22 Family Movies Not To Watch With Your Family On Thanksgiving

Gone Girl

This book has one of the most explosive twists I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing (read: screeching over on my couch) and when I learned David Fincher, master of the psychological thriller, would be directing the most intense psychological thriller of the past several years, I was ready. So ready, in fact, that I not only saw the movie upon midnight release, but woke up the next day and immediately saw it again. It’s a masterful, tight mystery that somehow manages to both reveal itself in each moment and keep its deepest secrets hidden from scene to scene.

Amy and Nick Dunne, super hip, hot, successful New York City couple suddenly fall into financial and marital trouble, which relocates them to his small home town in Missouri. Amy, a brilliant sociopath (though, we don’t know that right away) finds out about her husband’s affair, and crafts an unconscionably destructive but deliciously intriguing plot to teach him a lesson. I won’t spoil everything, but even after we’re exposed to Amy’s, and the film’s, biggest reveal, the nuances of her plan and the underlying relationship that incited her rage are endlessly interesting and impossible to look away from. This is ultimately a story about a marriage, and the inevitability of every relationship’s downfall. It reminds us of the roles we try to force each other to fill, and the improbability of infinite happiness, despite our desperation and often irrational and destructive attempts at connection. It’s bleak. It’s harrowing. It’s layered and poignant, its narrative message pervasive though it plays like a suspenseful crime drama. And its characters and the extremes to which they’re willing to go are utterly unforgettable- no matter how hard you try.

Especially avoid if: Violence and gore disturb you, or if you’re a newlywed. In both cases, what you’ll see within will likely ruin the rest of your week and possibly year.