Review: Horror comedy and cartoonish violence? ‘Over Your Dead Body’
2026 / Dir. Jorma Taccone
Rating: 3.5/5
Watch if you like: Zach Cregger directing Forgetting Sarah Marshall, movies where Samara Weaving gets covered in blood, solving your problems with murder instead of couples therapy.
What are two people in a failing marriage with money issues supposed to do? Couples therapy? Nah, that’s for suckers. What about luring each other to a remote cabin and trying to kill each other? Yeah, that sounds about right.
That’s the premise of Over Your Dead Body, the new horror comedy from Jorma Taccone, member of The Lonely Island comedy trio, who last directed Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping a decade ago. Based on the 2021 Norwegian black comedy The Trip, which I haven’t seen and can’t compare this to, Over Your Dead Body feels akin to recent comedic horror films like Weapons—there’s even a motif of jumping back and forth in time after something wild happens and a few ironic needle drops—albeit with a broad comedy bent where the more nasty horror-oriented sections have a zany, Looney Tunes quality to them.
Jason Segel plays Dan, a washed-up film director whose money troubles have forced him to direct dumb commercials like the fairytale romance cellphone ad that opens the movie. All he can seem to tell everyone—friends, coworkers, his dad—is that he’s going up to his dad’s cabin in the Catskills this weekend and his wife, Lisa (Samara Weaving), is taking a dangerous hike by herself, and he’s really worried. And he’s got a car full of rope and duct tape…
On the drive up, they clearly can’t stand each other, sniping and trading hysterically vicious barbs over their respective mediocre directing and acting careers, his money problems, her suspicious relationship with some Peruvian guy. Things don’t get much better when his failed attempt at making her a “final” favorite meal of peppercorn snake (flown in from Ohio, of course) is a failure due to his not knowing her favorite meal is actually ceviche. When he finally decides to go through with his plan, he gets a literal shock when Lisa tases him.
Segel and Weaving are both smartly cast, with Weaving getting to stretch beyond her usual plucky final girl role with constant biting sarcasm, and Segal twists the type of sadsack in Forgetting Sarah Marshall into a truly despicable loser who blames everyone but himself for the problems he’s inflicted on his family. There’s so much fun watching them spar that I wish this were a greater focus of the film and that we got to spend more time with them, Lisa’s character in particular, just battling each other. That said, if you watch this with your significant other, you’re going to have one hell of a rough conversation after.
Dramatically shifting gears after a tight first third, a trio of on-the-run criminals hiding out in their cabin burst through the ceiling and take Dan and Lisa hostage. The middle section of the film is more of a mixed bag, taking time to introduce three new characters played by Timothy Olyphant, Juliette Lewis, and former UFC fighter Keith Jardine. Taccone balances mean-spirited nastiness and broad humor on a razor’s edge, sometimes succeeding and sometimes not. For instance, there’s an outdated gag in which Dan and Lisa are referred to as Ron and Hermione, which clashes with a truly horrifying scene in which Dan has to fight Jardine’s character or face a vile prison ritual that I’m not sure anyone could successfully pull off.
As expected, this all serves as a narrative exercise for Lisa and Dan to reconnect, with the last third becoming an absolutely bonkers splatter comedy as the couple tries to escape their captors. Taccone holds nothing back and sticks the landing with setpiece after setpiece of gory cartoon violence. Here, his and the cast’s comedic talents are in full use, and it feels like getting steamrolled by absurdity in the best possible way, with the funniest cameo appearance to cap things off.
Though tonally imbalanced at times and, for better or worse, not afraid to cross lines, Over Your Dead Body is a funny, gruesome rollercoaster with a superb cast and truly killer final section. I would steer clear if you’re overly squeamish or currently in the midst of a relationship on the rocks, but fans of Segel, Weaving, and The Lonely Island should take the trip to the dark side.