Rowan Blanchard’s Dark Comedy ‘The Drill’ Sparks Outrage: “There Is NOTHING Funny About School Shootings”

A movie with dark comedy themes, titled “The Drill,” is being made and follows a high school drill team trapped in their gym during an active shooter lockdown. The movie stars Rowan Blanchard. Some people are unhappy with this movie’s theme and find the idea disgusting.

@seewomenendure from X is among those who sparked the controversy against the upcoming movie. This user says that he or she is American and has lived in fear of school shootings each day in school. The user claims that the theme isn’t appropriate for comedy films and adds some personal experience of undergoing lockdown.

“this is f—— disgusting are you kidding me…. as an american who feared for their life going to school every day, there is NOTHING funny about school shootings…….?!?!?!?!?!!?” the person wrote.

The same individual shares his or her story in another post. “im lucky enough to have never been in a real active shooting but ive been in 2-3 false alarm ones and the terror is palpable. it’s horrifying,” the person wrote.

Some individuals responded to these posts, saying that it is better to wait for the movie’s release and to defend dark comedy as a serious theme.

“i feel like it’s okay to satirize how absurdly horrible things are now,” one person wrote. “I think we should wait until it comes out to judge, especially since comedy is a pretty broad term.”

One user links this situation to the problems in media literacy nowadays. “a big issue in today’s media literacy crisis is this assumption that portraying something = endorsing it,” the user wrote. “dark comedies aren’t always about making light of a subject; sometimes they’re about using humor to highlight horror and still coping.”

A third person finds the word “comedy” to be misused in the debate. “i think many people are misusing the term comedy rn bc comedy can be expressed in many ways and sometimes it can be the strongest form of satire,” the person wrote. “i don’t know if this movie will go that way but comedy isn’t necessarily unserious!”