Based on the 2021 Norwegian film The Trip, we have a very War of the Roses-style duel between a bickering married couple, each trying to kill the other. Dan (Jason Segel) is a has-been director stuck filming “pop-up ads. Lisa (Samara Weaving) is an Australian actress still trying to catch her big break. They plan a romantic weekend getaway with a cabin in the woods, a steak dinner, and a side of chloroform and tasers. Each reveals their scheme to kill the other and collect the insurance. They battle each other and the violence is exaggerated cartoon slapstick rather than off-putting. The screenplay keeps things lively with a structure that keeps doubling back, providing a new perspective or revelation to re-evaluate where this twisty narrative goes next. That’s when Over Your Dead Body is fun, elevated by the screwball energy and animosity of Segel and Weaving really going at it. It wouldn’t be a Samara Weaving horror/comedy if she didn’t get drenched in blood at some point. Then a group of antagonists are introduced and the movie transforms. Now the dark comedy seems to dissipate into general menace, the jokes become more forced and far between, and the violence loses its comic absurdity and just feels icky. I felt my interest lessening as it became less funny and set up our feuding couple to work together to escape their new antagonists. It becomes a bit too conventional. This structure could have worked, but I think it’s the mismatched tone that dooms this movie for me. It reminds me of the tone-shattering ugliness of the violence in Pineapple Express. I’d rather the couple continue arguing over the failings of their marriage than watch somebody get a lawnmower to the face or the threat of rape as public entertainment. This is a movie that needed a few more drafts to calibrate the tone and comedy to better maximize what it starts with. Over Your Dead Body is marriage counseling by way of home invasion thriller and, like its main characters, it’s a messy marriage of tones that needed further reflection and examination of its core problems.

Nate’s Grade: C+