"Black Friday" has cult-fave makings but doesn't follow through entirely

Black Friday (2021)


In the trend of satirical ensemble horror-comedies like “Cooties,” “Corporate Animals,” and “Werewolves Within” comes “Black Friday.” A holiday workplace horror-comedy centered on zombified alien shoppers wreaking havoc on the staff of a toy store on the busiest shopping day of the year sounds like it can’t miss. Add on some gooey practical effects and a game, eclectic cast that includes Devon Sawa and Bruce Campbell, and we’re talking cult-favorite material. Director Casey Tebo and writer Andy Greskoviak seem to have it in the bag, until one realizes they might have been too content to just coast on their premise, right down to the non-ending.


It’s Thanksgiving Day, and while many are at home having a feast with their families, the staff at toy store “We Love Toys” is gearing up for their biggest night: Black Friday — or, because corporate deems it as racist, “Green Friday.” Little does anyone know that a meteor has landed and begun infecting anyone, turning them into gnarly alien zombies with weaponized frog tongues. Meanwhile, regional manager Jonathan (Bruce Campbell) makes his corporate announcements, while calculating manager Brian (Stephen Peck) calls the shots on the floor. Of the employees, there’s complacent divorced dad Ken (Devon Sawa), who’s casually dating younger co-worker Marnie (Ivana Baquero); woeful, put-upon two-year employee Chris (Ryan Lee), who’s now paying rent to live under his parents’ roof; and badass handyman Archie (an underused Michael Jai White), because every store has one. Once it’s time to open the doors for the ravenous shoppers, something worse is afoot than not receiving holiday bonuses and being paid time-and-a-half.


Forcing oneself to have a blast with “Black Friday” is tempting, but something about this effort has a bare-minimum, first-draft feel that shortchanges its potential. The mixed feelings of working in retail are certainly captured with accuracy, while any social satire of consumerism is more obvious than sharp in a post-Romero world. There’s plenty of bloodied entrails and limbs, courtesy of special effects make-up wizard Robert Kurtzman, but not much tension at all. Even the lack of imagination for mayhem in a toy store is disappointing. As a rule, low-budget effects can have a lot of charm, but the ones here mostly show budgetary limitations and lack the appropriate menace (even if the alien shoppers sound like the velociraptors from “Jurassic Park”). 


A generally goofy spirit is what keeps the movie racing along, and the well-chosen actors all do what they can to bring color to their predominantly one-note roles. Bruce Campbell will be the genre fans’ favorite, sleazing it up as the selfish manager, but Devon Sawa comes away with the movie’s strongest character arc as Ken. Having made a welcome genre comeback with 2020’s “Hunter Hunter” and the “Chucky” TV series this year, Sawa more than sufficiently plays the hero who’s stuck resting on his laurels even as a father. The only other two in the cast who get to make enough of an impression are Ryan Lee (a standout in “Super 8” and “Goosebumps”) and Ivana Baquero, who’s nice to see back in genre projects after “Pan’s Labyrinth.” 


The best (and quietest) scene in “Black Friday” encapsulates what could have made the movie stronger as a whole. After already being through quite a night, the surviving workers sit in a break room, talk, make the best of Thanksgiving dinner with one pack of turkey cold cuts, and then come clean about bubbling resentments and insecurities. It’s a scene that allows room for character, and after all, the danger won’t matter as much if we don’t know the people whose lives are at stake. As it stands, “Black Friday” is a bargain-priced lark, but it could have been worth more with some follow-through.


Grade: C +


Screen Media is releasing “Black Friday” (80 min.) in theaters on November 19th and on demand on November 23rd.

Comments