*20th Century Studios’ new supernatural comedy “Darby and the Dead” features a teen queen, the afterlife, and lessons about grief and healing.
After suffering a near-death experience as a young girl, Darby Harper (Riele Downs) gains the ability to see dead people. As a result, she becomes introverted and shut off from her high school peers and prefers to spend time counseling lonely spirits who have unfinished business on earth. But all that changes when Capri (Auli’I Cravalho), the Queen Bee of the school’s most exclusive clique, unexpectedly dies in a freak hair straightening accident, resulting in the apparent cancellation of her upcoming “Sweet 17.”
Capri, however, pleads with Darby from the other side to intervene and convince Capri’s friends to proceed with the party as planned to appease the wrath of the undead diva; Darby must emerge from her self-imposed exile and reinvent herself — which along the way, allows her to find new joy back in the land of the living.
Check out the trailer below.
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The film was directed by Silas Howard, who has helmed episodes of several television shows including “Pose” and “Dickinson,” as well as the feature film “A Kid Like Jake.”
EUR’s Jill Munroe spoke exclusively with Howard about what attracted him to the project, and he shared that “Darby and the Dead” hit his favorite themes, the most important being humor.
“Comedy is a way to handle any kind of traumatic thing. As a trans person, many stories were always told in trauma. Anybody who’s gone through anything difficult knows that humor is your best friend. I also love that it’s about friendship, and the transformative power of friendship has been in my work since my first feature,” Howard explained.
Howard also shared how the film touches on changing yourself for the worst.
“I think we express ourselves most freely when we are comfortable. And, I think in Darby’s journey, she’s cool at first. But, she’s kind of like, don’t look at me, but also look at me, because she’s sort of giving the middle finger to the school. And then in the middle journey, it becomes, look at me, and now I’m in all these bright colors, but it’s uncomfortable for her. It’s not quite her. And then the final version is, see me, you know, and she’s just letting her guard down,” said Howard.
“Darby and the Dead” stars Riele Downs (“Henry Danger”), Auli’i Cravalho (“Moana”), Chosen Jacobs (“IT”), Asher Angel (“Shazam!”), Wayne Knight (“Seinfeld”), Derek Luke (“13 Reasons Why”), and Tony Danza (“Who’s the Boss?”). Tune in when it premieres exclusively on HULU on December 2.
In the meantime, check out my full conversation with the filmmaker via the clip below.
*Jill Munroe is a Los Angeles-bred entertainment journalist, producer, and host. You can follow her on all social media @StilettoJill or check out JillMunroe.com
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