Jay Rohr
Over Your Dead Body proves honest tongues wag in the face of death. Solid acting often combines with ludicrously extreme violence to make for unsettlingly mirthful moments. When things don’t work, though, the movie loses momentum, turning into a predictable trudge through obvious terrain. The question is whether the bad outpaces the good.
The story centers on Dan and Lisa played by Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and Samara Weaving (Ready or Not 2). This is a married couple whose arms have grown tired of whipping one another. Consequently, the two decide a weekend woodland trip is an opportunity for murder. Plans go awry, especially when escaped convicts invade the isolated cabin, complicating things further. Throughout the bloody events that ensue, facing certain death compels Dan and Lisa to finally be honest with one another and perhaps resurrect a dead romance.
Over Your Dead Body wonderfully develops the dynamic between the main characters by having them simply interact. It’s easy to perceive the problems in their marriage as casual conversations turn into sharp sniping. Samara Weaving and Jason Segel have bizarre but satisfying chemistry, deftly delivering the subtle indications that something seemingly nice is meant as an insult. Things like tone, body language, and exaggerated facial expressions twist kind words into barbed hooks.
The result is an absurd, albeit believably bitter marriage. Much of the initial comedy comes from these exchanges, which thankfully never feel one-sided. Their relationship hasn’t spiraled into ruin because of one fault; the film does a good job of putting equal amounts of blame on both. All the while, Over Your Dead Body provides understandable motivation, not so much justification, for the couple’s murderous intent. That’s to say, the audience will appreciate why the two have arrived at homicide instead of divorce without ever feeling that it was the right option.
Jason Segel is essentially the comedic king of messed-up romances at this point. This human Muppet brings the same weird charm he possessed in flicks like Forgetting Sarah Marshall and The Five-Year Engagement. However, similar as this role is to those, he takes the kooky quality that makes them awkwardly amusing and contorts it into something unsettling.
Samara Weaving, meanwhile, floats in a graceful depiction of someone whose only response to her spouse is sarcasm. She easily shreds him with sharp quips but reveals layers as the story progresses. Weaving is excellent at depicting a vulnerability beneath the smoldering bitterness, showing a person turned spiteful by years of disappointment.
The convicts are all fine, though they feel like stock performances from the players. Timothy Olyphant (Alien: Earth) is a cool, detached killer leading the pack. Juliette Lewis (Opus) is on autopilot as a psychopath. Keith Jardine (Kill Me Again) is a man-mountain who really sells the violence as well as the comedy that comes with it. Their main purpose appears to be an excuse for the murder-minded couple to come together against a common foe.
While it works, it also turns things into a predictable march through certain plot points. That doesn’t mean the laughs die down. Knowing the trajectory merely takes some momentum away from the movie. Jokes keep it entertaining, as do shocking instances of gore. Over Your Dead Body is remarkably gory for a feature billed as a comedy.
I fell asleep watching Terrifier 3, yet yelped out loud at a particular violent incident. That’s because Over Your Dead Body wisely uses its gore sparingly, thereby maintaining the shocking nature of bloodshed. The problem is that it may be too extreme for the squeamish. There’s a tonal extremity to the film that can cause whiplash, considering one minute the audience is chuckling at comical dialogue, only to suddenly be subjected to the exposed anatomy of a shotgun-mangled foot.
It’s hard to call it a flaw because it serves a purpose. The violence inflicted throughout showcases how harming another person is nightmarish on multiple levels. Dan and Lisa’s delusions about murder, that it can be a clean affair, are shattered by the brutal encounter with the convicts, who demonstrate what real homicidal individuals are like, as well as the realities of hurting another human being. Still, the film’s gore deserves a trigger warning for those disinclined to the bloody and disgusting.
If Over Your Dead Body has any flaws, they mostly center on pacing. Not unlike the original Norwegian film this is based on — I onde dager (a.k.a. The Trip), starring Noomi Rapace (Mother) and Aksel Hennie (Spermageddon) — the narrative unfolds in a somewhat episodic fashion. The result is ricocheting back and forth between the present and the past. This constantly starts and stops the story in a way that injects flashbacks, the movie doesn’t always benefit from. Then some scenes feel repetitious if not outright unnecessary. These never derail the motion picture. Over Your Dead Body could simply use some tighter tuning.
Director Jorma Taccone makes some marvelous cinematic choices. Piloting a script by Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney, he steers Over Your Dead Body into some excellent instances. There are subtle sights peppered throughout, which change meaning as new info comes to light. The use of angles makes things feel really out of hand on occasion, and it frequently looks like a proper romantic drama before becoming a bloody, unhinged spectacle.
Over Your Dead Body really makes a person wonder how obscure divorce is as a concept. This tale of a bitter marriage descending into brutal, bloody violence is surprisingly humorous. Its dark material is wonderfully juxtaposed against a contrasting absurdity. If not for some pacing issues, Over Your Dead Body would be a killer comedy. Still, Samara Weaving and Jason Segel keep the humor afloat as they portray the worst marriage since The War of the Roses (1989). While it may be too bloody for some in parts, this is a cracking dark comedy with a touch of action that is boldly unlike most other movies nowadays.
