User reviews

Plot

A group of toy store employees must protect each other from a horde of parasite infected shoppers.

Cast

The underrated Devon Sawa, stunning Ivana Baquero, Michael Jai White and the legend that is Bruce Campbell. Oh and Seth Green as the voice of a teddy bear, for some reason.

Verdict

I'll be honest, when I saw the stills and learned that Bruce Campbell was in it I thought here's a movie that's cashing in on the popularity of Evil Dead and is unofficially providing us with more. I was wrong, so very wrong.

Let me be clear in saying these are NOT deadites, and Campbell is great here but he's nothing more than a support character. Our leads are Sawa and Baquero who were great, but I'd got my hopes up seeing Campbell leading a ragtag group against evil not this.

The setting is interesting but underutilized, the cast are solid and a decent mix of characters, the creatures are rather bland and generic, the comedy is very hit and miss and overall I was left disappointed but still did have a decent enough time watching Black Friday despite its very blatant flaws.

The thing I believe that bothered me the most was how cheap it felt in places. Some of the cinematography and effects were unforgivably bad and there was no excuse for that.

Marginally above average but remember this is not Evil Dead, this is hardly a Campbell movie and appreciate its limitations.

Rants

Baquero was a joy to watch, I'm not familiar with her works beyond Pan's Labyrinth so seeing her as an adult was a delight. Decent little actress, I'd love to see her in more and she's changed her appearance to such an extent I don't even see Ofelia anymore. Am I alluding to plastic surgery, very likely.

Breakdown

Fun in places Solid cast Looks and feels cheap at times Not on the level you'll likely hope/expect.

If you're after a fun little holiday thrill with some laughs thrown in, Black Friday might be the movie for you.

Sure there's no character development, and the plot gets a little ridiculous at times but you aren't watching a B movie for character development of academy award level writing.

Black Friday doesn't take itself too seriously, and neither should you. For a small budget movie the skin work is great.

It was great to see Devon Sawas (Final Destination) all grown up and Bruce Campbell is funny as ever.

When trying to imagine Black, Friday, think Netflix comedy Superstore, if the store was attacked by aliens.

I have to admit, I wasn't too keen to watch this... when I saw that Devon Sawa (Final Destination) was in it, as was Bruck Campbell, I gave it a go. I have to say, while you won't achieve nirvana, nor discover the meaning of life, give it a go. It was better than many other movies with higher IMDB ratings, and certainly doesn't take itself seriously, almost parodying itself.

On a day off, and at a loose end, I microwaved a bag of popcorn, sat back with a couple of beers, turned my brain off and to be honest, I actually didn't mind it.

Give it a go.

Bruce Campbell is the only redeeming quality of Black Friday. Yes, the production is okay, the cast too, but the humor just does not work very well and the horror is at most okayish. On paper a mix of Blob, Superstore and a buddy horror comedy a la Shaun of the Dead may look good but the execution meanders something on the edge of average and below average. What I miss mostly is some unique spark. Also there never is really some suspense like for example in the story of The Mist. Exact rate: 3 + 1 for Mr. Campbell's solid performance.

This movie has absolutely no comedy n it tried very hard to fall in the horror/comedy genre but failed miserably.

What was the point of taking Michael J White n not show his character kicking zombies.

The whole 'Blob' style scene towards the end is a big meh.

This was weird af! One of the weirdest (big budget) films I've seen in a while.

I know it's a horror comedy, but something was just off. It didn't feel right. It was like they were in an alternate universe, because nobody acted human.

I feel like I just watched the actors doing a dry-run rehearsal, that wasn't supposed to be filmed.

A lot of the scenes felt odd, because the accompanying music was all over the place. Nothing fitted!

The 'zombie-ness' starts more or less straight away...and absolutely nobody seems bothered, confused, or worried about what's going on. Everyone just goes into attack mode...no questions asked. A customer growls...and a staff member shoots him multiple times with a nail gun...the whole thing was downright bizarre!

I could kind of tell it wasn't going to be that great, when I saw the trailer.

Great idea, but unfortunately poorly executed.

It looks like they did not spend any money and time making it, so don't waste your time watching it.

It is a copy of the 1988 movie called The Blob. But even though that one was 33 years ago it was way better.

It is like a bunch of scenes put together, but that does not make a movie.

Also the scenes are acted weird, like they are completely not in their characters but just reading the lines. Very unconvincing.

The whole movie is shot in one place in which they just run back and forth. The special effects are bad, cheap and last wayyy too long.

Terrible.

This wasn't amazing or anything but I had a good time. While I felt that there could have been more time developing the characters before the horror happened this was overall a solid survival horror. I thought all of the cast did a good job and it was great seeing Bruce Campbell in a role like this. The monster effects were fantastic and I enjoyed the climax. Not a masterpiece but an enjoyable way to spend an hour and 20 minutes.

Not once I've raised the corners of my mouth for a slight hint of a smile. The (first time movie) writer totally missed the humor in his writing. Writing comedy is an art and this could have been much better (maybe hire a comedian?) On the characters and story, the writing was bad also because the situation is handled as if the events happen every week which made it surreal & detached (in a bad way)... Also the music score gets annoying (its like a Home Alone score).. Now all this would not bothered me when the writing was good! The writer should've watched 1992 "Braindead" (my fav horror-comedy!) which has the absurdism, sarcasm and over the top gore this movie needed badly! Watch Braindead instead, avoid this!

Saw this movie because my spouse and I are both Bruce Campbell fans, and it was exactly what we expected and we loved it. This is definitely a movie for fans of things like Ash vs The Evil Dead, Stan Against Evil, Deadtectives, Santa's Slay, Ready or Not, and even Return of the Living Dead. It's filled with cheese, and humor that's definitely not to everyone's taste, but if the above list is full of things you already like, this is one you'll definitely enjoy. It's ridiculous and we were there for every moment of it.

This is a Christmas, horror comedy in typical B-movie style a la Bruce Campbell. I've read some of the reviews here and I think people mistakenly thought they were going to watch The Godfather or Alien. The criticisms sound like they were expecting a Spielberg or Scorsese cinematic masterpiece and they were shocked when ....it wasn't. It's a fun Christmas horror comedy driven by characters that are all flawed, parodies of those we all know in real life. It is fun to watch and fans of Bruce Campbell should give it a try. Will it win an Oscar? Not a chance! Is it going to revolutionize the film industry? Nope! Is it driven by an award winning, spell binding script? Heck no!

But will my husband and I watch many more times over the holidays to come? Yes! We! Will!

The trailer looked half decent but the movie was very poor, no funny scenes, very cheap special effects, no real storyline. Something you would stick on in the background but even then get bored...very poor by Bruce Campbell.

It's crazy how movies are getting done with such lousy scripts, seriously.

There's a lot of work here in terms of production, they even got a good bunch of actors, none of them was half as bad as the script!

Cinematography was good and the practical effects were decent for the genre.

But the script is mediocre from the beginning to the end, the story is nothing original, true, but it's just an excuse to see how the characters survive the situation, it's been done before, simple stories, clever script. This isn't clever at all. Dialogs, action, pace, characters... everything fails here in that department.

Totally wasted potential. Again, I can't imagine how this script got greenlighted, somebody of all the people reading it must have noticed how bad was the writing.

It's ok if you want a dumb watch, but I'm sure you can find easily something better.

Black Friday! Reminded me a lot of recent horror/comedy Slaxx, in that it takes place in a store that is preparing for a sale and there are very few characters worth caring about; but where Slaxx was still passable fun thanks to its unique concept (a killer pair of denim jeans), Black Friday! Is a huge disappointment despite a reasonable cast (Bruce Campbell, Devon Sawa, Ivana Baquero and Michael Jai White are the best known names) largely thanks to a wholly predictable script in which the humour repeatedly falls flat.

The film takes place at a toy store on the eponymous date, when Americans flock to get their hands on vastly discounted goods. As the customers argue over stuffed toys and computer games, it soon becomes clear that something is wrong when the fighting turns to killing: the Black Friday shoppers have been infected by a malevolent extraterrestrial force that seeks to absorb humans to create massive kaiju-like monsters.

Like so many zombie films, the epidemic rapidly spreads, leaving a handful of survivors to team together - only in this case, they bicker and argue and generally act obnoxious. Sawa stars as WeLoveToys employee Ken Bates, a drunken wastrel with zero ambition - and he's supposed to be the hero of the film! Campbell is loathsome store manager Jonathan Wexler, who is willing to ignore the crisis to try and keep the cash registers ringing. Ryan Lee plays wimpy germaphobe Chris, and Stephen Peck plays a camp overweight employee with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Baquero and White get to play likeable characters, but the former is essentially there as eye candy and the latter as alien fodder.

Directed with little style or originality by Casey Tebo, the whole thing is made even more intolerable by a loud, generic score that never seems to fit with what is happening on screen.

3/10 for the MUFX and gore by Robert Kurtzman, and that's being generous.

I understand what they were going for but..they never got anywhere near it. It failed on almost every account - acting, plot and sense of humor.

The last 1/3 of it I played at 2x speed just to get through it. Just really bad.

Entertaining, great make-up, funny, short. Definitely recommended and it's always great to see Bruce Campbell doing his thing. Can't say it's anything more than a fun watch though.

Ever since I saw that Bruce Campbell plays a role in this movie i knew it was gonna be great, I really enjoyed it. It was really fun and disgusting at the same time and also super intense it had me in a lot of agony about the characters and overall it's a great horror comedy alien like film.

That was just bad. Pretty much lost me right from the beginning. I gave it 30 minutes and turned it off. How someone could sit through this entire film is beyond me.

I like Bruce, Michael Jai and Devon Sawa ( from chucky tv series ) in this with all the other actors who are new to me, its fun, i enjoyed the story and characters, 2 bits in the movie reminded me of John Carpenters the thing ( love that movie )

Its worth a watch and doesnt deserve the bad reviews ive seen going about

Give it a try.

When I saw the trailer for "Black Friday", I have to say that I was definitely looking forward to getting to see this movie. And now I just had the chance to watch it. And then how was it?

Well, it was watchable and enjoyable, for sure, but it was hardly a movie with the potential for becoming a holiday special. Nor was it a movie that had the cult makings of "Evil Dead", though there were some resemblances.

What initially drew me to watch "Black Friday" from writer Andy Greskoviak and director Casey Tebo was the fact that the movie had Bruce Campbell, Michael Jai White and Devon Sawa on the cast list. Plus it also seemed like a zombie movie of sorts. Well, sorts I suppose, as they were parasitic infected and not really reanimated dead.

The storyline in "Black Friday", as written by Andy Greskoviak, was a fun storyline. There were some nice moment throughout the course of the movie, I will say that. But as I stated earlier, this is not going to become a classic.

Now, I am not living in the USA, and while we in Denmark have implemented the Black Friday concept, I am sure that it is by no means up to the hectic and insane levels you see happen in USA. So on that account, I couldn't really get into the whole frantic shoppers feel of the movie.

Visually then "Black Friday" was good. The special effects were good and the make-up effects were good, and they definitely added flavor to the movie. So thumbs up to the special effects crew for their accomplishments here.

"Black Friday" does have a good cast list, and it was of course a blast to see Bruce Campbell in the role of Jonathan the store manager. Needless to say that Devon Sawa and Michael Jai White were also good. And I have to admit that it was fun to watch Michael Jai White in a movie such as "Black Friday".

Sure, I was entertained by "Black Friday", and I enjoyed the movie. However, I do doubt that this is a movie that I will return to watch for a second time.

My rating of "Black Friday" lands on a six out of ten stars.

"Black Friday" is a Comedy - Horror movie in which we watch a group of toy store employees trying to survive and protect themselves by some infected shoppers. They have to work as a team and leave their differences aside if they want to survive.

I have to admit that I did not have high expectations from this movie but I was expecting at least to laugh and have a great time. Unfortunately, that did not happen since it was a bit tiring after an hour. Despite its simple plot, it did not succeed on creating the feeling of terror and the way comedy and horror were combined was not the best. It also reminded the movies "The Blob" of 1958 and 1988, but those two were far better than "Black Friday". Lastly, I have to say that "Black Friday" is a below average comedy - horror movie and I do not recommend you to watch it, you can find far better movies than this one to spend your time.

The comedy doesn't work, the horror doesn't either, the script was "written" by a 2 year old, the sound effects are over the top. This doesn't work in any level.

Very difficult to even get through to the ridiculous end scene. Nothing made sense and the comedy was literally non-existent. I don't think I even came close to laughing even once. Hollywierd has forgotten how to make a decent film.