Centuries later, five college students (good girl Kristen, jock Johnny, ditzy Ali, redneck Billy, and nerdy Darren) head home for Thanksgiving with their families.

As they are setting up, Darren tells the settler-era folktale of Feathercloud, a Native American shaman who was dishonored by hedonistic pilgrim Chuck Langston, one of Billy's ancestors.

Kristen tells the others about her run-in with Turkie, but they laugh off her story, until a baby rabbit (which appears to have been pecked to death) is thrown into their campfire.

Turkie beats them there, tricking Kristen's father (who is dressed as a turkey for an upcoming pageant) into letting him in by wearing Groucho glasses.

Darren finds a book about Turkie, and it mentions he can be killed if his magic talisman is removed, though the rest of the passage about how to destroy him is written in code.

Billy storms off while Darren cracks the code in the book, discovering that Turkie must be burned at the stake after a demonic prayer is said backwards.

Later, at a family's Thanksgiving dinner, the cooked turkey comes to life, and in Turkie's voice yells, "Do I smell sequel, biotch [sic]?!"

ThanksKilling was shot on a budget of $3,500 for 14 days in the summer of 2007, by college students Jordan Downey (director/writer/producer), Kevin Stewart (writer/producer), and Brad Schulz (additional writer).

[1][2][3] Due to the film's minuscule budget, Turkie's puppet was handmade in Jordan's apartment bathroom, many locations were locally accessible without permits, and casting commenced in a garage.

[6] DVD Verdict's Gordon Sullivan responded well to the film, writing, "In some ways there's nothing special about ThanksKilling—it's a typical slasher-style creature-feature where a group of college kids are menaced by a holiday themed killer who spouts one liners.

It premiered in Seattle in 2013 and off-Broadway at The Producers Club as part of the Festival of the Offensive in 2014, with Diana Huey, Gabriel Violett, Abe Goldfarb, Marissa Rosen, Jillian Gottlieb, David Errigo Jr., Mike Daly and Evan Woltz.