and run through his skull.
Ax-Crazy: Dear God, is he (especially when his victims are women, regardless of whether they have done more or less to hurt him than some of his male victims). Amanda’s death drove him completely over the edge to the point of carrying out brutal killings and decorating a fake Thanksgiving table with the corpses and serving up "food" out of people's blood, brains, and flesh.
Big Bad: The main antagonist of the film who goes on a violent holiday-themed rampage triggered by the death of his lover and his child during the original rioting.
Bad People Abuse Animals: Surprisingly averted. When he notices Manny's cat Dewey after killing his owner, he actually feeds it and even gently scratches its head before departing with its owner's head.
Break Out the Museum Piece: He trashes John Carver's house and steals an antique, bearded axe that he uses as his main weapon of choice.
Cool Mask: He wears over a black balaclava, a plastic mask of the founder of Plymouth, John Carver, who is infamous in-universe as promotional material suggests that he was a serial killer himself.
Clothing Damage: While preparing to cook Kathleen, he takes of his mask and places it on top of the oven, which is hot enough to burn it and partially melt one of the sides. The Carver likes the new look and wears the burnt mask for a while before replacing it with a new mask.
Devil's Pitchfork: He stalks and wounds Kathleen with an old rusty pitchfork when she wakes up as he's preparing to cook her alive.
Disproportionate Retribution: Newlon seeks revenge for the death of his lover and their unborn child, but his targets never intended for the deaths to happen. Moreover, Newton is put more in the wrong due to the wavering levels of heinousness of his victims/targets: some are more responsible for serious crimes (Lionel was the one who killed Amanda and her and Newlon's unborn child, Lonnie stole a megaphone and lied that the store was opened, starting the riot, Evan mocked the rioters, stirring up their rage, Manny, a security guard, abandoned his position out of cowardice, and Kathleen erased store footage featuring the rioters to avoid lawsuits, which interfered with the police investigation of the riot and prevented any of the perpetrators from getting arrested), others did bad things, not actions deserving of death (Amy, Lonnie's girlfriend, knocked Amanda to the ground during the riot and Lionel, the turkey costume parader stole a waffle iron from a dying man; the Carver stabs Amy, kidnaps her, and keeps her alive long enough to cut her jugular with a corkscrew and serve her blood as wine for a sick joke and decapitates the turkey guy during the parade scene with his axe), but others are blamed for circumstances beyond their control (Jessica and her friends, save for Evan, were just there at the store prematurely and didn't actively try to piss anyone off and there was no indication that Thomas knew that opening the store early, thanks to Kathleen egging him to do so, would lead to such chaos; Thomas trying to do good for the community afterwards and eventually canceling next year's Black Friday sale makes him even more sympathetic).
Even Evil Has Standards: Implied. While he's a vicious serial killer, the fact that he uses a tranq gun on police officers suggests he draws the line at killing them, which would make sense given he's the sheriff.
- He clearly has no regard for human life, but he seems to be against animal cruelty, if his Pet the Dog moment with Manny's cat Dewey is any indication.
- He's disgusted by Evan exploiting the riot for views by filming it, then putting the footage on the internet, so he punishes him by killing him on live camera.
Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Holy shit. He decorates a table for Thanksgiving, places the corpses or body parts of his victims at the table, and when he has captured the remaining victims, he starts mockingly starts serving a "dinner" of wine (blood) from a dead cheerleader named Amy, Evan's brains as cranberry sauce, and the pièce de résistance, the body of Kathleen, who was roasted alive, beheaded, and gets a piece of her leg cut out for Thomas to eat against his will.
Evil Wears Black: The killer wears a pair of black coveralls, black leather gloves, a black capotain hat, and a black balaclava under his pilgrim mask and is evil as suggested.
From Camouflage to Criminal: Possibly. The police suspect he might have served in the military based on his ability to evade capture.
Gave Up Too Soon: When unmasked, he goes after Jessica and Bobby with a fire axe, hacking away at costume racks, just stopping at the one the kids happened to be behind of but only because Bobby threw a paint can to distract and confuse him.
Genius Bruiser: He's a brutal serial killer able to scope his surroundings and get the jump on his victims. He also shows strong tactical sense, as he was able to systematically plan his murder spree and he's smart enough to taunt Jessica and her friends via social media while still being able to cover his tracks.
The Grinch: He hates Thanksgiving for its ensuing commercialism on Black Friday starting a riot at RightMart that took Amanda and her unborn child away from him, and sets out to destroy both holidays (conflated as just one now in Plymouth) as a form of revenge by conducting a killing spree hoping that his murders and shockingly graphic dinner will leave a ruinous enough legacy of Thanksgiving to dissuade the country from celebrating it as a time for feasting or shopping.
He Who Fights Monsters: He's the town sheriff who has become a serial killer seeking revenge for the deaths of his loved ones.
Human Resources: Invoked for horror; his Thanksgiving dinner with his remaining living victims has him opening the throat of a cheerleader he kept live after stabbing her with a corkscrew and serving her blood as wine, bashing Evan's head into a pulp and then serving up his brains as a sauce, and then cutting a slice of leg flesh from Kathleen, who he cooked alive in an industrial oven, and trying to force Thomas to eat it.
Hoist by His Own Petard: He exposes his own identity as Sheriff Eric Newlon when Jessica secretly takes out the phone he was using for the "dinner" livestream and records him during his Motive Rant, putting him on livestream.
Improvised Weapon: It's easier to list the things that were actual weapons used by the killer. The Carver frequently use objects on hand or in the environment in his attacks, which includes: a sink filled with water, a freezer door, a car, a dumpster, an electric knife, some corn holders, a kitchen knife, a tablesaw, a pitchfork, an industrial oven, a corkscrew, and an antique meat tenderizer.
Killer Cop: He uses his resources to enact murderous vengeance on many people, including his subordinates who didn’t have anything to do with the riot.
Laser-Guided Karma: He kills a man in turkey costume during the town parade, only to get seemly taken out when Jessica inflates then blows up an inflatable turkey of the same design as the costume the victim wore at the parade.
Man on Fire: Jessica seemingly immolates him by blowing up a giant inflatable turkey. Jess later has a nightmare of Newlon attacking her while on fire.
Monster Clown: Hides himself during the Thanksgiving parade by dressing up as one of these instead of his usual pilgrim costume.
Moral Myopia: He seemingly prioritizes subduing those who aren't on his kill list, but come the parade he clearly doesn't care about potential casualties after he beheads Lionel. The chaos he instigates to get to his other victims and cover his tracks results in an innocent man getting killed in front of his granddaughters.
Pet the Dog: Despite being a vengeful Serial Killer, The Carver takes some time to feed Manny's cat and even scratches its head before leaving.
Pungeon Master: Once he actually starts speaking as the Carver, he gets multiple lines that double as references to his murders and to Thanksgiving dinner.
The Carver: Gather round. Gather round the table everyone, dinner is served. (lifts off Kathleen's corpse he cooked like a turkey, making everyone shriek in horror) Now is that any way to thank Kathleen? She's been cooking all day! Let's start off the dinner with a cheer. (jabs a corkscrew into Amy's neck) From our cheerleader. Fresh from my wine refrigerator.
Psycho Knife Nut: He's seen menacing people with a kitchen knife and uses a drop-point dagger to attack Amy during the trampoline scene.
Razor Floss: After stabbing him with an electric knife, the Carver strangles Manny with a garrote sharp enough to decapitate him.
Sanity Slippage: It's made obvious that the death of Amanda and their unborn child drove him completely over the edge.
Serial Killer: The Carver maliciously slaughters those who were involved in the brutal riots at RightMart, but he also indiscriminately murders people who were completely innocent.
Suddenly Voiced: During the "dinner scene", he speaks with a voice modulator after spending most of his screentime silent.
Tranquillizer Dart: He uses a dart gun (which appears to have built around a Ruger 22/45 with a threaded bull barrel) to sedate people that he doesn't want to kill, but are in his way, or to sedate his victims for a more sinister fate. Surprisingly, the film averts One Dose Fits All, as Kathleen and Bobby end up waking up earlier than intended.
You Have Failed Me: The Carver offs Manny for failing to protect Amanda due to his cowardice when handling the Black Friday Riot.
Vigilante Man: Newlon is going after the people that escaped justice during the RightMart riot and lead to his lover and their child getting killed. He would probably be considered a good guy if he didn't inflict such excessive torture and death upon his victims, some of whom didn't deserve it.
Villainous Breakdown: After Jessica tricks him into exposing his identity on his own livestream and she escapes with Bobby, who momentarily manages to knock him out with a fastball to the head, Newlon, dropping all pretense of sanity, grabs a fire axe and starts melodramatically screaming and ranting at the two kids like an '80s horror movie villain.
Sheriff Newlon: JESSICA!!! SORRY, JESSICA!! This year!! There will be… NO LEFTOVERS!!! WHEN I TOLD YOUR STEPMOTHER, SHE WOULD MAKE AN EXCELLENT DINNER… THAT!!! WAS NOT!! A LIE!!!
Weapon Specialization: The killer uses weapons themed around Thanksgiving, including an old-fashioned bearded axe, an electric meat slicer, a meat tenderizer, and corn forks.
- After the parade attack, the weapons used by Carver lead to speculation that he has some sort of military background. It's at least partially correct since Sherriff Newlon would be trained in using gas canisters and flash-bangs for crowd control.

Residents of Plymouth

Lizzie

Lizzie McMullen

Played by: Amanda Barker

A short-tempered and rude waitress at the Capotain Diner.

Asshole Victim: One of the most vocal RightMart rioters and an unpleasant jerk even a year later before The Carver takes her out believing that she was the one who killed Amanda (when it was Lionel).
Car Fu: On the receiving end of this with her own car, as it is rammed into the dumpster she was trying to hide in.
Dead Guy on Display: Most of the Carver's victims are this on his social media page, but she in particular gets a second one, as her lower half gets placed on RightMart's sign as a twisted play on the store's 50% off sale.
Facial Horror: When the Carver shoves her face in a sink and then against a freezing cold door, she tears herself away from the door and is left with a serious wound on the left side of her face, to the extent that her phone's facial recognition feature no longer recognizes her.
Half the Woman She Used to Be: The Carver kills her by ramming her into an outside dumpster which cuts her in half along the waist. Her legs are left on top of the RightMart sign as a statement while her upper body is kept for the Carver's Thanksgiving dinner table.
Jerkass Has a Point: She's harsh and vulgar and clearly doesn't do it because she cares, but she's right that Jessica's group can't expect special treatment at the diner like they've become accustomed to at RightMart.
Made of Plasticine: Even by the standards of a slasher film. A dumpster lid can be heavy, especially if it's made of metal instead of plastic, but cutting someone clean in half just by having it fall closed on them is still a bit of a stretch.

McCarty

Played by: Joe Delfin

Arms Dealer: He regularly sells guns to the people of Plymouth. At the party he's throwing, he shows Scuba and Jessica his wares. Also downplayed, since he only starts making the offer after the Carver has made his first kill and threatened the kids, and when the threat becomes serious he lends the weapons for free instead of selling them.
Berserk Button: People not knowing who Black Sabbath is.
Teen: Listen, I just wanna know if it's worth it before we pay. I mean, I don't even know if this party's all that.
McCarty: Listen, kid... Sometimes things end up better than you expect, alright? Think of it this way: When Black Sabbath fired Ozzy in '79, you would've figured it was all fuckin' over; the end of an era. But then along comes Ronnie James Dio... all five-foot nothing of him, the evil, little elf. And he brought a magic to that band that they hadn't seen in years!
Teen: ...Who's Black Sabbath?
McCarty: Get the fuck off my property.
Chekhov's Gunman: Appropriately. Ironically, though, it's not his gun that saves the day, but his father's ring.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's not exactly the most strait laced or polite person, especially if you press his Berserk Button mentioned above and his willingness to sell teens drugs and alcohol. But when the killings start happening, McCarty willingly offers Jessica and Scuba some guns and hidden knives free of charge to protect themselves. He also kindly gives Jessica his dad's ring right before the parade sting for good luck. And to help her out in case she'd need to cut through some binds with the hidden blade inside it.
Metalhead: He is this in spades.
Spanner in the Works: If he hadn't given Jessica his father's ring, she wouldn't have been able to escape with its hidden blade and the Carver's Thanksgiving feast would've gone on without a hitch.

Lionel

A high schooler who dresses up as a turkey for the Plymouth's Thanksgiving parade every year.

Asshole Victim: In the 2022 Black Friday riot, he was the one who killed Amanda by ramming his cart into her skull and also ended up scalping her while arguing with Lizzie. At first the Carver blamed Lizzie for Amanda's death but after garnering footage images of the riot from Jessica, the Carver realizes Lionel was the real culprit of Amanda's death and slaughters him at the 2023 Plymouth Thanksgiving parade.
Jerkass: He was the one who killed Amanda by ramming a cart into her skull disregarding her life all so he could shop for non-essentials.
Nice Character, Mean Actor: He acts all cheerful playing a turkey at the parade shouting "Happy Thanksgiving!" non-stop, but really only loves the holiday for his own selfish wants, seeing he was part of the mob that stormed into the store and rammed his cart into Amanda.
Off with His Head!: Fittingly while wearing the turkey costume.
Symbolic Mutilation: The Carver completely cleaves off Lionel's head (with the turkey costume's head attached) with an axe.

Residents of Hanover

Lonnie

Played by: Mika Amonsen

The football quarterback for Hanover.

Asshole Victim: He is the one who stole Newlon's bullhorn and told the crowd to storm RightMart and skip the 10-minute wait and knock down the doors leading to the deaths of Doug, Amanda (whom Amy knocked down to the floor) and at least one other person while getting Bobby's arm broken in the process. The Carver slaughters him along with Amy after Jessica unknowingly showed him footage of the two grabbing a large-screen TV, a waffle iron and more.
Hypocrite: While he is mad at Evan for being a self-serving bully, Lonnie proves to be not so different given he stole Newlon's bullhorn asking the crowd to storm the store right away, causing Doug to be trampled to death and Amanda getting killed by being knocked to the floor and rammed with a cart. Also while he himself is mad about Evan punching him in the eye, Lonnie threatened to put Manny (a security guard for the store) in the hospital for daring to tell him to be "patient".
May–December Romance: Evan claims Lonnie is actually 30 years old and is dating a teenage cheerleader.
Neck Snap: The Carver kills Lonnie this way.
Opposing Sports Team: Given that Evan and Scuba play for Plymouth while Lonnie plays for Hanover, they are rivals but Evan justifies punching Lonnie in the eye by stating Lonnie is 30 years old (well over the usual age to play high school football) and was drunk at the time.
Jessica, Evan, Gaby, Yulia, Scuba, Bobby: Crunk ain't dead! Crunk ain't dead! Fuck Hanover! Fuck Hanover! Fuck Hanover!

Amy

Played by: Shailyn Griffin

A cheerleader at Hanover.

Agony of the Feet: She gets it pretty badly this way during her trampoline striptease, as she lands feet first onto a knife The Carver sticks through the trampoline. It's better than how the cheerleader in the joke trailer got it, but not by much.
Impromptu Tracheotomy: The Carver keeps Amy alive long enough to finish her off at the table like this, using a corkscrew on her neck to use her blood as wine.
Ms. Fanservice: Amy assumes the role of the cheerleader from the Grindhouse short film, but she's a lesser version of this as Amy does not go topless like the latter did.
Please, Don't Leave Me: Amy begs this to Kathleen as she was stuffed in a bag into a fridge by the Carver but there was nothing Kathleen could have done for her and locks Amy back up - only to get caught by the Carver anyway as Amy's blood spilled onto Kathleen's feet. Ironically, Amy could've had a better chance of survival if she didn't grab Kathleen's arm begging her for rescue.

RightMart Victims

Amanda

Amanda Collins

Played by: Gina Gershon

Absurdly Elderly Mother: While her age is never specified, she's played by Gina Gershon (who was 61 at the time of the film's release) and Newlon's Motive Rant reveals that she was pregnant when she died.
Ambiguous Situation: Her affair with the Sheriff is this, since we never hear about it from her directly. While Newlon was certain she was going to leave Mitch for him, it's unknown whether or not she said this or he just thought it, and she cared enough about Mitch to bring him dinner at RightMart when she didn't have to. It's also worth noting that while Newlon believed that her baby was his, it also could have been Mitch's. Plus, during the riot, it was Mitch she was worried about, not Newlon.
Asshole Victim: In hindsight, Amanda is one, but in a rather downplayed way, as it's revealed that she was cheating on Mitch with Sheriff Newlon, who also reveals that she was going to leave her husband when she found out that she was pregnant with his child. Even still, she is nowhere near as horrible as the other people The Carver takes out.
Car Fu: Or rather, Cart Fu. She died when a speeding shopping cart driven by Lionel on Black Friday rammed into her skull, killing Amanda before she was scalped.
Dead Star Walking: Played by Gina Gershon, a relatively famous actress, but her character dies within the first few minutes of the movie.
Death by Cameo: Gina Gershon dies in the opening minutes.
Death of a Child: When Newlon is revealed to be The Carver and the audience is shown more of his murder board, by the images of Amanda is an ultrasound, showing she was pregnant with his child when she died.
The Lost Lenore: For Mitch and Newlon. While Mitch was spurred by her death to quit his managerial job at RightMart and start boycotting the store, Newlon went a step further and, donning the identity of the Carver, enacted a killing spree against everyone he deemed accountable.

Doug

Played by: Chris Sandiford

A security guard on the night of the Black Friday Riot. His inability to open the doors to the store fast enough to appease the crowd led to his unfortunate end.

Asshole Victim: While he's this to a lesser extent than others, he was revealed to have been illegally selling prescription drugs to high schoolers. He tried offering Xanax to his co-worker Manny right before the Black Friday riot, but it's unknown if it's to get Manny hooked on it for profit or just to calm him (though it likely was the latter, given the bedlam of the waiting crowd).
Black Dude Dies First: He's black, and both the first casualty of the riot and first death shown on screen.
Trampled Underfoot: He was killed when the crowd pushed the door out of its frame and right on top of him, leaving him crushed to death as they stormed in.

Third Victim

Played by: Nicholas Reynoldson (listed in IMDB credits as "Neck Glass Guy", actor credited as Nick Reynoldson)

The third victim who died during the Black Friday riot, where he ignored his slashed throat in favour of grabbing a free waffled iron.

All for Nothing: He cut his throat on some broken glass and ignored it in favour of grabbing a waffle iron. Not only does he die before he even gets a chance to use it, but someone snatches it out of his hands after he dies.
No Name Given: The only victim of the riot who doesn't get named.
Out of Focus: Compared to Doug and Amanda, no one seems to really care about him.
Skewed Priorities: To quote the main page: "What's this? My jugular's been cut? Well, whatever, I'm getting that free waffle iron!"
Slashed Throat: He died from having his throat cut on broken glass from the RightMart door. It's more "Slashed Jugular" specifically, but they both get about the same results.

RightMart Employees

Mitch

Mitch Collins

Played by: Ty Olsson

The manager of RightMart at the time of the night of the Black Friday Riot.

Foil: To the Carver (Sheriff Newlon). Both of them were heavily affected by Amanda's death, but whereas Mitch quit working at RightMart and started openly protesting the store, Newlon took on a masked identity and started murdering everyone he blamed for the riot and Amanda's death.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He can be easily exasperated and abrasive, like calling the riotous crowd outside RightMart "a bunch of goddamn morons" to himself and not sugarcoating his words when calling out the Wrights and co. following the massacre. But he also is shown to be a loving husband to Amanda, and one of his main motivations for his anti-RightMart campaign is because he genuinely wants to prevent another similar tragedy from happening again. The Carver (Newlon) believed Amanda was exploiting his generosity for all it was worth.
Vengeful Widower: He seeks to end all Black Friday sales at RightMart angry that his wife Amanda was killed the year before. The fact Kathleen erased the security footage to haphazardly salvage RightMart's reputation only aggravates him further.

Manny

Played by: Tim Dillon

A security guard on the night of the Black Friday Riot who was in charge of pushing shoppers out until the store would open.

Asshole Victim: He's a cowardly douchebag who abandoned his job to save his own skin, which played a part in people dying during the riot. Needless to say, no one really feels too bad when the Carver murders him.
Bad Liar: In his last minutes, he tries to scare off the Carver that he's a fearless aggressive security guard. Ironically, the Carver killed him for not being this as he allowed the mob to storm the store and slaughter the Carver's close ones.
Cruel and Unusual Death: The killer rams a carving knife into his chest before wrapping a wire around his neck and strangling him, then pulling hard enough that the wire cuts his head off.
Dirty Coward: Downplayed. He was indeed outnumbered by the mob of shoppers, but he still evaded his own duties by bolting for his own safety and completely avoiding the mob at all costs leaving the other RightMart employees to hassle with the shoppers themselves. One year later, the Carver begins killing off those suspected to be involved in the Black Friday Riot of 2022 and had Manny marked (having scrawled "COWARD" and "RAN AWAY" on a picture of him on his kill list). Manny again tries running away by fleeing the country but is slaughtered by the Carver in his own home.
- To top this off, the dozens of other RightMart employees hassling with the shoppers were shown to be much smaller than him hence his decision to flee from the mob was incredibly selfish especially when he wasn't going to have to take on the mob alone.
Off with His Head!: The Carver decapitates him and steals his severed head to put on his Thanksgiving table.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Realizing how hopelessly outnumbered he was to the mob, he bolts while crying "FUCK THIS SHIT!!" ignoring Mitch's orders that Manny aid him and Newlon.

Characters / Thanksgiving (2023)

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