In the vast pantheon of recent quality teen comedy romances, this isn’t one. In the vast pantheon of recent quality “communicating with the dead” productions, this also isn’t one. Ahhh, but in the genre of the quality entertainment featuring the combo of dark comedy and diversity, this is … also not one.
But it is a film, so I saw it … and regretted most of it. I don’t know if there were good intentions here, but the conclusion the picture sought to reach was not supported by the film I saw. It’s a little like Tucker Carlson’s take on January 6.
Darby Harper (Riele Downs) is a standard outcaste teen in a standard crappy American high school. She’s the “Daria“-type loner who ridicules her peers. Can’t say that I blame her. Her attitude isn’t necessarily her choice. You see, when Darby was a child, she had a near death experience that gave her the ability to see and communicate with the dead. Now that makes up 100% of her social life. Damn, are the dead ever pushy! Jerks.
I’m with the film so far. It’s tough enough getting through the drama of high school without adding dead people’s baggage. Except for “stayers” (dead people just chillin’ cuz, like, all the bowling alleys are closed), the dead in this film are incredibly self-centered (who died and made you queen? Oh, you). As Darby is the only one who can communicate with them, they don’t seem to have a sense of decorum. Nowhere is this more apparent than when head mean girl Capri (Auliʻi Cravalho) dies in a freak hair curler accident in the girls’ locker room and decides to haunt Darby for life.
Darby wants nothing to do with Capri. But Capri won’t leave Darby alone. Capri insists upon having her 17th birthday bash go down as planned, but to do so, she’ll have to first make Darby into a mean girl so that the school will accept her as popular enough to throw the bash that Capri thinks she deserves. In the process, Darby seems to alienate the one friend, Alex (Chosen Jacobs) she’s made at high school. And this is all so 
some primadonna Valley Ghoul can get the sendoff she “deserves.”
Geez, if death doesn’t make you humble, what will?
The objective of this terrible plot is most confusing. I mean it seems like Darby has to learn the lesson of not being a stuck-up bitch … WHICH SHE ALREADY KNOWS … the only reason she becomes a mean girl is to get Capri out her life. And I suppose Capri has to learn a lesson about humility and friendship, but –first of all- I don’t think Capri learns much of anything despite what the screenplay says and secondly, what for? She’s dead. Why do we assume the same rules apply in life and death? What if being a snotty diva is exactly what rolls in the afterlife? Who’s to say? I suppose there’s something to be said for the fact that you’re never too old nor too dead to learn a lesson, which would be great if I thought she’d actually learned something.
Darby and the Dead started well. The premise is decent, if overused, and I wanted to see it applied to high school machinations. But this film quickly went in the wrong direction and never veered from it. Hence, I doubt even high schoolers will like this one, a failure in both life and afterlife.
Darby can talk to the dead
She has that power, it’s said
But these ghosts are jerks
Abusing her quirks
I wish she’d ignored them instead
Rated PG-13, 100 Minutes
Director: Silas Howard
Writer: Becca Greene
Genre: The dead are vain
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: The screenwriter’s mom
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Actual dead people
