Black Friday…no not the annual retail gimmick…the new horror comedy based on said gimmick…is NUTS. I had a fun time riffing on it while also staying genuinely entertained. Seems weird that this is the first notable movie based on the shopping day.
The movie wastes no time getting to the point. Something otherworldly and never clearly defined has infected humans on potentially their worst day of the year, turning them into zombified-ghoulish fiends.
The awesome practical effects and the Black Friday creatures themselves should not go unmentioned. While it’s unclear exactly what it is, it all looks great. The giant pink blob acting as a hivemind, the zombified shoppers that slowly morph into some evil ghoul looking fiends, in other words, the typical black friday shopper. I dig the many forms of grotesque and scary in Black Friday, but it feels like they couldn’t decide on what the big bad thing should be so they went with a terrifying variety of evil.
Parts of it remind me of The Blob while others oddly enough remind me of Superstore. It’s often too goofy for its own good but so is the day itself. It’s also a breeding ground for the worst of humanity and Black Friday perfectly depicts that.
Bruce Campbell and Devon Sawa pull off some fun performances. So much so that it almost feels like an episode of Ash vs Evil. And then there is the final act. Not the best ending they probably could’ve gone with, again with what feels like indecisiveness, i bet there were plenty of options to go with….BUT this ending is the one you definitely won’t see coming and it still rules.
This is the movie that should be rightfully be declaring with much repetition “Evil Dies Tonight”!
It’s all kinda wacky but a lot of fun!
The Spectators' Odyssey 