Black Friday

It’s been a tough old couple of weeks, TV blowing up, house sales falling through, losing my job, they say things happen in threes, so what I really needed was something fun, something that didn’t take itself seriously, welcome to Black Friday.

Jonathan Wexler, the legendary Bruce Campbell, is manager of a toy store that isn’t doing so well and he’s under pressure from corporate to make sales. But it’s Thanksgiving weekend, it’s Black Friday, there’s no better time than now.

His rag-tag team consists of Ken Bates, Devon Sawa (“Chucky (TV)”, “Somewhere Between (TV)”), a single dad of two daughters who treats the place like he’s at high-school and he’s ‘the man’, Marnie, Ivana Baquero (“Pan’s Labyrinth”, “High Seas (TV)”), some 20-years younger than Ken but they’re having fun together, she’s perhaps the only one with some sense.

Then there’s Chris Godecki, Ryan Lee (“Goosebumps”, “My Dead Ex (TV)”), who is constantly cleaning his hands and can’t stand dirt, Brian, Stephen Peck (“Phoebe (Short)”, “Made Public (Short)”), Jonathan’s second in command and then Archie, Michael Jai White (“Arrow (TV)”, “Triple Threat”), who works in hardware.

Things don’t go well from the start, what with holiday pay being non-existent and they all have to work through the holidays, but get even worse when members of the public begin displaying even more questionable behaviour than perhaps you’d expect if you work in retail.

Outside, in the rest of the world, there’s a meteor shower going on that seems to be doing strange things to people. It’s turning them into monsters, who want to turn others into monsters, all headed towards this strange, pink, glowing brain-like thing in the store, like moths to a flame.

As the monsters run amok in the store, picking of each other and members of staff one-by-one, they’re also being absorbed by this pink, brain-thing which is growing and growing, taking over the store.

Can our band of toy store employees get out? Who will make it out? Will that be the end even if they do?

Black Friday is written by Andy Greskoviak (“The Dreamers (TV)”) and directed by Casey Tebo (“Barely Legal”, “Happy Birthday”) and Campbell also acts as producer for the movie.

The truth is, the movie isn’t perfect; some of the laughs fail to land, in fact, most do, however, it is a lot of fun and the special effects, particularly on the people when they turn, are brilliant. Sure, a few are a bit ‘person in a rubber suit’ but even that kind of adds to the whole feel of the movie in truth.

Black Friday will be released on digital platforms on 11th February 2022.