Black Friday – Brilliantly Fun
Director: Casey Tebo
Writer: Andy Greskoviak (Screenplay)
Starring: Devon Sawa, Ivana Baquero, Ryan Lee, Stephen Peck, Michael Jai White, Bruce Campbell
Plot: A group of toy store employees must protect each other from a horde of parasite infected shoppers.
Tagline – It’s Thanksgiving, and the Black Friday shoppers are coming for deals, bargains, and blood!
Runtime: 1 Hour 24 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Black Friday starts when the employees of a toy shop, Ken (Sawa), Marnie (Baquero), Chris (Lee), Brian (Peck), Archie (White) and boss Jonathan Wexler (Campbell) are preparing for the black Friday sales, the biggest night in the shop’s year.
When the crowds pour in, it doesn’t take long before things start getting out of hand, only instead of the normal customer chaos, the employees find themselves dealing with parasite infected shoppers that don’t stop, needing to learn to use what they can to survive.
Thoughts on Black Friday
Characters & Performances – Ken is the relatable slacker who works for the pay check, using booze to get through a shift, knowing the bonus is coming to help his family, he spends his shifts looking to avoid working, doing as little as possible, but he will need to help take charge to fight back against the infected customers. Marnie is the head cashier that makes time to be friends with everyone on the shift, despite not liking the management structure, being the younger love interest for Ken. Chris is the youngest member of the team, it is clear this is a steppingstone job for him, despite him being nervous about everything, he will get the chaos started as everyone looks out for him from the floor team. Brian is the floor manager, using his power to put people down, while trying to motivate them without much success. Jonathan Wexler is the store manager, always looking to make corporate happy with his decision-making process, even if that means not agree with everything and putting himself on the unliked list, he is a lifer in the store, proud but lonely with his career. When it comes to the cast, it is great to see Bruce Campbell back as a store working, being the opposite to anything we saw as Ash Williams. Devon Sawa nails the slacker figure perfectly and the rest fill the typical roles you would see around a shop.
Story – Black Friday will follow the group of employees that will end up needing to face a new threat on Black Friday, where they normal just deal with customers, now they must deal with a parasite infecting them in a battle of life and death. Black Friday will bring us a story that will give us an entertaining story about everyday people employees of a shop that need to work together like the team work encouraged within the business to make it out, while still having the tension that is always there between certain employees that don’t get along.
Themes – Black Friday is a horror comedy that will turn the chaos of Black Friday into a battle to survive against a parasite infecting the shoppers. Where everything we see is fun, we do seem to lack the creativity to use a range of toys as weapons, which would easily have gotten more laughs. The singular location of the massive toy shop does keep most of the action contained, while the effects to create the different creatures works well, hiding the weaknesses it could have along the way.
Final Thoughts – Black Friday is a fun holiday movie giving us plenty, leaving us wanting more.