Signature Entertainment presents Black Friday on Digital Platforms 11th February.
Synopsis
Overworked, underpaid and ready for the apocalypse. It’s the biggest sale of the year and this time round the shoppers are out of their mind and out for blood. Fighting for their lives a misfit group of employees including store manager Jonathan find themselves fighting for survival against shoppers on a murderous rampage.
Review
In the wake of The Walking Dead the zombie genre has been exploited across the Hollywood spectrum. From big budget blockbusters like World War Z all the way down to romantic comedies like Warm Bodies. One thing the genre always has in common is its ability to use its featured creatures as an analogy for real-world consequences.
Black Friday is no different in tackling the idea of zombies as way to expose the meaningless and repetitive life working in customer service. What sets Casey Tebo’s film aside is the way it leads in to its comedy aspects. Black Friday is a mix of Psycho Goreman, Dawn of the Dead mixed in with a dash of network comedy, Superstore.
Tebo’s film also makes no apologies for being what it is, a B-movie horror. Though it’s not the lowest budget movie I’ve seen, it is also by no means a blockbuster. Tebo and his team use that to brilliant effect, maximising the use of practical effects throughout the film and avoiding the need for CGI. Though the third act does escalate to Kaiju-level proportions it does so in a manner which is perfectly in keeping with the overall kitsch of the piece.
Though the artwork and synopsis make heavy use of Bruce Campbell, his appearance is more of an extended cameo. As the store manager he’s the captain of the slowly sinking ship. It allows Campbell to drop in and out of the narrative with explosive effect, bringing some great laughs to break up the tension.
The film really belongs to the ensemble cast of Devon Sawa, Ivana Baquero, Michael Jai White and Ryan Lee, to name but a few. Andy Greskoviak’s script utilising the opening act to lay the groundwork for their individual characters and relationships. For a B-movie there’s a surprising amount of time dedicated to fleshing out characters which is a welcome change of pace.
Sawa is every part the failed action hero. Reclaiming his crown in the final act only for a surprisingly open-ended final shot to tease a potentially disastrous future for Black Friday‘s survivors. Sawa’s screen presence adds to the dramatic tension and ensures the film’s more serious moments land with the gravitas they require.
It’s Sawa’s screen mates who bring more of the comedy to proceedings. The comedy beats don’t all land, particularly as the horror elements continue to escalate. There’s a jostling between the serious and the seriously-camp. It never de-rails but does shake the overall tone of the film, sometimes making it feel inconsistent but never unwatchable.
Verdict
Black Friday is the perfect B-movie horror. A tense, suspenseful mix of practical effects and comedy beats.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
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