I didn’t plan this.

I didn’t plan to watch Black Friday on Black Friday, in fact I’m going to be honest when I say I have either never heard of this film or completely forgot about it since it released three years ago. But I was planning on watching The Society of Magical Negroes and I loaded that into my playlist on Prime on the computer before moving over to the couch to watch it on my television. And when I booted up Prime Black Friday was the first thing that popped up on screen so I figured screw it.

Black Friday was directed by Casey Tebo who you may recognize from…being Casey Tebo. The film stars Devon Sawa as Ken, a dad who works at a store called We Love Toys on Thanksgiving leading into Black Friday. His coworkers include Marnie (Ivana Baquero), Chris (Ryan Lee), Brian (Stephen Peck), Archie (Michael Jai White), and more. Things go sideways when Black Friday starts and the customers are allowed into the store, only for an alien parasite to break out among the crowd and start infecting people.

What got me watching this movie? Black Friday is Evil Dead but set in a toy store. Actually it’s Ash Vs. Evil Dead but in a different store. It’s so Evil Dead that the manager of the store is played by Bruce Campbell. The characters of Black Friday are fantastic. Ken is the dude who clearly hates his life but tries to be the cool guy at the workplace. Archie is the badass guy played by Michael Jai White, and then you have Brian who is the kissass who puts far too much effort and joy into working a menial manager position at a big box store. Ruth (Celeste Oliva) polishes her employee of the month plaque and is clearly hiding her insecurities over putting so much pride in her menial accomplishments.

Black Friday is b-tier shlock that gets dumber as the movie progresses. The practical effects get crazier as time goes on and the people involved begin mutating into bigger and crazier monsters. There’s not a lot going on in the terms of “where will this go next” because you already kinda know where it’s going to turn out and which characters are likely to live to the end. It’s purely here for the sake of watching the things happen and seeing what zany danger the characters will get themselves into next.

Oh and there’s also a lot of references to working at retail during Black Friday. I’m sure the director and writer used to work retail. I don’t have much to say about this movie otherwise, other than to point out that the practical effects are really fun. Not great, but fun. It really does feel like an Army of Darkness set in a toy store. And at 82 minutes it is the perfect length for a movie of this caliber.

Rating: B+