Black Friday (2021)

Okay I was all over this movie. It has Bruce Campbell, Michael Jai White, and Devon Sawa in it. Those are some bad ass genre actors right there. Still, I was worried that this would be a lame flick that basically has glorified cameos from the three to suck us in. I can now confirm that isn’t the case at all.

Sawa is Ken, a divorced father of two girls who is forced to work his crappy retail job at a toy store on Black Friday. On his way to the store, he picks up his teenage co-worker Chris. They arrive and we are introduced to other characters such as bad ass maintenance man Archie, White’s character, and Ken’s work “girlfriend” Marnie. We also meet the store manager played by the always awesome Bruce Campbell. There are also some hints that meteor storms have been hitting and thru a precredit scene we see that they are not just space rocks.

The doors are opened, and everything goes to hell. Some of the customers are infected by the stuff that has fallen from the sky. This turns them into continually mutating monsters that seem intent on infecting as many others as possible. The store is a perfect place for them to gather and eventually they start to merge into a huge Kaiju type creature. While this is happening, our cast is trying to survive, dropping some excellent one-liners, and generally screaming while they run around.

This movie is a blast. First up all the big names have larger roles including Sawa who is the star of the movie. Campbell is excellent as the store manager being a bit cowardly at times and generally playing everything for laughs. The filmmakers knew who they had cast and let him do his thing. Michael Jai White is a badass and does most of the early butt kicking. He also gets to drop a line he seems to use quite a bit. I won’t ruin it here but if you know his movies you will see it. Devon Sawa is the down on his luck divorced dad and is quite good. He gets a lot of screen time and reminds the audience that he is one hell of an actor. The other performances are also spot on and fit perfectly for the material. Bravo to both the cast but also the casting director. They nailed it.

These monsters are fowl... heh heh

The story itself is paced well apart from an obligatory “getting to know each other” bit in the middle. But the initial outbreak as well as the chaos that follows is a blast. The movie doesn’t try to explain everything right away and even leaves some things unresolved at the end. Getting some resolution for the characters without overexplaining is my favorite way for horror movies to wrap up. That also brings me to the fact that this is an excellent horror comedy. We get monsters that are cool, more on that later, as well as a lot of funny stuff. That isn’t easy to do, but they managed it.

The special effects are great. The infected go thru different mutations as they approach the final form or at least the last one we see. Starting off as pus filled bubbly figures, they end up going full on chicken monster before melding into the giant monsters that go stomping at the end. The kills are decent but not over explicit. There is a fun gag with a neck getting a bottle thru it, but most of the mayhem is off screen. Again, where they excel is the creature design, so I was good with it.

This is my new go to movie for Thanksgiving… sorry Thankskilling. The cast is great, the monsters are fun, and overall Black Friday is a blast. If you haven’t checked it out yet do so right away. You won’t be disappointed.

  

Ó Copyright 2021 John Shatzer

Army of Darkness (1992)

So here we are with the third and final installment in the Evil Dead movie franchise. And yes, I know there was a remake, but it doesn’t count. I’m not saying it’s bad, but I just don’t care about the rehashing of an already perfect movie. So as far as the movies go this is the end and what a good way to wrap things up… Until the T.V. show which is also pretty good.

At the end of Evil Dead II Ash is sucked into the portal and dumped in the middle ages where he shoots a deadite and the movie ends. For Army of Darkness they rewind things a bit and instead of killing a deadite he is captured by Arthur’s men and hauled off in chains. They toss him into a pit thinking he is one of Henry’s men, whom they are fighting with. But instead of being killed by the deadites in the pit he does his “Ash” thing and kicks some butt. He climbs out and sets Henry, who was also captured, free with the rest of his men. Then he seemingly takes over the castle. The wise man tells him that he needs to get the Necronomicon so they can send him back home and to save them from destruction. Of course, he screws it up, he is Ash after all, and following him back to the castle is an army of the dead lead by his own evil doppelganger.

This movie is awesome. The tone continues to shift from the horror of the original Evil Dead to the slapstick action that was part of Evil Dead II to eventually full on comedy in Army of Darkness. Here they full on “stooge” with eye pokes, slaps, and sound effects. I understand that many fans of the original Evil Dead are annoyed by this because they think it is too silly. Honestly, I can totally see where they are coming from. I love this movie and the other Evil Dead flicks equally, but for different reasons. To me that is what makes this franchise completely unique in that all three of the movies are able to change dramatically but yet are equally entertaining. I can’t think of another franchise that has pulled that off.

"Bad" Ash

In addition to the stooges gags the dialogue is cleverly written to give Ash as many quotable lines as possible. There is a lot of silly stop motion effects work that harken back to Harryhausen, as well as some actual puppets, and actors suited up as deadites. Is it seamless? No it isn’t, but that is part of the fun. The ending of the movie has Ash back in the present doing battle with the deadites at S-Mart. But why you might ask? Wasn’t the book supposed to banish the deadites once and for all? He screwed up the words again so now he has to protect housewares from the scourge of the dead.

I’m a huge fan of the Evil Dead franchise. While I love them all equally Army of Darkness is the first one that I saw in the theater on it initial release so it will always have a special place in my heart. It is also the movie where I personally feel Bruce Campbell became the personality that we all identify him as now. The silly, wisecracking character actor that we all love starts here. If you are a horror fan you have to watch this one at least once. It is recommended.

© Copyright 2019 John Shatzer

Evil Dead II (1987)

Before I begin the review, I need to explain something to the uninformed. This movie picks up at the end of the first one… sort of. It is my understanding that they couldn’t get footage from the first film as it was owned by a different company. So instead the beginning of Evil Dead II is a rehashing of that first story compressed down so that it only has Ash and his girlfriend going to the cabin and ignores the other characters from the first movie. I’m okay with that as it serves this movie just fine, but it annoys and/or confuses some viewers.

With that out of the way lets jump into the review. Ash and his girl go to the cabin and end up playing the recording of the doctor reading the Necronomicon passages out loud. This awakens the “thing” in the woods, aka. a demon, and it attacks them. Shenanigans ensue as Ash ends up killing and dismembering his lady before all is said and done. Then the doctor’s daughter and friends show up. At first, they think Ash is a crazy that murdered her parents, but soon find out that something is in the woods and it was to swallow their souls! Rednecks are stabbed, eyeballs swallowed, blood is sprayed, and time travel happens! I love this flick.

As I mentioned in my review of the original Evil Dead, I feel sort of silly covering it for the site. I mean if you are hanging out here then you’ve probably seen this one already. I consider the Evil Dead franchise to be on the list of must watch horror movies, almost like a primer for anyone wanting to get into the genre. But in case you haven’t watched this yet and are somehow on the fence let me tell you all the reasons to check out Evil Dead II.

From the very start the movie has a breakneck pace as it never lets up on the action and horror. After a couple minutes establishing Ash and Linda the tape is played and she is turned into a deadite. Not long after that the head goes off and things get rolling. Hah see what I did there? This pacing combined with frenetic camera work makes for a movie that is very exciting both in the action and visually. They even pull off a weird “fisheye” view where things get further distorted when the evil force is messing with Ash by animating objects in the cabin. Even more so than the first movie here Rami packs in every trick and gimmick he can think of to make this a trip to watch.

Some people are turned off by the humor in Evil Dead II. The first outing has some humor, but it felt a bit subdued and they lean more into the horror elements. Here while we have some bad things happening the filmmakers also revel in doing all sorts of terrible things to Ash, and to actor Bruce Campbell. He gets slammed into walls, smashed into furniture, breaks plates over his head, does battle with a possessed hand, and by God drops some great one-liners. This includes the famous arming up scene in the shed where Ash drops “Groovy” for the first time. For me this is where the character becomes the horror icon that we fans fell in love with.

I also dig that the violence is so over the top that it borders on slapstick. It doesn’t go full “Three Stooges” like Army of Darkness does, but it gets close. The fact that they also revisit some stop motion effects work makes me love the movie as well. The creature design is fun and we get plenty of gore effects work, though again it is way over the top and not realistic. Cartoonish violence appeals to me sometimes and that is exactly what we get in Evil Dead II.

I could keep going on and on with this one, but I won’t. If you haven’t seen this one, then check it out. If you haven’t seen it for a while, then this is the perfect time of the year to revisit it. Basically, fans new and old should watch this damn movie as often as they can!

© Copyright 2019 John Shatzer