Watching “Pilgrim” is a bit like reading a great scary short story… but one in which a few key pages are missing near the end.
To be clear, there is much more about “Pilgrim” that I liked than not. It is masterful in its use of suspense to build tension and, when it does rely on gore and other horrifying imagery, it works within the narrative. Nothing here feel gratuitous.
There is also a deep underlying intelligence to the story, despite its simple premise — namely, evil people dressed as Pilgrims wreaking havoc on an innocent family during Thanksgiving to teach them the meaning of “gratitude.”
Yet are these people actual Pilgrims or are they insane reenactors? What is their agenda for terrorizing people into showing gratitude? Why does the main Pilgrim act as he does, and why do these others follow him? Why do they seem to have supernatural powers on some occasions and be ordinary humans on others?
The film answers none of these questions, and this is not one of the occasions when “we left it ambiguous to make it scarier” works as an explanation. Because we are never clear on who these so-called pilgrims are, where they come from or why they act as they do, the film feels partially completed. It leaves us asking frustrating questions about the story, which in turns diminishes our ability to relish the scary parts in retrospect.
I am profoundly disappointed to have to write this, because again, there was quite a bit about “Pilgrim” that I liked. It actually mentioned the racist and imperialist history behind the holiday, contained realistic family awkwardness and tension, included excellent performances from the main cast and remained consistent in its message of wanting to teach people to be grateful for what they had. If that message had been building toward something by including an explanation of the Pilgrim’s behavior, it could have amounted to a masterpiece.
Instead “Pilgrim” is simply a series of things that happen. To its credit, I often couldn’t foresee what those things were going to be. It was unpredictable and kept me interested. If you want to be scared with a Thanksgiving-themed movie, “Pilgrim” does the trick. It’s just a shame that the filmmakers kept hinting at having a really great payoff to all of the build up, and then couldn’t deliver.