Digital on Demand: A group of retail workers are preparing for Black Friday shoppers only to be overwhelmed by zombies.
Release date November 23, 2021
Violence D Sexual Content B Profanity D Substance Use BWhy is Black Friday rated Not Rated? The MPAA rated Black Friday Not Rated
Run Time: 84 minutes
On the evening of Thanksgiving, the staff of We Love Toys report to work in preparation for Black Friday. Tensions between coworkers and managers are at a breaking point as corporate HQ introduces new mandates, like taking away paid breaks. But these problems fade in importance when customers who have touched a strange, gooey substance start acting stranger than usual. With a growing zombie outbreak on their hands, the staff must band together to save themselves and the store.
I love this premise. Retail workers defending themselves from zombies on the busiest day of the year in a campy critique of capitalism? Sign me up! The movie starts out strong as we meet some of our main characters and get a feel for the coming storm that is Black Friday. Unfortunately, the film peters out soon after that. The small budget is obvious from the beginning, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing in the horror genre, but the constraints on the writers are a hindrance here. Dare I say it, I want more zombies in my zombie movie! We spend way too much time locked up with the employees in the back of the store without any action. With a larger budget, and perhaps more experienced writers, this could have been a fun, if gory, time, but instead it crumbles into an incoherent mess.
On the plus side, it’s always nice to see Bruce Campbell back in action and he is a standout amongst the cast. The rest of the ensemble’s performances range from surprisingly good to cringingly terrible. Many of the special effects are well done, if a little homemade looking, but some of them are so amateur that they fall into “student film” territory. The ending is a cautionary tale against having ambitions that are greater than your abilities, with a final monster that looks like a child’s craft project.
Obviously, as with most entries into this genre, violence and gore are everywhere. There’s also a huge amount of swearing, which makes this an inappropriate viewing experience for children and teens, as well as many adults. If you’re a zombie fanatic and just want to have a good time, Black Friday might give you some comic chills. For everyone else, this is going to be an obvious pass, even if it is on sale.
Directed by Casey Tebo. Starring Devon Sawa, Ivana Baquero, Ryan Lee, Bruce Campbell. Running time: 84 minutes. Theatrical release November 23, 2021. Updated February 24, 2022
Savannah Sillito is a librarian with a master's in library science, a bachelor's degree in English, and a certificate in early childhood education. She enjoys nonfiction books, travel, and is a staunch proponent of the Oxford comma.
Why is Black Friday rated Not Rated? Black Friday is rated Not Rated by the MPAA
Violence: Zombies and humans are killed in a variety of ways, including being shot with a nail gun, stabbed in the neck, hit with blunt objects, and being stabbed in the eye. A finger is cut off in close up. Dead bodies are seen in varying states of dismemberment. Blood and gore are frequently seen.
Sexual Content: There are jokes about sexual activities. A character uses a sexual hand gesture. A female zombie is topless but is so inhuman looking that her nudity is barely noticeable.
Profanity: There are over 45 sexual expletives, along with another 45 mild and moderate expletives and terms of deity.
Alcohol / Drug Use: A man smokes a cigarette. A man drinks from a flask. A man drinks champagne straight from the bottle.
Page last updated February 24, 2022
Why is Ken so determined to get out alive? What really matters to him? What are the most important things in your life?
Most family-friendly zombie movies are a bit cheesy but there are a few to choose from. Kids can watch Zombies 2 which features mellow zombies interacting with humans and then with werewolves. For teenagers, Warm Bodies takes a Romeo-and-Juliet approach to a romance between a zombie and a living human. In World War Z, Brad Pitt stars as a man trying to save people from a plague that turns them into zombies. Jane Austen’s beloved Regency novel is mixed with the brain-eating undead in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. After a manmade virus turns people into animal-like beasts, one of the few survivors tries to find a treatment in I Am Legend.
If you’re looking for more intense zombie action, you will necessarily move into Restricted territory. Some popular films in the genre include Zombieland, Zombieland: Double Tap, The Dead Don’t Die,