Black Friday is a film with a brilliant idea that does almost nothing with it. It's sad when the opening credits of another film, Krampus (2015) in this case, has a better film about Black Friday in its opening credits than this film does in its entire runtime.
Release Date: November 19th, 2021 (theatrical) / January 4th, 2022 (blu-ray)
Run Time: 1 hour 24 minutes 20 seconds
Region Code: A (locked)
Picture: 1080p (2.39:1 aspect ratio)
Sound: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH
Slipcover: No
Digital Copy: No
Starring: Devon Sawa, Ivana Baquero, Ryan Lee, Bruce Campbell, and Michael Jai White
Written by Andy Greskoviak
Directed by Casey Tebo
Rating: Not Rated (graphic horror violence and gore and language)
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Poster
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What's It About?
On Thanksgiving night, a group of disgruntled toy store employees begrudgingly arrive for work to open the store at midnight for the busiest shopping day of the year. Meanwhile, an alien parasite crashes to Earth in a meteor. This group of misfits led by store manager Jonathan and longtime employee Ken soon find themselves battling against hordes of holiday shoppers who have been turned into monstrous creatures hellbent on a murderous rampage on Black Friday.
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Film Review
You must be a special kind of crazy to even attempt to screw up both Bruce Campbell AND Michael Jai White, but the filmmakers of BLACK FRIDAY try so hard to it the ground rule double. We know that Campbell isn't as young as he used to be, but his age has nothing to do with him not being able to be funny. He just can't do the stunts anymore. The man is still very funny and while we do get a few lines of humor, most the role is Campbell trying to find places to be funny, but the filmmakers seem keen on keeping him unfunny the whole time. I guess that's character development but you can be funny doing that too.
The filmmakers also try to make White look bad too. I understand that you probably only had him for a day or two, but you could have come up with something better for him. He doesn't show up until like 10 minutes in and he is usually in the background or saying nothing. When the monster shows up, he fights a few but then nothing. They do nothing with his character. White is charismatic enough to not look cool doing nothing, so there's that.
I also thought that the filmmakers made the actual Black Friday look like any other day. The store, which is the center of your whole film, looks like it takes place at a store that hasn't taken down its Christmas decorations yet, NOT Black Fucking Friday. The store is supposed to be stocked up on everything and the store should have been brighter. Here, it feels like it takes place entirely in the dark and the shelves are not stocked. Also, the customers are violent or rude enough. Black Friday is a warzone everywhere you go. Here it's just any other day.
The whole film reminded me of WILLY'S WONDERLAND with Nicolas Cage. That film too felt far too cheap for the movie they spent on it. That film should have been bigger than it was and here the film should have been bigger as well. Even though BLACK FRIDAY was shot in an actual store, it never feels lived in. It feels very much like a movie production. The editing is off too. There are scenes that feel like they are building up to something, but there is never any payoff. That or the payoff is so bad you sit there and wonder if the filmmakers DIDN'T do that on purpose.
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Video/Audio
BLACK FRIDAY looks fine on blu-ray. There really isn't much I can say. It's not a great transfer but it isn't bad either. Its right in the middle. As for the sound, I found the dialogue to be crisp and clear, but far too low in comparison with everything else. There were times I had to turn the sound up to hear characters speak and then turn it down immediately because the jump scares were far too loud. The music sounds fine for the most part.
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Extras/Packaging
There are zero extras on this release. They didn't even include the film's original trailer.
The packaging is very basic. The film's poster is used for the cover art while the back is as basic as basic gets. The whole release feels cheap because it is.
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Overall
BLACK FRIDAY is an almost good film. It has a great idea and a wonderfully awesome cast, but it wastes everything it has: it wastes its cast, its premise, and our time. The film is so close to being good, but it fails to reach the goal. The blu-ray is one of the most basic releases I have ever seen for a new title. Picture and sound are fine, nothing special, but fine while there is not one special feature found anywhere on this release unless you want to count the trailers for other movies that play at the disc's startup. They could have at least included the film's trailer. Skip this release unless you are trying to complete your Bruce Campbell/Michael Jai White/Devon Sawa's complete filmographies in your collections.
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 Blu-ray Review + Screenshots){kind=link}
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