# 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.
- Title: Christopher Walken's Funeral Home Gets a Killer Boost
- Summary: 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…
- Keywords: tiff, dark comedy, crime drama, christopher walken, antiheroes, Christopher, Walken's, Funeral, Home, Gets, Killer, Boost
- Source: The Hollywood Reporter — https://hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/christopher-walken-back-in-black-film-tiff-2026-interview-1236693818
- Author: Etan Vlessing
- Published: 2026-09-13T13:15:00+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: tiff, dark comedy, crime drama, christopher walken, antiheroes
## 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.
## Key takeaway

Murphy built a comedy on a moral trapdoor: the audience cheers for a killer and only notices later.