It’s one of the biggest events of the year. No, it’s not Christmas time; no, not Halloween season- it’s something far bigger than anyone can comprehend. It’s Black Friday! The film focuses on a popular toy store during the epic sale day. As the ultimate sales event begins at midnight, staff are required to open their doors and trade to the eager public with expectations of big sales from management. One of the staff members working at the toy store is Ken (Devon Sawa), a fairly laid back and carefree employee who works as a sales consultant.
However, dealing with outrageous customers won’t be the team’s only problem. After a strange meteor lands in the retail store nearby, a strange zombie-like infestation begins to take over the store. Slowly, the infection works its way to the customers of the toy store. Now, this small group of toy store employees must arm themselves as best as possible, defend themselves against the zombie-like customers, and survive the ultimate Black Friday sale.
Black Friday is best described as a brainless horror film with large amounts of witty comedy. As a comedy, the film is packed with several random one-liners from its leads and attempts to gain laughs during horrific moments. Naturally, the film’s level of gore and shocking moments will deliver countless laughs to most movie lovers.
Actor Denon Sawa is quite fun as the film’s lead, and while his character didn’t leave a strong impression to begin with, I’m happy to say audiences certainly warm up to his character as the film progresses. The supporting cast includes Ivana Baquero, Michael Jai White and Bruce Campbell, who are all given adequate screentime. Actor Bruce Campbell, who plays the toy store manager Jonathan, is perfectly cast as the greedy boss who will do anything to achieve the store’s budget and puts his team as a second priority. Michael Jai White also brought a strong and likeable presence to the screen. In a nutshell, it would seem the entire cast and crew are having a blast featuring in this wild movie.
When it comes to visuals and effects, Black Friday also delivers many surprises. The zombie-like creatures are creative and satisfying to see. The kills are also effective, and the film has no issues going crazy with its blood level or its surprising body count. But sadly, the look of the film’s final villain and effects around the final act seem far weaker than the rest, which was a little disappointing to see. While the many deaths and kills are surprising or fun for comedic moments, the plot is extremely predictable. As the film begins, you can easily pick who the final survivour (or survivours) will be, and I can’t deny that side characters feel cliché or familiar to characters seen in other films.
Overall, I found this film to be nothing but a fun and entertaining horror film. The visuals and effects, including the look and style of the zombie-like creatures, is rather satisfying to witness. Black Friday is bundled with pleasant moments of blood, violence and witty (yet highly random) lines of dialogue. Sure, the film is also loaded with cliché side characters and brings a familiar zombie-like plot to the screen, but I still found myself chuckling more than I should. In the end, I was left feeling thankful that silly and outrageous films like this are still being made in the present day.
5.8/10
8th March 2022
Written by Peter Walkden
WALKDEN ENTERTAINMENT
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