Black Friday! Reminded me a lot of recent horror/comedy Slaxx, in that it takes place in a store that is preparing for a sale and there are very few characters worth caring about; but where Slaxx was still passable fun thanks to its unique concept (a killer pair of denim jeans), Black Friday! Is a huge disappointment despite a reasonable cast (Bruce Campbell, Devon Sawa, Ivana Baquero and Michael Jai White are the best known names) largely thanks to a wholly predictable script in which the humour repeatedly falls flat.
The film takes place at a toy store on the eponymous date, when Americans flock to get their hands on vastly discounted goods. As the customers argue over stuffed toys and computer games, it soon becomes clear that something is wrong when the fighting turns to killing: the Black Friday shoppers have been infected by a malevolent extraterrestrial force that seeks to absorb humans to create massive kaiju-like monsters.
Like so many zombie films, the epidemic rapidly spreads, leaving a handful of survivors to team together - only in this case, they bicker and argue and generally act obnoxious. Sawa stars as WeLoveToys employee Ken Bates, a drunken wastrel with zero ambition - and he's supposed to be the hero of the film! Campbell is loathsome store manager Jonathan Wexler, who is willing to ignore the crisis to try and keep the cash registers ringing. Ryan Lee plays wimpy germaphobe Chris, and Stephen Peck plays a camp overweight employee with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Baquero and White get to play likeable characters, but the former is essentially there as eye candy and the latter as alien fodder.
Directed with little style or originality by Casey Tebo, the whole thing is made even more intolerable by a loud, generic score that never seems to fit with what is happening on screen.
3/10 for the MUFX and gore by Robert Kurtzman, and that's being generous.
The film takes place at a toy store on the eponymous date, when Americans flock to get their hands on vastly discounted goods. As the customers argue over stuffed toys and computer games, it soon becomes clear that something is wrong when the fighting turns to killing: the Black Friday shoppers have been infected by a malevolent extraterrestrial force that seeks to absorb humans to create massive kaiju-like monsters.
Like so many zombie films, the epidemic rapidly spreads, leaving a handful of survivors to team together - only in this case, they bicker and argue and generally act obnoxious. Sawa stars as WeLoveToys employee Ken Bates, a drunken wastrel with zero ambition - and he's supposed to be the hero of the film! Campbell is loathsome store manager Jonathan Wexler, who is willing to ignore the crisis to try and keep the cash registers ringing. Ryan Lee plays wimpy germaphobe Chris, and Stephen Peck plays a camp overweight employee with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Baquero and White get to play likeable characters, but the former is essentially there as eye candy and the latter as alien fodder.
Directed with little style or originality by Casey Tebo, the whole thing is made even more intolerable by a loud, generic score that never seems to fit with what is happening on screen.
3/10 for the MUFX and gore by Robert Kurtzman, and that's being generous.