Over Your Dead Body – Movie Review
Balancing the genre mashing tones of a romantic-drama-horror-comedy-action-thriller (all within 107 minutes), Over Your Dead Body is The Lonely Island alum Jorma Taccone’s English language remake of Norwegian film The Trip, which follows Samara Weaving and Jason Segel as an unhappily married couple who both use a weekend getaway to an isolated cabin in the woods as a guise to, unknowingly to each other, murder their spouse. But their killer plans are soon disrupted by the arrival of three prison escapees who also have murder on their mind, turning their deadly desires into a fight for survival.
On paper, the recipe of comedic minds like Taccone and Segel, along with the scream queen status of Weaving, and the naturally dark comedy that comes through the original Norwegian story, Over Your Dead Body feels like it should play as a sure fire hit that is a wickedly dark and violent, as it is funny. But this adaptation, penned by Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney, unfortunately has a few too many plates to balance, resulting in a film that shines in its moments of gold, but doesn’t always stick the landing.
Relying on the audience investing into a couple who hate each other is tough, even though their hatred plays into the integral aspect of the muder story plot. It’s not the fault of Segel and Weaving’s dynamic and downright mean antagonistic chemistry, which is pretty entertaining to watch, but right from the start, something doesn’t entirely feel believable that these two people hate each other so much that they want to kill each other. Whether that’s a tonal element lost in translation from the Norwegian to American culture shift, or how the dialogue is written to feel caricaturally mean, the story doesn’t start out with the strength it needs to be invested entirely into the film.
Another issue that arises early on is the film’s structure, and how it reveals both parties’ murderous plans in the days leading up to the cabin retreat, while also introducing three completely new characters into the fold well over 40 minutes into the story. The non-linear approach creates a real start-stop feeling to the film’s pacing, and makes it tough to follow where the story is in time.
However, outside of the structural and character decisions, the film’s positives do outweigh some of the glaring negatives. As mentioned, Segel and Weaving play their mean banter incredibly well, leading to some solid laughs from the comedic-leaning actors. The chaos fully emerges upon the arrival of the three fugitives, played by Juliette Lewis (a prison guard who facilitated the escape and is having a wildly sexual affair with one of the prisoners), Timothy Olyphant (the prisoner having the wildly sexual affair), and Keith Jardine (the prisoner having to listen to the wildly sexual affair). The hillbilly personas and volatile natures of these three characters also brings a lot of fun into the fold, even if their ridiculously late entry into the story means there is a lot of work they need to do to win the audience back.
After the film’s clunkier start, the final act delves into some depraved and violent mania that horror fans will love. Dismemberment, decapitation, stabbings, puke, blood – it’s all on show, and Taccone directs it with enough of a comedic lens that it all plays out in wonderful B-movie style fashion that manages to retain to heightened stakes of the life-or-death situation that the married protagonists have been thrust into. It’s within these final 30 minutes where the film shines the most, wrapping itself up in a bloodsoaked bow.
Over Your Dead Body may not execute perfectly on the potential its premise contains, and perhaps there is a 20 minute shorter version of the film that plays out as sharper and more thrilling. But, it’s wild final act and some chaotic performances across the board do just enough to make this an easy, entertaining watch.
Over Your Dead Body premieres on Prime Video June 10
