A troubled couple, Samara Weaving & Jason Segel, try to kill the other in a secluded cabin, but complications arise in Jorma Taccone’s very funny and bloody, but missing something, dark-comedy/horror film, Over Your Dead Body.
TW: Domestic violence and sexual assault.
Dan and Lisa are not doing well as a couple. Seven years married, and they are in a rut. Heading out to his dad’s secluded cabin, they have a solution. Well, each of them does, and the other is unaware, although they landed on the same: kill your spouse, make it look like an accident, and start a new life. Too bad for either; they’re not particularly good at it, leading to a shift in upper hands and violence upon one another as it gets rolling. That concept is enough to push a full film, but there’s an additional snag. Two convicts and the guard who sprung them (in love with one of the inmates) have holed up in the house. Who will survive and what will be left of them? Directed by Jorma Taccone, written by Nick Kocher & Brian McElhaney from Tommy Wirkola‘s Norwegian film, The Trip (I’ve not seen it, so I can’t compare), Over Your Dead Body is highly entertaining, and deliciously bloody, but misses the certain spark to make it fully complete.
Samara Weaving and Jason Segel excel as the couple. There’s a strength in capturing the barbs, stings, and little pushes and pulls of an unhappy couple constantly arguing, living in a state of upset. Weaving and Segel play the exasperation of being at the end of their ropes so well. They land the chemistry perfectly, of a lived-in couple whose happier times are felt, but lost. He, as a middling director with one feature film and now a slew of web ads, and she as a struggling actress, they’ve been circling and feeding on one another, an ourborus of lost dreams unhappiness. Kocher & McElhaney’s script serves well to set up the characters and who they are before shifting from the murder-one-another comedy of errors to more of a home-invasion. When the convicts: dumb Todd, played by Keith Jardine, and the always welcome Timothy Olyphant playing his cool, but dangerous best as Pete, and Allegra, the love-sick officer, Juliette Lewis, show up, that setup of character is twisted and turned well to build their actions in the back half. Heh, it just occurred to me that Juliette Lewis is playing close to her Mallory from Natural Born Killers, and Olyphant played Mickey in Scream 2. A dumb connection on my end, but I’m keeping it.
I’m loving Samara Weaving as the queen of horror comedies. Gotta love an actor who has made a string of films that have them covered in blood for a large portion of the runtime. Over Your Dead Body is no exception to that rule. Her timing is impeccable, and the reads of the character are perfect. Jason Segel makes a shift to a more grounded, real version (even in a movie like this) of the schlubby would-be sad sacks in a different genre he’s played in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and How I Met Your Mother. He excels at the physical beats required of him as well. The trio of Olyphant, Lewis, and Jardine lean well into their roles, enjoying the comic mayhem. Laughs about each quip and stab. Over Your Dead Body is very funny, and it’s no surprise that Taccone gets great timing from his cast.
What I said earlier about blood-drenched Weaving is true. But not just her. No cast member comes out with heaps of bodily violence laid upon them. Of course, I’ll not ruin the particular moments, letting them land with the laugh, the “oooh”, and the wince. Besides a few moments, it’s practical. And plentiful. I love watching people become both increasingly desperate as characters and increasingly maimed as physical objects, building to hilarious ends. Blood sprays, characters are mutilated, and many surprises come in the building of the action.
But even with all these comings and goings, back and forths, stabbings, cutting, violence upon violence, something in Over Your Dead Body doesn’t come together. All the concepts are there, but it has a strange energy. For a dark horror-comedy, it’s surprisingly low-energy. Everyone is slightly subdued, moving through sequences slower than expected, with dead air and pauses. Almost rehearsal takes for timing sort. Everyone is working at 75%. It’s weird and doesn’t match the action. It’s odd and kept me out. 
A little more zip, and we’d be golden. Anyone who has seen Hot Rod, Popstar, and The Naked Gun knows Taccone knows how to keep things peppy. It is a different sort of comedy and movie altogether, so I undertook the trouble of shifting genres. The same can be said for Kocher and McElhaney, known for more absurd sketches and their recent hilarious flick, Pizza Movie. I do appreciate moving out of the wheelhouse. Anyway, all the pieces are there: the characters, the situations, the blood, the set-ups and pay-offs, more blood, the barbs, and one-off lines that land. The film, as it is, needs just a bit of tightening and boom much better at about 10 minutes shorter. Yes, maybe with a tad more from the performers. And we really don’t need the sexual assault “joke.” Very out of place and unnecessary.
Over Your Dead Body, directed by Jorma Taccone, is often hilarious, in moments and multitudes. It has strong performances from all the players, especially the central pair of Weaving and Segel. Bloody, nasty, and funny, there is plenty to recommend, outside of the odd pacing. Check it out.