Hello everyone, Matthew back once again. I hope everyone's having good week so far. Sorry for the mishap with our schedule this week. Winter weather causes havoc around here for us. And yesterday resulted in a snow day.
When I had first experienced 'Black Friday', I went by myself. It was 8am that Friday morning. I had celebrated Thanksgiving by myself as my family had all gotten sick. So we hadn't really gotten together for the holiday. That was such a surreal experience unto itself. I figured if I go early, it wouldn't be that bad. However, I was not prepared for what was to come. People. Lots of people. Everywhere. No personal space. It was an absolute nightmare. The saving grace of that first time as I went to Wal-Mart and Target was that I was by myself. It allowed me to navigate through the crowd with a bit of ease. But I always felt like there was something so eerily unnerving about Black Friday. And that brings us to today's film.
Today's film is Black Friday. It was released in 2021. The film was written by Andy Greskoviak and directed by Casey Tebo. The synopsis is as follows: A group of toy store employees must protect each other from a horde of parasite infected shoppers.
Now when you look at the synopsis, it comes across as a very small story. And it's true, this is a small film. However, sometimes those turn out to be the most fun and have a lot of charm. When filmmakers don't have a lot to work with, it's fantastic seeing the way that they are able to come up with things to help the film. This is a film that could easily turn out to be something that just doesn't work. If at any point, there was something that just didn't work - it could change one's experience with the film.
For me, I absolutely applaud Black Friday. It's a film that I had heard a few things here and there of negative reviews. However, I try my hardest to make sure that when I go in to a film - I go in with an open mind. I did the same thing here as well. This film was something that felt like a throwback to 80s Horror. I remember growing up and coming across all of the different Holidays that received a horror movie. And it's finally time that Black Friday joins those ranks as this corporate holiday has become such a big thing for us.
When the film first started, I wasn't sure where they were going to go with things. We got to see a few of the employees at the local All-Mart getting set up for the Black Friday extravaganza. Honestly at this point, the only thing I had known about this film was that it had Devon Sawa and Bruce Campbell in it. That's what had sold me on it. Imagine my surprise when one of the employees encounters a 'creature' of some sort. Throughout the course of the film, we discover that it's a parasite that manages to infect humans. I don't think I'd consider that to be a spoiler. Anyways, this allowed the film to take on a much different approach then I initially thought it was going to. It actually made the film feel like a sister to James Gunn's Slither meets Clerks or Employee of the Month (really forgot about that Dane Cook masterpiece). I sense a double or triple feature at some point down the road.
The cast for this film was fantastic. It is very much an ensemble piece. Devon Sawa leads the film as Ken Bates. Ken is our everyman. He's a bit of a punching bag over the course of the film. But a bit in the vein of a well-known S-Mart employee, it feels like. He's forced to drop his kids off with their mother so that he can work on Black Friday. On his way to the All-Mart, Ken picks up his co-worker, Chris (Ryan Lee). After arriving for their shift and preparing for the onslaught of customers, we are introduced to the rest of the All-Mart workers: Marnie (Ivana Baquero), Brian (Stephen Peck), Archie (Michael Jai White), Ruth (Ellen Colton), Emmett (Louie Kurtzman), Anita (Celeste Olivia), and Bircher (Stanley Bruno). They are all led by their wonderful manager, Jonathan Wexler (Bruce Campbell).
And after that, we are off to the races with the film. All of the cast does a wonderful job in this film. Bruce Campbell continues to deliver some fun performances. I'm so used to him playing a likeable character that seeing him playing the jerk manager that we've all had at some point if you worked retail is very interesting. He relishes in being able to ham it up a bit. Devon Sawa delivers a pretty fantastic performance. He feels very much in the vein of an 'Ash' type character. The one that doesn't want to accept things and make a run for it till he has to stay and fight. I found it to be a very layered performance from him. Michael Jai White. What else can I say about Michael Jai White? He's a badass.
The creatures in this film were a nice change of pace. Initially, I had remembered someone using the word 'zombie' to describe one set of creatures. Nah, they ain't zombies. It's more akin to Slither as taken over by a parasite. However, the initial appearance of the parasite was incredibly creepy. It culminates in something that I could consider to be an homage to the Blob. It's pretty fantastic. It reminds me "Where the hell is our new Blob film?". Why can't we get something like that? The effects in the film are all good. They are a bit more low-key and appear practical. And that's a breath of fresh air. Again, we don't get to see many practical effects as if they are used, they quickly receive a gloss of CG.
Black Friday is a fun film. It knows exactly what type of film it wanted to be. It has a fantastic charm to it. I enjoyed it a lot and it'll be fun to return to it every once in a while. Probably on Black Friday from this year on. A nice new tradition. If you haven't checked out the film, I'd say give it a shot.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
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