Another day, another world premier at SXSW 2026. Over Your Dead Body is a comedic thriller inspired by the 2021 Norwegian film, The Trip. The film was directed by Jorma Taccone (MacGruber, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping) and written by Nick Kocher (Pizza Movie, Saturday Night Live) and Brian McElhaney (Pizza Movie, Saturday Night Live). Over Your Dead Body follows a dysfunctional married couple heading to a remote cabin where they both have plans to kill the other. Yet their plans are put on hold with a trio of escaped convicts shows up at their cabin with sinister intentions.

Before diving into the film, it’s important to note I have not seen The Trip. Because I don’t have the original film as a basis for comparison, my thoughts will be entirely based on what Taccone, Kocher, and McElhaney have created with this film. Over Your Dead Body does a fantastic job of showing a collapsing marriage. These two people are at the point where they resent each other so much, they’re willing to kill eachother. The film also does a nice job of showing the same story from multiple points of view, often doing brief flashback scenes to add context to what’s happening on screen. Every moment is dripping with hilarious hatred between these characters and things only get more outrageous when the escaped prisoners enter the situation. By adding these new characters into the mix, it allows for an interesting juxtaposition between an older relationship on the brink of demise and a newer relationship still hot with passion. While for the most part Over Your Dead Body is quite funny and presents a fairly authentic, albeit exaggerated, failing marriage, there are some elements that don’t work as well. The most egregious example is an attempted sexual assault scene that’s played out in a way that’s clearly meant to be humorous, which is in incredibly poor taste. There is also a scene that unnecessarily presents an Asian character as a stereotype that even leans into caricature. These plot points of Over Your Dead Body ultimately take away from the overall appeal of the film.

A highlight of Over Your Dead Body is the performances. Samara Weaving (Ready or Not, Mayhem) plays wife and actress, Lisa. Weaving at first comes across very cold and calculated, even unfeeling, but as the film progresses she reveals the pain Lisa hides away deep inside. Jason Segel (Sex Tape, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) plays husband and filmmaker, Dan. Dan is the more emotional character, and definitely the less coordinated one, but Segel conveys the murderous intent quite well. Weaving and Segel have great chemistry when their characters are at odds, delivering an authenticity and electricity to Lisa and Dan’s hatred for one another, but they don’t quite match that same chemistry when their characters share more loving moments. Juliette Lewis (Yellowjackets, From Dusk Til Dawn) gives a perfectly unhinged performance as Allegra, the corrections officer who helped the prisoners escape. We also get a chilling performance from Timothy Olyphant (The Crazies, Justified) as Pete, a cold-blooded killer who’s also in a relationship with Allegra. The dynamics between these characters are a great counterpoint to Lisa and Dan’s marriage. The film also features a hilarious performance from Keith Jardine (Inherent Vice) and a delightful cameo from Paul Guilfoyle (Air Force One).

For the most part, Over Your Dead Body is a single-location film. It takes place at the couple’s cabin in a secluded, forested area near a lake. The cabin is fairly spacious and has great lighting for it’s age and size, plus it has a basement that looks like a man cave. It makes for a great setting as the violence ensues. The various fight and action sequences are fairly well done, often featuring characters utilizing whatever is at hand as a weapon and leading to moments that will have the audience laughing and gasping in turn. There are some surprisingly graphic and well done practical effects throughout the film to show the brutal extent of the violence. Another interesting visual is when the film goes into flashbacks, often reaching a certain point of the plot where a surprise is revealed, then jumping back in time with on-screen text telling the audience how far back in time we’re going before showing more context from a different point of view. It all helps to blend the humor of violence throughout the film.

Over Your Dead Body is a delightfully violent, laugh-out-loud thriller with a couple of missteps that keep it from being truly great. Taccone has certainly brought to life a great action-packed comedy and both Kocher and McElhaney wrote a script that perfectly conveys a tense relationship, but some of their attempts at humor feel outdated if not outright offensive. The animosity between Weaving and Segel’s characters is the best part of the film, giving performances that add electricity to the hatred between Lisa and Dan. With great action sequences and some fantastic gore effects, there is a lot of enjoy about this film. If you missed Over Your Dead Body at SXSW, then be sure to catch it in theaters beginning April 24th.

OVERALL RATING: 6/10