Holiday-specific horror is becoming increasingly popular. Still, you might need something to bridge the gap between the more traditional spooky movies you watch in October and the Christmas-heavy horror of December. Last year, Eli Roth gave us an outright slasher with Thanksgiving, which fans had been waiting for since we saw the fake trailer in 2007’s Grindhouse. But for those wanting something a little less brutal and a little more comedy-leaning, Casey Tebo’s Black Friday fits the bill.

Like Thanksgiving, Black Friday heavily revolves around the madness that occurs during the yearly post-turkey shopping event. But rather than serving as a catalyst for horrific murders the following year, Black Friday takes place entirely during the sale and follows a group of toy store employees fending off shoppers turned into literal monsters by an alien parasite. Leading the employees is Devon Sawa as Ken, a middle-aged, divorced father with two kids who still works as a low-level sales associate at a toy store. Opposite Sawa is the horror icon that is Bruce Campbell as his seemingly callous store manager. Together with the rest of the employees, they must figure out how to escape the store without becoming infected.

Devon Sawa Joins Bruce Campbell To Make ‘Black Friday’ Nostalgically Fun

Jamie Lee Curtis might be one of the reigning scream queens, but Bruce Campbell is the king of hammy horror. Cementing his B-movie reputation with The Evil Dead in 1981, he’s since continued to chew the scenery and bring his hilarious smarm to every role, including his turn as Jonathan the manager in Black Friday.The movie is somewhat of a comeback for Campbell, as Black Friday was his first movie role since 2016. He’s a great fit as Jonathan because, even when he’s being a jerk, you can’t help but like him, which helps make it surprisingly heartwarming when he reveals his vulnerable side and shows that he genuinely cares about his employees.

Another throwback is Devon Sawa; while he’s never stopped working, after his success with Final Destination he mostly left the spotlight, acting in lesser-known projects and more than a few direct-to-video movies. He still has a dedicated fanbase, though, and his recurring appearances on the Chucky TV series as different characters who hilariously keep getting killed are a treat for those fans. His role in Black Friday leans into Sawa’s natural charm and likability; Ken doesn’t take the horror too seriously but isn’t as zany as some of the side characters, and he continues to try to help his co-workers even after he’s attacked and bitten during a fight with one of the alien/human creatures.

‘Black Friday’ Favors Gooey Practical Effects Over CGI

Part of the charm of old-fashioned, cheesy horror movies is their use of practical effects. Seeing a monster that’s clearly someone in a rubber suit is always fun, but Black Friday goes above and beyond to create impressive – and gross – creature effects with minimal CGI. The shoppers who become infected by the alien parasite go through multiple stages of infection, each with their own nasty changes. First, they’re covered in boils; then they progress to fully peeling, which reveals their pale skin and gnashing teeth. A particularly memorable scene shows the transformation to the final stages onscreen, with the victim’s skin turning a leathery brown and their mouth pulling back to reveal a sharp, octopus-like beak. It’s a great moment of practical creature effects from legend Robert Kurtzman, who has worked on multiple Mike Flanagan projects, Scream, and with Campbell on Evil Dead II, to name just a few.

Related Eli Roth Explains Why Black Friday’s “Gladiator Games” Was the Perfect Setup for ‘Thanksgiving’ “I think that it’s more just a commentary on this kind of sick culture that we have.”

As Kurtzman himself put it in an interview with Fangoria, “When you’re making these lower-budget films, what you don’t want is your movie to look like one of those older SyFy Channel movies, where the creature was always digital, and it looked like a bad cartoon. They never looked good.” Kurtzman said he was excited by Black Friday because there was so much room for creativity in the monster designs and director Casey Tebo didn’t want a ton of CGI. In fact, during the climactic scene involving an enormous creature (hilariously credited as the “Mega Shopper”), the monster itself is fully practical as well. “We were able to build an actual practical suit that an actor wore, and we shot him in it against a green screen so we could make it look like there was an actual 80-foot tall monster.” The resulting creature is both stomach-churning and ridiculous, just like the rest of the movie.

Turning holiday shoppers into actual monsters isn’t subtle, but Black Friday doesn’t pretend to be anything but a modern B-movie, so it works — especially if you’re a fan of goopy creatures and over-the-top acting. Black Friday provides a veritable Thanksgiving feast to tide you over before it’s time to switch over to Christmas horror this year (and maybe it will teach your cranky family members to behave themselves before they go shopping).

Black Friday is streaming in the U.S. on Prime Video.

Watch on Amazon Prime

Release Date November 19, 2021 Director Casey Tebo Cast Devon Sawa , Ivana Baquero , Ryan Lee , Stephen Amethyst Peck , Michael Jai White , Bruce Campbell , Louie Kurtzman , Stephen O’Neil Martin , Leah Procito , Mark Steger , Kayla Caulfield , Andria Blackman , Lonnie Farmer , Marilyn Busch , Adrian M. Mompoint , Christopher Mikael , Christian Cibotti Writers Andy Greskoviak Expand