From The Hollywood Reporter · Etan Vlessing · · 1m 10s
Christopher Walken's Funeral Home Gets a Killer Boost
A dying funeral home starts booming when the quiet granddaughter starts filling it, and the crowd roots for her.
In brief
A dying funeral home starts booming when the quiet granddaughter starts filling it, and the crowd roots for her. Murphy built a comedy on a moral trapdoor: the audience cheers for a killer and only notices later. Originally reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
Not a whodunnit
Back in Black tells you who is killing people almost immediately. The tension comes from what the family does about the bodies, not from solving anything.
“Back in Black, as a darkly funny crime drama, is no whodunnit.”
A funeral home going under
Christopher Walken plays Clyde Mortimer, patriarch of a small-town funeral business staring straight at bankruptcy.
The quiet granddaughter
Sam, played by Ella Ballentine, sets off a sudden spike in local murders. Cadavers start arriving at the family's door and business recovers.
Police left stumped
The town's kill count climbs while local cops get nowhere. The Mortimers profit from every corpse that lands on the doorstep.
Why we cheer for her
Test screenings kept siding with Sam. Murphy knows exactly what he pulled off, and he says so plainly.
“Most people in test screenings that we've done are rooting for (Sam). And meanwhile, what she's doing is morally reprehensible.”
A debut at TIFF
Back in Black is Ron Murphy's first feature, world premiering at the Toronto Film Festival.
The key point
Murphy built a comedy on a moral trapdoor: the audience cheers for a killer and only notices later.
