Over Your Dead Body: Movie Review

Cast: Jason Segel, Samara Weaving, Timothy Olyphant, Juliette Lewis, Keith Jardine
Director: Jorma Taccone

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping director Jorma Taccone takes on the western remake of 2021 Norwegian black drama The Trip with varying degrees of effect.

The film focuses on former director turned ads director Dan (Jason Segel, in a darker turn that he's used to) as he prepares for a weekend away with his wife Lisa (Ready or Not's Samara Weaving, fast becoming one of the horror genre's go-to ladies).

As he's keen to tell colleagues, Lisa's planning to go off on a seemingly treacherous mountain hike when the pair arrives, but it's clear he soon has another motive, given he's packed tape, rope and is stowing rocks away in a boat.

However, unbeknownst to him, Lisa too has murder on her mind, after years of being tortured by Dan's behaviour after his career stalls. But both of their plans are usurped when a trio of escaped convicts (Olyphant, Lewis and Jardine) fall through the roof of their getaway cabin during a violent tete-a-tete...

Over Your Dead Body features some great barb-filled opening moments, with the raging bitterness of an unhappy marriage boiling over with vitriol and venom. Both Segel and Weaving, while lacking chemistry as a couple, thrive on insulting each other and the film captures a vein of nastiness that will be recognisable to many in long-term relationships.

However, the contempt's not enough to fuel the tension and it's certainly not enough to turn this pair into a couple you need to root for when the criminals show up. 

It doesn't help either that the narrative relies on multiple flashbacks and sudden cuts to flesh out what's happening and why, interrupting the flow and starting to feel toward the end like it's a device used one too many times.

There is a darkness within Over Your Dead Body which should have been tapped into more and while it's good to see Segel playing a lot darker than he would normally, he's no match for Weaving who has game in this genre.

Ultimately, Over Your Dead Body never quite hits the nasty highs it aspires to - it's watchable enough fare, but with an over-reliance on one too many flashbacks, it runs out of steam and goodwill fairly quickly.

Over Your Dead Body is streaming on Prime Video from June 10.