Black Friday
SCREEN MEDIAFor those in the United Kingdom, the term “Black Friday” may have a different, colloquial term to those in the United States. Across the pond, bargain sales and fights to the death over the last remaining television are honour-bound practices. For the United Kingdom, the day brings with it the opportunity to hit the town, hit one another, get leathered and go home. Neither happen in Black Friday, the latest feature to include Bruce Campbell and Michael Jai White as employees of a store besieged by the undead during the most wonderful sale of the year. Gory glory meets these veterans of the shlock industry, and Black Friday will provide just the right dose of horror and comedy.
It is not a particularly threatening or demanding film. Its gore comes from the unknown, the quick cuts away from the actual horror on display. Gross parasites roam the corridors, and while director Casey Tebo has the Christmas jingles in all the right places, he is unsure of what to do with these tones. It is not as if his direction is responsible enough to control these criticisms of the Black Friday event. Stampedes of store-crashers searching for the latest and greatest deals. All the context is there, what is lacking is something with real bite and fear. With such a grand cast, failure is irresponsible, rather than understandable. Black Friday may have legends lingering in the cast, but their name alone is not enough to bolster this holiday wash-out.
“Statistically, there is no day more harmful to retailers than this day,” are the words of encouragement Jonathan (Campbell) gives. As encouraging as that may be, it is not all that grand for Black Friday. Rally the troops and prep them for the torture of black Friday. What Black Friday fails to realise about these suburban savages is that there is a clear and obvious link to parasites and those that participate in Black Friday deals. There is a Dawn of the Dead vagrancy that isn’t tapped into, but it is clearly observed. Frustrating, that is what it is. To see so clearly what Tebo is grasping at is not enough. Black Friday fails where Dawn of the Dead accidentally succeeded: it is a knowing, grimaced look into consumerism without the tact or knowhow of what to criticise, and, crucially, when.
Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful, but there is nothing to be thankful for in Black Friday, a grim feature that capitalises on the big-name powers within its clumsy script and docile horrors. Interesting notes of gore are featured but never capitalised upon. It is a range of good ideas and entertaining cast members that are never adapted with much strength. At least it is nice to see someone adapt so quickly to the stress of black Friday, battering customers around the head. The stress of the most wonderful time of year is too much for Tebo and company, who soon find themselves in over their heads when adapting to the tortured tones of Christmas. Black Friday has loose notes of comedy, a shlock and gore variety like no other, and an unremarkable series of short, underwhelming jokes.