Thanksgiving ending explained: Who was the killer?

Gabriela Silva
The John Carver killer in Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving introduced a new slasher villain with the John Carver killer – but who was wearing the mask? Here’s a full breakdown of the movie’s ending.

Forget turkey, mashed potatoes, and all of the trimmings: in Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving, the characters are the meal. The 2023 movie takes place a year after a Black Friday event went haywire, with a group of high schoolers targeted by a man wearing a John Carver mask.

Echoing the whodunnit thrills of the best horror movies (specifically, the Scream series), the film makes you suspect everyone; is it someone in plain sight, or someone hidden away, waiting to strike?

We loved it (you can read our four-star review), and with Halloween fast approaching it, people may be checking it out for the first time. So, let’s get stuck into Thanksgiving’s ending.

Who was the killer in Thanksgiving?

Sheriff Newlon (Patrick Dempsey) is revealed to be the killer in Thanksgiving.

Patrick Dempsey as Sheriff Newlon in Thanksgiving

Near the end of the film, Jessica escapes John Carver’s attempt to cook her alive. At the storage facility where the Plymouth’s parade floats are held, Jessica comes to a shocking realization when she remembers Sheriff Newlon’s quote of noticing the small details.

She notices debris from the woods (where she’d fleed from the killer) on Sheriff Newlon’s pants, and it quickly becomes clear that he’s the John Carver killer.

He explains his motives (more on that shortly), before realizing that Jessica livestreamed the entire thing, exposing him as a serial killer to the whole world. He goes crazy and pursues Jessica, but she engulfs Newlon in flames after exploding a gas canister.

Thankfully, Gaby and Scuba survive their encounter with Newlon, and Jessica reunites with them before the movie ends.

Why was Sheriff Newlon wearing a mask?

Sheriff Newlon wore a mask in Thanksgiving for two reasons: to conceal his identity as a murderer (duh!). and to echo the violent history of the Pilgrims via his actions.

The John Carver killer in Thanksgiving

Roth broke down the mask’s design in an interview with Bloody Disgusting, revealing that the killer was originally called “the Pilgrim” until the film’s writer, Jeff Rendell, discovered Carver.

“The first governor of New Plymouth Colony was named John Carver. If that’s not a slasher movie killer name, I don’t know what is,” he told Roth, who said: “So when history throws you a softball like that, you better hit it out of the park.”

“So, we call them John Carver. Then we started looking at the design, and there is one drawing of John Carver. There’s one image of him. We took that as the basis for the mask. We said, ‘Well, why would there be this mask?’ Well, 2020 would be the 400-year anniversary of the founding of Plymouth. It was a big deal,” he continued.

John Carver killer in Thanksgiving

“It’s got to be a mask that was given out that everybody in town has that’s kind of weird and uncanny of this historical figure, but when they’re in your kitchen with an ax, that’s when it’s terrifying. You know? Seeing it out of context. Once they put on the Capotain hat, which is another word we learned for it, the hat with the buckle and the pilgrim outfit.

“I mean, you think about the Pilgrims murdering the Native Americans. We have a rampaging Pilgrim killing on Thanksgiving. I wanted to make a movie that would be a great fun slasher film, but if some kid wanted to write a paper for high school about the themes in this film, give them a lot to chew on.”

Why Newlon killed his victims

To better understand Sheriff Newlon’s motives for becoming the serial killer John Carver, the events of Black Friday a year prior play a big role.

Sheriff Newlon at the start of Thanksgiving

In Plymouth, RightMart is a popular supermarket, especially when it’s Black Friday. Jessica’s (Nell Verlaque) father, played by Rick Hoffman, is the boss and rich guy in town. He decides to have the store open a day early on Thanksgiving.

The movie starts with Sheriff Newlon arriving at his friend Mitch Collins’ (Ty Olsson) house for Thanksgiving. But Mitch is called away to work at RightMart when one of the employees doesn’t show up. Due to the chaos of Black Friday, the store is swarmed with angry, vile, and impatient buyers from inside and outside of town.

Jessica and her friends arrive as Evan (Tomaso Sanelli) wants to get a new phone. They sneak into the store through an employee entrance – angering everyone waiting outside as Evan taunts them. Mitch’s wife arrives with Sheriff Newlon with dinner and crowd control. The shoppers soon break free of the barricade and swarm the locked doors.

In the chaos, Mitch’s wife Amanda gets trampled and two customers’ carts clash and fatally hit her in the head. While the customers argue, they are unaware her hair is caught in the wheels. They unknowingly peel off part of her scalp. To stop everyone, Sheriff Newlon fires his gun.

Later, Newlon reveals that after his wife left him, he met Amanda and they had an affair, resulting in her becoming pregnant with his child, and she planned to divorce Mitch to be with him.

When Amanda was killed during the RightMart incident, not only did Newlon lose the love of his life, but he also lost his unborn baby. Newlon began targeting those he held responsible for the riot, as their negligence and violence caused Amanda’s death, along with the death of his child.

Thanksgiving is available to stream on Netflix now. If you’re still in the mood for something spooky, check out the scariest Netflix movies to watch this Halloween.

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