Christopher Walken’s New Movie Is Much Darker Than Its Charming Premise Suggests

• Collider's Steve Weintraub talks with the team behind Back in Black at TIFF 2026.
• Ron Murphy, Ella Ballentine, and Josh Richards discuss their darkly comedic love story and working with Christopher Walken.
• Ballentine also talks about taking on a whole new role and how they balanced her character between deadly and empathetic.

Often, the consequences of our actions go unnoticed until the cause and effect are too great to ignore. Such is the case in the new dark comedy, Back in Black, starring Oscar-winner Christopher Walken, when his small-town funeral home begins to suffer after a surge in wellness trends — juicing, meditation, etc. — that essentially render them useless. What to do when everyone refuses to die?

From co-writer and director Ron Murphy (Dark Matter), the movie follows a miffed funeral director, Clyde (Walken), and his family as they struggle to make ends meet with their local funeral home. But in a twisted turn of events, Clyde’s devoted granddaughter Sam (The Vampire Lestat’s Ella Ballentine) devises a solution that puts the Mortimer Family Funeral Home back in business! The movie also stars Jane Curtin (Saturday Night Live), Josh Richards (Dream Scenario), and Cooper Levy (Anna Pigeon).

In this interview at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, where Back in Black made its world premiere, Steve Weintraub spoke with Murphy, Ballentine, and Richards at the Collider Media Studio, presented by Campari and The Cayman Islands, about the film's dark tone and themes and balancing that with sympathetic characters. Ballentine reflects on her career and fans since Anne of Green Gables and discusses what it was like to tap into a silent, challenging character like Sam. For more on the film, check out the full conversation in the video above, with time codes provided below.

• 00:33 - The Back in Black crew share their favorite movie theater seats.
• 01:51 - The trio answers a series of questions to get to know them, like their favorite sci-fi and the role that scared them most.
• 06:12 - What is Back in Black about?
• 06:23 - Ella Ballentine and Josh Richards discuss how the script drew them in.
• 08:21 - Ballentine reflects on what Anne of Green Gables fans might think of her darker roles.
• 09:16 - Why Ballentine was the perfect choice to play Sam, according to Murphy.
• 09:54 - Ballentine shares her experience working opposite Christopher Walken.
• 11:54 - Walken originally challenged Murphy on the script and role.
• 15:03 - Is Ballentine’s Sam a villain?
• 16:17 - Murphy discusses making Sam empathetic rather than psychopathic.
• 19:07 - Richards discusses production levels and time commitments of creating online content.
• 21:07 - Murphy discusses the editing process, changes made to the film, and making the shift from television to film.

Back in Black premiered at TIFF 2026. The film does not yet have a release date. Check back with Collider for more updates!