SXSW ‘Over Your Dead Body’ Review: It’s Fun Watching Samara Weaving and Jason Segel Beat the Crap Out of Each Other
4/5 shotguns
Jorma Taccone’s Over Your Dead Body is an adaptation of the 2021 film The Trip with a screenplay by BriTANick’s Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher. But if you think you know where this movie is going to go, think again. Even if you’ve seen The Trip, don’t you want to watch Samara Weaving and Jason Segel just beat the crap out of one another?
Lisa (Weaving) and Dan (Segel) are struggling in their marriage. The two set the scene for an “accident” to happen when they’re on a trip to a cabin in the woods for one another and their plans are set: Lisa wants to kill her husband and Dan wants to kill his wife.
Like any good survival story, the two find themselves in an impossible game of cat and mouse with the power going back and forth deliciously. But it is the twists and turns and the use of flashbacks that makes Over Your Dead Body terrifying and hilarious at the same time. But would you expect anything less from a bunch of comedians taking a stab at a horror comedy?
What works is that everyone in Over Your Dead Body is at the top of their game throughout this movie. Segel and Weaving are both hilarious as this doomed couple and with Timothy Olyphant, Keith Jardine, and Juliette Lewis showing up half way through, there is something for everyone to love.
Sometimes, you just want to watch people try to kill each other
Part of the joy of this movie is that it doesn’t hold its punches. It is a messy kind of attempted murder on both Dan and Lisa’s parts because they’re not exactly skilled at murder. Dan can’t even cut up Lisa’s hypothetical corpse on his own and knows this before even going into this plan. Lisa, on the other hand, is a little more prepared but that’s not saying much.
Maybe it is because Samara Weaving is a pro at running for her life at this point but a lot of this movie is carried by both Segel and Weaving’s portrayal of Dan and Lisa. They could have easily made them horrible characters no one can root for but I do think that the love audiences have for Segel and Weaving goes a long way in making this couple one you want to figure things out. Even though they definitely should go to therapy.
It is one of those movies where fans of Taccone’s work in comedy will understand and love the work present within Over Your Dead Body but I do hope that this movie also brings comedy fans into more horror comedy work. It is such a fun ride and the kind of movie that you will happily revisit time and time again.
Come for Weaving and Segel beating the crap out of each other, stay for a really fascinating look at relationship issues, money struggles, and what would happen if Timothy Olyphant randomly shows up at your house.
(featured image: IFC)
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