Over Your Dead Body (2026)    IFC/Comedy-Thriller    RT: 105 minutes    Rated R (strong bloody violence and gore, sexual assault, pervasive language, sexual content)    Director: Jorma Taccone    Screenplay: Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney    Music: Matthew Compton    Cinematography: Matt Weston    Release date: April 24, 2026 (US)    Cast: Jason Segel, Samara Weaving, Paul Guilfoyle, Timothy Olyphant, Juliette Lewis, Keith Jardine, Jake Curran, Danusia Samal, Cha Yoon Lee, Robert Goodman, Andy Cohen.

Rating: ***

 I went to AMC’s Early Access screening of Over Your Dead Body. I wasn’t planning to, but my movie buddy Chris reserved a seat for me. Since I had nothing better planned, I went. I figured if nothing else, I could check it off my list. I didn’t expect what happened next.

 Going by the trailer, I assumed Over Your Dead Body would be a variation of The War of the Roses with yet another twisted tale of an unhappily married couple who go to extremes to end their union. I thought to myself didn’t we just go through this with the last summer’s lame remake The Roses? Why are we getting another one already? But you know me, I’ll give almost any film a fair shake. I’m glad I did in this case because the film exceeded my expectations. It turns wildly in an unexpected direction and becomes a (very) bloody black comedy.

 Directed by Jorma Taccone (MacGruber), Over Your Dead Body starts off by introducing us to the main characters, a highly dysfunctional couple who can barely stand to breathe the same air as each other. Dan (Segel, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) is a once-promising indie filmmaker reduced to directing commercials. His wife Lisa (Weaving, Ready or Not 1 & 2) is a mediocre-at-best actress who lives to criticize her husband. They set off on a weekend trip to his father’s remote cabin in the woods supposedly to reconnect. What neither one of them realizes is that their plans involve more than hiking or fishing. They’re secretly planning to kill each other.

 Over Your Dead Body plays out like this for a little while with each partner trying to gain the upper hand. Then we get a real game changer. Three fugitives- escaped cons Pete (Olyphant, Scream 2) and Todd (Jardine, Love Lies Bleeding) and corrections officer Allegra (Lewis, Natural Born Killers)- literally crash the party. That’s when things get truly nuts.

 I like to be surprised by movies. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s sweet. Over Your Dead Body did NOT go where I thought it would and I admire Taccone and the writers Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney for it. What’s even cooler is how they managed to change my perceptions of the main characters. Initially, I found them annoying and quite irritating. Dan comes off as a big man-child and Lisa an emasculating bitch. It’s easy to understand why they hate each other. Why don’t they just get a divorce, you ask? Two words, insurance pay-out. They’re in tremendous debt; the insurance would be a big help. All one of them has to do is die. But I digress. The point is I couldn’t stand either one of them at first. That changed. I still didn’t love them at the end, but I didn’t want them both dead. That has to count for something, right?

 Over Your Dead Body benefits from a more than game cast. The two leads go a great job as both a couple and as individuals. Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner they’re not, but Segel and Weaving have combustible chemistry. They really sell it as a dysfunctional couple and individuals. You believe it when they hurl insults at each other like throwing knives. Weaving is especially good as an ice-cold blonde bitch. Her Australian accent is the icing on the cake. Segel’s goofball persona should get in the way, but it doesn’t. It actually makes him seem more dangerous. It’s a perfect contrast to the dark, sometimes disturbing things going on. Lewis brings a lot of her character from NBK to her character here. Like Mallory Knox, Allegra reacts with unbridled glee to terrible violence. Olyphant’s villain here might not rank as high as the ones he played in Scream 2 and Live Free or Die Hard, but it’s still solid work. Jardine, a former MMA fighter, capably plays the psychotic muscle of the team. Paul Guilfoyle (CSI) is the wild card of Over Your Dead Body. He plays Dan’s father, a cranky old guy living in an assisted care facility. Assisted care is the last thing he needs. He still has a few moves left in him.

 Talk about OTT, the second half of Over Your Dead Body is just that. I don’t want to reveal too much, but the violence is extremely graphic. Members of the audience actually gasped. Here the thing about it though, it’s all for exaggerated comic effect. It’s supposed to be funny. We are talking about a black comedy here. They don’t come much blacker than this. Personally, I’m pleased to see a movie that doesn’t hold back for the more sensitive viewers. They have no business seeing a movie like Over Your Dead Body anyway. It’s not a film for the after church crowd. If you have a warped sensibility, it’s definitely for you.