Over Your Dead Body (2026) Review

Samara Weaving’s rise has been a bloody one. After making her name on Australian television, she gradually carved out a place for herself in genre cinema, appearing in projects like ‘Ash vs Evil Dead’, ‘The Babysitter’, and ‘Mayhem’, where she demonstrated a knack for mixing comedy with carnage. 2019’s ‘Ready or Not’ took things a step further, putting her firmly on the map as a formidable horror lead. Yet Weaving has never been content to stay in one lane, moving between comedy, drama, horror and action.

With Jorma Taccone’s ‘Over Your Dead Body’, she gets another chance to combine that versatility with a healthy taste for gore. A remake of Tommy Wirkola’s 2021 film ‘The Trip,’ it follows struggling filmmaker Dan Burton, who heads to a lakeside cabin with his wife Lisa, an aspiring actress, intending to murder her. Unfortunately for Dan, Lisa has been planning to do exactly the same thing. Their murderous marital musings quickly spiral when two escaped convicts and their accomplice arrive at the cabin, forcing the estranged couple to put their differences aside if they want to survive the weekend.

It’s a bloody good time, as if Takashi Miike had directed ‘The War of The Roses.’ Packed with blood, guts and gore, Taccone’s film moves at a breakneck pace as Dan and Lisa’s murderous plans give way to a fight for survival. The central drama- a married couple who have drifted apart and need to reconcile- is not particularly original in and of itself. However, the over-the-top action and comedy keep it surprisingly fresh.

Screenwriters Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney’s dialogue is another strength, particularly in the marital arguments, which ring true. Their petty disagreements over Lisa’s acting ambitions and Dan’s faltering directing career are very funny, but also feel real, capturing the sort of frustrations that can build up in a failing marriage and giving their more extreme circumstances a believable foundation.

However, there is a slightly unnecessary reliance on flashbacks, which explain what the various characters were doing before arriving at the cabin. They are used a little too often, though never become particularly irritating. The final act is less successful, with a few contrivances and a plot that becomes increasingly predictable. Nevertheless, the film's sheer enthusiasm for mayhem is difficult to resist. It may not offer anything particularly profound about marriage, but as a festival of bloodshed, it is tremendous fun.

Matt Weston’s cinematography is wonderfully fluid, moving in tandem with the terrifically well-choreographed action. The camera rarely feels static, instead sweeping and weaving through the frenzy to give the violence a real sense of momentum. Joseph A. Hodges’ production design is equally commendable, with the cabin proving an excellent central location that is put to increasingly inventive use as the brutality unfolds.

Some of the fight scenes are genuinely pulse-pounding and wince-inducing. Fingers fly, noses are bitten and legs are snapped, resulting in some gloriously gruesome violence. Jeremy Cohen’s editing keeps everything moving without sacrificing the clarity of the action, helping to maintain the film’s relentless pace. Conversely, Mathew Compton’s score isn’t much to write home about, doing little to distinguish itself amid the film’s more impressive technical elements. It serves its purpose well enough, but is ultimately rather forgettable.

As Dan and Lisa, Samara Weaving and Jason Segel work brilliantly together, both committing completely to the film’s heightened material. There is a genuine chemistry between them beneath all the venom, with the pair feeling like a modern-day Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas from ‘The War of the Roses’: bitter, exhausted, seemingly sick of one another, yet still, somewhere beneath it all, in love. Weaving brings plenty of ferocity and comic timing to Lisa, while Segel is equally convincing as a man whose murderous intentions gradually give way to genuine concern for his wife. Their chemistry makes the increasingly outrageous violence feel engaging.

The supporting cast is generally strong. Timothy Olyphant is a delight as the leader of the convicts, clearly relishing the opportunity to play such a psychopathic character, pitching the performance perfectly to the material. Juliette Lewis is marvellously unhinged as his accomplice, while Keith Jardine is equally enjoyable as Olyphant’s slightly dim-witted right-hand man and fellow convict. Jake Curran also does fine work as Henry, the man Dan enlists to help murder Lisa. Paul Guilfoyle is less successful as Dan’s father, however, with the character being something of a deus ex machina figure, and little else.

Overall, Jorma Taccone’s ‘Over Your Dead Body’ is hardly revolutionary, but it is an entertaining piece of blackly comic mayhem. The familiar story of a marriage in crisis is enlivened by terrific action, sharp dialogue and a cast clearly having a ball with the material. It occasionally stumbles, particularly in its predictable final act, but the sheer energy of the filmmaking is difficult to resist. With Samara Weaving and Jason Segel giving it a convincing romantic spark beneath all the bloodshed, this is a film that knows exactly what it wants to be- and gleefully delivers. It may not be a guide for the perfect marriage, but it’s still bloody deadly.