If you're into science fiction or horror movies, especially older ones, some ideas realized are pretty fantastic, naive or hokey. Black Friday unfortunately goes too far in some of these aspects, so that the plot appears contrived and the premises alone just too hard to swallow.
While even the classic Frankenstein has a brain transplantation in it as a key element, Frankenstein doesn't have that many problematic follow-ups in terms of the main story. Here we have a transplantation that doesn't leave any scars, but somehow results in physical transformation in good old Jekyll/Hide-style from time to time. In general the two fully functional brains are just treated as if they are separate from each other, so the one personality doesn't really know of the other. Yet there are some things that are remembered for whatever reason by the professor personality, like a room number or a knock on the door etc.
OK, mostly it helps not to think too hard on such science stuff in similar movies. Yet the backbone of the story doesn't really seem to work in this one. Plus while there is a series of murders taking place in Black Friday, it feels more like a gangster movie than a horror tale with scientific elements (as Frankenstein was).
Add to that the fact that Universal's big horror stars of old Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi are both in this movie, yet they don't share a single scene in it. Lugosi's role is minor, even though he plays a gangster boss. But all in all letting Karloff and Lugosi only play in different parts of the same movie is a waste and doesn't make the whole film any better. Also the marketing gag in the trailer where Lugosi supposedly was hypnotized for real to express genuine fear of suffocation, is... well... pretty lame.
In short: There are other, much better movies with this horror duo in it - this one is more for Karloff fans, and not that exciting as such. So 5/10 from here, with a slight tendency towards 6. It's nothing really special.
While even the classic Frankenstein has a brain transplantation in it as a key element, Frankenstein doesn't have that many problematic follow-ups in terms of the main story. Here we have a transplantation that doesn't leave any scars, but somehow results in physical transformation in good old Jekyll/Hide-style from time to time. In general the two fully functional brains are just treated as if they are separate from each other, so the one personality doesn't really know of the other. Yet there are some things that are remembered for whatever reason by the professor personality, like a room number or a knock on the door etc.
OK, mostly it helps not to think too hard on such science stuff in similar movies. Yet the backbone of the story doesn't really seem to work in this one. Plus while there is a series of murders taking place in Black Friday, it feels more like a gangster movie than a horror tale with scientific elements (as Frankenstein was).
Add to that the fact that Universal's big horror stars of old Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi are both in this movie, yet they don't share a single scene in it. Lugosi's role is minor, even though he plays a gangster boss. But all in all letting Karloff and Lugosi only play in different parts of the same movie is a waste and doesn't make the whole film any better. Also the marketing gag in the trailer where Lugosi supposedly was hypnotized for real to express genuine fear of suffocation, is... well... pretty lame.
In short: There are other, much better movies with this horror duo in it - this one is more for Karloff fans, and not that exciting as such. So 5/10 from here, with a slight tendency towards 6. It's nothing really special.