Black Friday (2021) Review – A Bland and Dated Festive Zombie Comedy

Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today we are taking a look at Black Friday (2021).

Thanksgiving comedy horror

Written by Andy Greskoviak and directed by Casey Tebo, Black Friday is a comedy horror movie that is being absolutely panned by viewers. Released in November of 2021, Bruce Campbell has both production and acting credits. It must at least be worth a watch, surely? It follows a bunch of grumpy toy store employees being forced to work the midnight shift on Black Friday. Expecting a horde of overly enthusiastic shoppers, the group find themselves in a fight for their lives when a horde of infected people show up at the store looking for more than just bargains.

“Black Friday is a comedy horror in the vein of Shaun of the Dead. The film aims to mix big laughs with entertaining horror, but it feels about 6 or 7 years out of date.”

Black Friday is a comedy horror in the vein of Shaun of the Dead and other similar movies. The film aims to mix big laughs with some entertaining horror elements. There’s no need to beat around the bush here, though. This movie feels about 6 or 7 years out of date. Far more people see the Black Friday sales for what they are nowadays. It feels as though this film would have been a lot more apt half a decade ago. You know, back when people were actually killing each other to get to the bargains.

Still, the concept here could make for a fairly fun horror movie, if nothing else. That’s if it actually tried to do anything different. The zombies are overly familiar, ripped right from other similar horror movies. The pacing is an issue, the kills are dull, the action is predictable and formulaic, and its just not all that interesting. Sure, if you are desperate for a zombie flick set on Black Friday, it will do. But, as a horror movie, there just isn’t much to recommend outside of the interesting cast.

A great B-movie cast

Black Friday features a pretty stellar cast… well, as far as B-movies go. Many of the actors here have been big names at one point or another. I was quite surprised to see a few of the faces. Naturally Bruce Campbell, as cranky store manager Jonathan, gets top building. He is excellent, as always, and plays the role well. Overly concerned with profit, Jonathan is exactly what you would expect: cowardly, demanding, and self-centred.

Final Destination‘s Devon Sawa has a pretty big part as Ken. Having worked at the store for years, Ken has perfected avoiding doing anything too taxing and thinks himself to be a bit of a “cool” guy. Sawa reminds me of a bit of a discount Michael Keaton here. Ken is, frankly, a bit sad and Sawa does a nice job of capturing how oblivious Ken is to this fact.

Ivana Baquero, of Pan’s Labyrinth fame, is all grown up and playing Marnie. Marnie is a wise-cracking shop assistant with a distinct lack of direction in life. Marnie is pretty capable of defending herself and not afraid to bust her co-worker’s balls. Michael Jai White appears as tough guy employee Archie. Think of his turn as Spawn but with a nail gun this time around. It’s great to see him, however brief.  The rest of the cast are all competent with Ryan Lee, as Chris, being of particular note. He delivers quite a few laughs. His portrayal of a germaphobe dealing with various bodily substances is always amusing.

Too many issues

Black Friday falls foul to far too many issues to make it a must watch. The script, for one, is absolutely terrible. Conversations can feel dull and uninteresting as well as often being awkward and disconnected; it seriously lacks in wit. Most of the time however, it is just very basic and uninspired. The actors give it their all with the material given but it is just a bit too much to overcome. The poor script is particularly noteworthy as this is a comedy. The complete lack of jokes is an enormous negative.

“The lack of humour is only compounded by the fact that this is not a scary horror. You can’t have virtually no jokes and absolutely no scares at all.”

There is a certain feeling of lethargy to the on-screen action, too. Nothing much happens and the impressive location is wasted. The mutated humans race around the store maniacally, yet outside of a few scenes, the survivors ignore them and stay well away. I know that might be the logical thing to do but it makes for poor horror.

The lack of humour is only compounded by the fact that this is not a scary horror. If you are making a comedy horror, you need one of those elements to take precedence. A few jokes and a decent amount of scares is good, a few scares and tons of jokes is even better. What you can’t do, however, is to have virtually no jokes and absolutely no scares at all.

Black Friday‘s horror elements are poorly executed, formulaic, and entirely predictable. It doesn’t even manage to get the viewer with jump scares. You will see what is coming next from a mile away. This would be okay if the movie was funny; the fact is that is far from the case. What you are left with is mediocre comedy and non-existent horror.

Bland cinematography and awful CGI

Cinematography and direction are pretty average. It’s about as basic as you can imagine for a fairly high-budget horror movie. I can’t remember a single standout shot; it’s just a bland-looking movie. CGI special effects are absolute shit for the most part. I understand that some things are on a scale where practical stuff would be difficult. Why include them, though? Write something different. If all you can offer are CG effects that suck ass, why bother?

It does have to be said, however, that the practical effects are excellent. The mutated humans, in particular, look really good. The designs are nothing out of the ordinary but they certainly look convincing. There’s evidently been a lot of thought gone into the monsters. I imagine there was also a fair bit of time in a makeup chair for the performers. It’s a shame that the latter parts of the movie forego the practical stuff for CGI. It’s one of the highlights of the movie and deserves a lot of praise.

“Don’t go into it expecting something amazing and you might have an okay time. Grab a few friends, a few drinks and watch it as part of a holiday season B-movie marathon.”

Pretty inconsequential in the grand scheme of things but deserving of mention: the soundtrack is horrible. Patrick Stump, of Fall Out Boy fame, handles the task and despite being a great singer he does an awful job scoring a movie. Imagine a 15-year-old edgy kid declaring how his Christmas film would have a punk soundtrack. How many F-bombs would that little bastard put in those songs? That’s Black Friday! It’s bad enough seeing the 44-year-old Sawa skating around the store like a 15-year-old without also being subjected to shit like Bankrupt’s “Christmas is Cancelled Forever”. I don’t think anyone deserves to suffer that level of cringe.

Our Scoring Philosophy: A Fair Fight

Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.

A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.

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