We already learned that Thanksgiving is celebrated in the United States with the whole family gathered together eating baked turkey. And also that, on that date, the last weekend of November, the so-called Black Friday. This is where the Black Fridayhe Black Friday which is mentioned in the title of this film, something controversial and loved and hated. Eli Roth.
Roth is known for the film Hostelwhich he directed in 2005, and for being one of the Inglorious Bastards by Quentin Tarantino (it was Sergeant Donny Donowitz). And 16 years after he was first teased as a trailer in Grindhousethe 2007 Robert Rodríguez and Quentin Tarantino double feature, which was called ThanksgivingWell, now comes the movie.
But well, and going back to Black Fridaywe know that for holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving, in Hollywood they send out comedies or horror movies, with zero Christmas spirit.
Black Friday It is one of the last. Everything starts on Thanksgiving Day, and we see how two different families, each in their own home, prepare to sink their teeth into the turkey. The father of one’s family is the owner of one big box store, a big box store called Right Mart (like Walmart, bah), and the other one, their security agent or something. Well, it was decided that the business would open on Thanksgiving night, and that’s where the security guard father and hundreds of customers go.
For some unjustified reason, a commotion breaks out at the entrance to the store in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Some young people sneak in (accompanying the daughter of the owner of the place), and a small massacre breaks out, with people being crushed to death, others being cut with glass, in short, nothing to celebrate.
The anonymous murderer
A year passes, and a character, we do not know the sex, nor whether it is just one or several, puts on the mask of one of the settlers who originated the festival and becomes a mysterious, sinister and anonymous murderer, inspired by the Thanksgiving Day.
Bloody and often unpleasant, Black Friday follow the rules of the genre slasher and not much more. A pity, because the sequence of violent entry into the business implied a study of the behavior of the angry masses, which could – or not – paint American society as ferocious consumerism.
But Roth prefers to go to the most basic, to the crude, to the characters cut in half (literally), to the ineffectiveness of the local sheriff (Patrick Dempseylight years away Grey’s Anatomy). It appeals to what horror genre addicts are supposed to long to see on the screen: macabre crimes, which sometimes cause laughter, but, and therein lies the problem, with zero suspense.
The plot, to call it in some decent way, expands to discover the identity of the murderer, when many of the characters who were involved in the tragedy a year ago begin to be his victims.
There is a lot of sadism and cruelty that may appeal to slasher lovers, but those who like suspenseful horror should look for another film.
Terror. United States / Canada / Australia, 2023. Original title: “Thanksgiving”. 106′, SAM 16 R. Of: Eli Roth. Con: Patrick Dempsey, Ty Olsson, Gina Gershon, Nell Verlake. Salas: Cinemark Palermo and Puerto Madero, Showcase Belgrano, Norcenter and Quilmes, Cinépolis Recoleta and Houssay.