Sheriff Eric Newlon, also known as "John Carver" is the main antagonist of Thanksgiving.
He was the sheriff of Plymouth, Massachusetts. When his pregnant girlfriend Amanda was violently beaten to death by two enraged shoppers, who later unintentionally mutilated her body with two shopping carts as he watched, Newlon was left heartbroken and depressed.
A year later, he secretly plans his own revenge by stealing a John Carver mask and axe, aiming them to murder all those he blames for her death, killing them with thanksgiving decorations, even those who had nothing to do with her death following the event of the mart's stampede last year.
Biography[]
Sometime before the Black Friday riot, Eric Newlon was Sheriff of Plymouth and good friends with many of the people he would later terrorize and kill. He was once married, but he and his wife split up, leaving him heartbroken. He found love again with Amanda Collins, his friend Mitch Collins’ wife, and began an affair with her. By November 2022, Amanda was pregnant and planning to leave Mitch for Newlon.
On Thanksgiving 2022, Sheriff Newlon responded to a scene at the early Black Friday sale held at RightMart, owned by Thomas Wright. Tension in the crowd outside had exploded into a crowd crush and riot, leaving at least three dead and many more injured. Amanda was among those killed, and Newlon saw her corpse immediately after her death, including the bodies of Doug and another man, as well as Bobby's broken arm. An anguished Newlon stopped the riot by firing his pistol into the air.
Over the next year, Newlon seethed over his loss and resolved to take revenge. He planned to kill everyone he blamed for the riot and Amanda’s death, however tenuous their connection. Most obviously, he targeted Thomas Wright and his wife Kathleen, who he blamed for holding the sale. A group of teenage friends - Jessica Wright, Bobby Di Stasi, Evan Fletcher, Gaby, Yulia, and Claude "Scuba" Dybing - had snuck in through an employee entrance and been seen by the crowd outside, inadvertently sparking the riot, and were thus targeted. Newlon also targeted Lonnie and his girlfriend Amy, who had ignited the riot by pointing the teens out to the crowd, as well as a security guard who had run away and a particularly violent shopper. He was inspired by Evan's YouTube video of the riot, which clearly identified many of the people involved and used it to target victims. Before Thanksgiving of 2023, he set up an elaborate dungeon in the basement of the Carver house, a local historical landmark, and decided to disguise himself with a John Carver costume - the costume was extremely popular around Thanksgiving, making it harder to track him down.
Sheriff Newlon, as John Carver, began his attacks a few days before Thanksgiving 2023. He vandalized the Carver house and stole its axe, ruining a commercial that Thomas Wright had planned there and rendering it a crime scene to make it more accessible. He then tagged Jessica Wright’s friends in an ominous Instagram post of a Thanksgiving table. That night, Carver attacked Lizzie, the most violent rioter, at the diner where she worked after closing. He slashed her hand with a knife, dunked her in a sink and froze her to a freezer door with the intent to kill her with his axe, but she tore herself free and fled to the parking lot. There, he ran her down with her car, chasing her into a dumpster. He ran into the dumpster and brought its lid fast and heavily down on her, cutting her in half at the waist. Carver displayed her lower half on the RightMart façade and took the upper half back to his Thanksgiving table.
As sheriff, Newlon was in charge of investigating the murders he committed as Carver, granting him inside knowledge and the trust of his targets. Over the next few days, he would use this to his advantage, using his position to manipulate his intended victims. The next night, Carver attacked Manny, the security guard who had fled from the rioters. He broke into Manny’s home, gutting him with an electric knife and decapitating him with a garrotte. Before leaving, he fed Manny's cat: Dewey and then left. He took the head and set it at his table, taking a photo of it and tagging Jess in it on Instagram the next morning. To help with the investigation, Jess gave Newlon security footage from the riot, which her stepmother Kathleen had tried to hide. Unknown to her, Newlon used this to identify the other victims he wanted.
Carver carried out several attacks on November 22, the day before Thanksgiving. First, he ambushed Lonnie, who had started the riot, and his girlfriend Amy at their high school, snapping the man’s neck and stabbing the girlfriend while on the trampoline before taking both their bodies from the scene. Some time later he kidnapped Evan and Gaby from their high school after hours, then used Gaby’s phone to lure Jess to him. He attacked and pursued Jess with his axe, but she was able to escape to the police outside. After this, Yulia’s father decided to take her to Florida for her safety.
To prevent her escape, Carver broke into her house that night, where he first tranquillized the deputy guarding them, then Yulia’s father. He then attacked Yulia while she was on a video call with Jess and Scuba, gouging out her eardrums with corn holders. When Jess and Scuba arrived at Yulia’s house, they found Carver holding a knife to her throat. He showed them a live feed of a captive Evan and Gaby before throwing Yulia onto a circular saw and fleeing as she was disembowelled.
On Thanksgiving Day, Carver carried out the final stages of his revenge plan. Knowing that police were searching for an attacker in a John Carver costume, he briefly changed into a monster clown costume. He used this disguise to attack the Thanksgiving parade, decapitating Lionel, who was dressed as the parade’s turkey and had taken part in the riot a year ago. Carver then threw smoke grenades into the parade, with the smoke and panic from the decapitation causing car crashes that killed at least one other person. As Thomas, Kathleen, Jess, and Scuba fled to an empty police car, Carver followed them in and tranquillized them all before driving away through the chaos to the Carver house.
After tying up Thomas, Jess, Evan, and Scuba, Carver then took a semi-conscious Kathleen and laid her on a serving platter before proceeding to baste and season her like a turkey. While Carver began to preheat the oven, Kathleen attempted to escape the house but failed after Carver impaled her with a pitchfork and dragged her back inside. He then placed Kathleen in the oven and stabbed her with a food thermometer as she died in the oven.
Carver then began a livestream as his remaining victims woke up where he used a voice changer to hide his identity. He proceeds to stab Amy's corpse with a corkscrew as he fills a wine glass with her blood which he placed on the table before presenting the "Turkey" at the table revealing Kathleen's headless corpse in the position of a turkey much to Thomas and Jess's horror. He then demanded that everyone give their thanks to which Evan refused, Carver then held him down in front of the camera stating that he had inspired him due to his video before taking a meat tenderizer and hitting Evan on the head multiple times killing him.
He then turned his attention to Thomas and stated that as the V.I.P of the table, he should get the first serving before Carver began to serve Thomas a slice of Kathleen's thigh causing him to throw up while distracting Jess (using a hidden blade in her ring) frees herself and Scuba and flee as Carver gives chase with his axe. After incapacitating Scuba, Carver went after Jess who managed to escape from the area.
Newlon then decides to go with his backup plan of framing Jess's ex Bobby, after kidnapping him and dressing him up as the Carver, he attempts to kill him but is knocked out after Bobby hits him with a tyre iron, Jess then wakes Newlon up who states that Bobby is the Carver (After seeing him remove the mask Newlon put on him) Newlon then rushes into the warehouse where Bobby was last seen and shoots at him but misses as the police arrive.
Newlon demands Jess stay to take her statement of the events as she notices his dirt-stained boots similar to the Carver's and puts the pieces together, as Newlon was the killer the whole time, he taunts Jess and then reveals his motivation to her, why he was killing her friends and the other people at the Rightmart, it was because of the customers for getting Amanda killed, revealing they had an affair as she was pregnant with their unborn child, as he's about to now kill Jessica, she reveals that she has been live streaming his confession to the public, finally exposed as the killer. With his identity as the Carver revealed and his reputation as sheriff now ruined, Jess taunts him back about how he should see the look of surprise on "his face" as an enraged Newlon attempts to kill Jess for ruining his plans and his life but is stopped by Bobby who violently throws a hammer at his head, briefly knocking him out.
Fate[]
Newlon's last appearance in the film
Newlon then regains consciousness quickly he chases them through the warehouse as he furiously states that there will be no leftovers this Thanksgiving as he fully intends to kill anybody in his way. Jess and Bobby attempt to escape in a tow truck, but Newlon stops them by tying the truck's cable. Walking over to Jess wielding his axe, she uses her bracelet as ammunition for a prop musket toy. Newlon shows no fear of her pointing a gun, but realizes she is aiming at the gigantic parade float next to him she filled with gas during the chase. The air, fire and gas all react at once just as Bobby manages to break his car free and drive away. The explosion immediately engulfs Newlon and disintegrates him, as he screams in agony and echoes into the night before going silent.
After finally being defeated, his body was never found, unknown if his body burned heavily into ashes or if he could be still out there plotting revenge on Jessica and Bobby, but wouldn’t be bothering her for a long time. However, at the end of the film, Jessica still has nightmares about a flaming Newlon attacking her in the closet.