Movie Review: Black Friday (2021)

Synopsis: A group of toy store employees expected to work Thanksgiving night because of corporate's big Black Friday sale are forced to fight for their lives when aliens possess the shoppers. They later learn it is a full-scale invasion and help isn't on the way.

Who's in it? The movie stars Devon Sawa, Bruce Campbell, Ivana Baquero, Ryan Lee and Stephen Peck.


Review: My wife and daughter skipped martial arts classes last night, giving my wife and I an opportunity to watch a holiday movie. I came across this one a few days ago and was intrigued so we gave it a shot. Overall, it wasn't too terrible.

First, I thought the premise was a decent one. The idea of an alien (or aliens) turning a group of already angry shoppers into unkillable zombies made the movie interesting. I also liked how the film too some not-so-subtle jabs at the whole Black Friday concept in general with things like showing a divorced dad (Sawa) having to have "Thanksgiving breakfast" with his kids and Bruce Campbell's character giving a lecture about the shopping holiday and how shoppers really aren't getting as good of deals as they think they are.

The movie also did a good job with character introductions, something that isn't always the case with films in this genre. I learned just enough about each of the main characters to understand their various quirks and even decide if I liked them or not but, at the same time, the movie didn't bog me down with a bunch of unnecessary details that would make the movie drag.

I was willing to overlook some of the subpar special effects (not every movie is going to have a large budget for that). However, I do think the film could have used a bit more action. There were a few too many lulls with the protagonists getting to sit around to talk about their lives and even have a makeshift Thanksgiving dinner and I'm not sure the movie really took full advantage of the unstoppable alien zombies as a result of that. But I will say I thought the final battle was better than expected.

Final Opinion: If you are able to overlook the special effects, it is a surprisingly entertaining horror/comedy. It'll probably won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoyed it more than expected.

My Grade: B-

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