This latest chapter is light on the humour and heavy on the red stuff. Set in an almost film noir run-down Los Angeles apartment building, this poor family has no idea of what’s about to come. When an earthquake happens, this is Southern Californian after all, it unearths that sacred tome and all hell breaks loose.

Now just about every family has a horror story about the parental units, My personal shocker involves a mother-in-law but the transformation of ma Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) from pleasant parent to a manifestation of pure evil completely swamps my tale of woe. The combined efforts of costume designers, make-up artists and special effects folks are supremely impressive with the change.

Ellie becomes truly frightening and might set a new standard for demonic transformations. With cartoon levels of blood that shows there is no shortage of the scarlet fluid in Hollywood, Evil Dead Rise raises things to a raucous and almost ridiculous level of gore. Along with all the shocks are a few nervous laughs and some very interesting technical achievements. See it with someone you love, maybe just not the in-laws.
Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/WarnerBrosAU/

Building on an already crazy premise (that consumption orgy in America that traditionally occurs on the fourth Friday of November), this Black Friday follows the beleaguered staff at a toy store. The fun begins when a pulsating chunk of flesh comes rocketing through the tin roof of the store and infects an employee stupid enough to look it face to blob and not run away as most sane folks would.

You can tell from the opening that things aren’t going to go well for the staff and management of We Love Toys. As the body count rises and more zombies come out to play, the staff are oblivious to the impending threat until the gore catches up with them and all hell breaks loose. Settling into a survivor of the fittest mode zaps a bit of the early energy before the crazy escalates again as the alien menace plays out.

Revelling in the schlock right up until its last low-res cheesy moments, Black Friday proves that zombie franchise films will endure and still provide some laughs, some gore and keep the prosthetics industry going strong for the foreseeable future. BLACK FRIDAY hits home entertainment on DVD and VOD on the 9th of March and is being released by Defiant Screen Entertainment.
Rob Hudson

www.facebook.com/defiantscreenentertainment/