“Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
Trigger Warning: There’s a brief sequence in which sexual assault is threatened that may be triggering for sensitive viewers.
Marriage is work. Relationships are work. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been together for days, weeks, months, or years, in order for harmony to exist, you have to put in work. You need to make space for your partner in whatever manner befits them, as much as you need to make space for yourself. It’s not the absence of conflict that predicts a harmonious partnership, it’s the ability to communicate your needs clearly and trust in being heard. But where’s the fun in that cinematically? Where’s the chaos? Where’s the bloodshed? Where’s the unabashed cruelty that gets audiences to pick a side? Enter director Jorma Taccone (Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping; MacGruber) and Over Your Dead Body, his adaptation of Tommy Wirkola’s 2021 horror comedy I onde dager (The Trip), with Samara Weaving and Jason Segel in leading roles and stuntwork from 87North Productions. Having its world premiere in the Headliner section of SXSW Film & TV Festival 2026 ahead of its wide theatrical release, action comedy Over Your Dead Body carves its own path in a well-worn niche thanks to sturdy performances, outlandish stunt work, and comedic timing that releases the pain just enough for relief before the on-screen violence continues.
Commercial director Dan (Segel) is generally dissatisfied with his life from his disappointing career to his frequently critical wife, Lisa (Weaving). In hopes of making a change, he decides to leave his wife and hatches a plan to do so violently (but gently) while the two are on a weekend getaway at his father’s cabin. Just one problem, well, four, as not only is Lisa not stupid, there are three criminals on the run who just so happen to come across the aggrieved couple. Can Dan and Lisa survive each other long enough to battle three maniacs or are their differences so insurmountable that they’re about to be lost to the abyss?
L-R: Samara Weaving as Lisa and Jason Segel as Dan in Jorma Taccone’s OVER YOUR DEAD BODY. Photo courtesy of Independent Film Company. An Independent Film Company Release.
Even if you don’t know Wirkola’s name, chances are you’ve either seen or heard of a film he’s directed (Dead Snow; Hansel & Gretal: Witch Hunters; What Happened to Monday?; Violent Night) or one he’s written or co-written (Dead Snow; Hansel & Gretal: Witch Hunters), each one possessing a characteristic violence-infused humor. Dark humor in horror and/or thrillers is a natural extension from action comedies with just a tweak in tone, pushing the consequences a little further, and making situations more adult, and this foundational element translates well in Taccone’s hands. The script from Nick Kocher (Pizza Movie) and Brian McElhaney (Pizza Movie) seems to understand this as they not only localize the tale to America from original screenwriters Wirkola, Nick Ball (Cat Run), and John Niven’s (Kill Your Friends) Norwegian tale, they also lean into the strengths of their leads to harness the power of tone. To his credit, Taccone manages to make the first POV portion feel tense and thrilling as we follow Dan from introduction of the film to his attempt to kill Lisa often through the incorporation of shots or moments of focus that feel taken from marital thrillers, so that we worry for the safety of the unaware Lisa. The film, however, is hindered quite a bit by being beholden to its source material. While the structure and style translate just fine from one language to another and certainly shine via Taccone’s sensibilities, there’s both a familiarity and repetition in structure that undercuts one’s ability to remain locked in. Audiences have seen enough stories about couples at odds to have a sense of where the film is going to go and the marketing doesn’t help with this. Impressively, though, (1) the trailer doesn’t show as much as it *could*, so if you’re not familiar with the original film, don’t watch any trailers for it before seeing this version and (2) with the right cast, no one gives a damn if we can predict the ending, the ride to get there is enough.
And what a ride it is.
This means that audiences are treated to Weaving being her badass self (Guns Akimbo; Mayhem) even as Lisa is frequently in over her head, whether it’s battling Keith Jardine’s over-sized Todd, crafting a make-shift fighting style out of whatever’s handy, or just generally trying to survive when all that’s left is panic. We get Timothy Olyphant (Justified; Havoc; Scream 2) bringing his special brand of calm and cool that can turn deadly in an instant and his comedic sensibilities being given free rein whether it’s with a look of exasperation or the kind that chills your blood. Then there’s Juliette Lewis (Whip It; Natural Born Killers) who offers a performance commiserate with the vibe of Over Your Dead Body: heightened, hilarious, and ready to draw blood. Of the prime cast members, it’s Segel who seems the most out of his depth on paper given the actor’s more comedic and dramatic leanings between lauded tv programs Freaks and Geeks (1999); How I Met Your Mother (2005 – 2014); and Shrinking (2023 – present); and features like Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008); I Love You, Man (2009); and The Five-Year Engagement (2012) *and yet* Segel feels right at home here. It’s not just because Segel gives Dan an everyman quality which helps us buy in to the belief that murder makes sense as his only remaining option (Dan sucks) and his physical stature affords the opportunity to turn Dan into a somewhat believable hero-esque figure. Again, the film is a comedy and Taccone knows how to make his characters foolish, something which both Segel and Weaving possess talents for inhabiting, which makes the duo a solid pairing as a couple we want to see tear each other apart, but also have each other’s backs.
L-R: Samara Weaving as Lisa and Jason Segel as Dan in Jorma Taccone’s OVER YOUR DEAD BODY. Photo courtesy of Independent Film Company. An Independent Film Company Release.
With Taccone in the director’s chair, audiences aware of his work are going to sit up. With the primary cast of Weaving, Segel, Olyphant, and Lewis, audiences who know this is a capable cast for genre-bending gets audiences to lean forward. Add in that 87North Productions is a producing partner, the action design company who worked on John Wick (2014), Atomic Blonde (2017), Nobody (2021), The Fall Guy (2024), Love Hurts (2025), and fellow SXSW title Pretty Lethal (2026), to name a select few, and you’ve got folks ready to slam down credit cards to purchase tickets and popcorn. Between Finland-based stunt coordinator Oula Kitti (Sisu) and fight coordinator Cha Yoon Lee (Violent Night; Thunderbolts*), who also plays a small role in the film, 87North once more brings the pain and keeps it as grounded as possible. As much fun as it is to see someone take a hit and keep going a la ‘80s era action heroes, 87North manages to make just about any fight feel grounded and plausible by the way they incorporate whatever is within reach (an aspect that comes from co-founder David Leitch and his background in Hong Kong-inspired martial arts action). Knives, guns, trophies, awards, lawn equipment — even if it’s nailed down or part of the house, it’s just a potential weapon waiting for its turn to rend flesh and break bone. For the stunt aware, there are two moments in the film where the editing from one cut to another mid-action is slow, resulting in the impact of the stunt being lessened, and another moment where the squelching sound of impact seems to come ahead of the actual impact. While these are choices which reduce the audience’s physical reaction to the moment, these are outliers in a film who doesn’t hesitate to bring the pain once the blood begins to flow.
Regrettably, there are two aspects of the film which feel troublesome and outdated. For one, rather than learn Dan and Lisa’s names upon meeting, the trio assign the couple nicknames of a globally known literary couple. One surmises it’s meant to reduce the two in the eyes of their assailants by replacing their identities as people with those of a well-known pop culture duo, yet, the specific selection is a choice that could, in the real world, put money in the pocket of a notorious transphobe, making the choice extra icky. One understands why the assholes of the story would choose it, but Taccone had to sign off on this as it’s a change from original film. Likewise, there’s an attempted rape scene that is carried over from the original and, even though it’s tweaked to remove a bit of the extra nastiness from the original, it still attempts to make comedy out of forced sexual relations. With so many other ways to demonstrate dominance and to coerce information in a film that’s not exactly gentle with the human body as it is, keeping this one in, even revised, appears more a by-product of the constraints of adaptation versus what’s important for the narrative as it exists within this new directorial perspective.
L-R: Juliette Lewis as Allegra, Samara Weaving as Lisa, and Timothy Olyphant as Pete in Jorma Taccone’s OVER YOUR DEAD BODY. Photo courtesy of Independent Film Company. An Independent Film Company Release.
Over Your Dead Body is frequently silly and is genuinely honest at times in the way that it removes all distractions for the central characters to get them to do what they should’ve done all along: communicate. If a couple isn’t meant to be, breaking up takes far less effort and comes with less potential jail time than murder, even if that seems like the more satisfying option. Even when the script is hampered by its tether to the source material, there’s always some outlandish stunt to bring it right back into its stride. Most impressively, Weaving and Segel do the trickiest thing of all in one of these types of films, they make us believe that all it takes is a little truthfulness to reset a relationship. Is it enough to survive the day? Well, that’s something else entirely, and this reviewer isn’t talking.
Screening during SXSW 2026.
In theaters April 24th, 2026.
For more information, head to the official SXSW Over Your Dead Body webpage.
Final Score: 3.5 out of 5.
Share this:
Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
Leave a Reply