Over Your Dead Body Review
A dysfunctional couple, each secretly plotting the other's demise, retreats to a secluded cabin under the pretense of reconnecting. Having its worldwide premiere on March 14th, 2026, Over Your Dead Body played for the first time at South by Southwest (SXSW). The film will begin its theatrical run on April 24, 2026. The Director, Jorma Taccone, is returning to South by Southwest as a director for the second time since his film MacGruber in 2010. Besides those two films, Jorma has also directed the 2016 comedy hit Popstar: Never Stop Popping. The film stars Jason Segel, Samara Weaving, Timothy Olyphant, Juliette Lewis, Paul Guilfoyle, Keith Jardine, Kayla Jenee Radomski, Nikolai Kinski, Jake Curran, and Robert Goodman. Besides being a director, Jorma is also a part of the band and comedy group known as The Lonely Island, alongside Andy Sandberg and Akiva Schaffer. This film, although funny at many points and featuring comedic actors, marks a departure from Jorma’s typical work. Slapstick violence! It’s funny, gory, and new. Jorma’s comedic background shines brightly in this film, although at times the shine becomes a little too distracting. This is not to say that this film isn’t hilarious; it’s one of the funniest things I’ve seen at South by Southwest, and the audience during the screening definitely agreed. However, some (not all) of the serious moments are undercut by some silly joke that doesn’t need to be included, and it takes the viewer out of the story. I’d understand if Jorma wanted this film to be a comedy through and through, but it’s hard to take a movie seriously when, during a very crucial scene in the film, Jason Segel starts to throw up on and off again for a minute straight. There are a few other scenes like that where something important is happening, and then it gets sidelined for a joke that lasts too long. Despite the small handful of these moments, this film is amazing at riding the line between comedy, horror, thriller, and pretty much whatever else it wants to be. Jorma’s directing and stylistic flair are crucial to all of these components, and I think he pulls it off swimmingly. Now that’s out of the way, this film was genuinely hilarious despite those minor critiques. The whole cast was funny, and they embodied all the interesting and kooky characters so well, especially the two stars, Jason Segel and Samara Weaving. The two have this weird, loveless chemistry that makes the audience confused about why they’re still together. As the plot goes on, this odd couple begins to make more sense, and the audience grows to have a greater appreciation for them and their strange relationship. Jason Segel has shown countless times that he has the chops for comedy, but this film really allows him to show moviegoers that he has the range to do anything, and I think he’s phenomenal in this. On the other hand, Samara Weaving hasn’t done much comedy before this, primarily doing horror, but this shows that she, too, can dive into any genre she wants and really give it her all. Overall, I would recommend this movie to anyone who can handle gore (because there is sure to be a lot of gore), and anyone who wants to see something hilarious, new, and somehow wholesome.
