Written by Matt Swanson
Over Your Dead Body, the American adaptation of the 2021 Norwegian action comedy thriller, The Trip, features a cast and crew rooted in sketch-comedy and sitcom backgrounds. The film is directed by The Lonely Island’s Jorma Taccone, and written by internet sketch duo Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney (BriTANicK). Given the director’s SNL-based background and the writers’ roots in YouTube sketches, it was unclear how this crew would handle a star-studded Hollywood action comedy. However, out of this unpredictability, Over Your Dead Body surprises audiences as a hilarious and shocking movie with equal parts violence, comedy, and marital reconciliation.
The story follows a married couple, Dan (Jason Segel) and Lisa (Samara Weaving), taking a relaxing trip to their cabin. It is quickly revealed that both Dan and Lisa are planning to kill each other. The tone in the beginning is often darker than humorous, as knowing the intention to murder makes all of their marital disputes heavier. However, their respective murderous attempts are interrupted by three intruders who are running from the law and demand money to fund their escape. At this point the story becomes much more comedic, using gory violence and criminal caricatures to shock the audience with absurd situations. Through all of the chaos that ensues, Dan and Lisa’s struggle reveals whether there is hope for their marriage or if it is already as good as dead.
Getting the audience to be amused with frightening or violent situations takes a purposeful approach to establish the right tone. If the film is grounded in too much realism, it can be difficult to tell jokes without jarring or even offending the audience. It can be equally shocking for a film grounded in comedy to suddenly raise the stakes to more disturbing material.
Over Your Dead Body begins grounded in realism as the audience is shown a petty couple, fighting over small things on the way to the cabin. It approaches Marriage Story levels of discomfort in these fights, focusing on the spite and lack of grace in a failing marriage. Dan, a failed director, has become cowardly and uncooperative, while Lisa has become cruel and resentful as she also has not seen success as an actress. It becomes abundantly clear that both parties have completely given up on the marriage, showing how both could have come to the conclusion that they must kill their spouse to end the loveless marriage. It is also explained that the couple is in debt and life insurance money from a dead spouse would help the survivor.
However, the planned murders of the spouses are only the setup for the film and the audience is thrown for a loop when the three fugitives take the couple hostage. While there were comedic moments before this, the introduction of these three criminals is where the film goes all-in on the humor. The fugitives are varying degrees of absurd caricatures. There is a romantic prison guard (Juliette Lewis) who helped these two prisoners escape out of love, a convict with all strength and no foresight (Keith Jardine), and a psychopathic convict (Timothy Olyphant). All three play off of each other to make for a chaotic and reckless ordeal for Dan and Lisa throughout their time on screen. These comically evil characters allow for the tone of the film to shift to absurd comedy as the ugliness of the marital disagreements pales in comparison to the situations that force Dan and Lisa to fight for their lives.
At the beginning of the movie, Dan’s father (Paul Guilfoyle) reminisces about his experiences at war and wishes that his son would have his own war. The final act of the film is an all-out war between the married couple and the fugitives, with absurd violence in obscene situations, mixing humor with shock in a thrilling conclusion. Through countless near-death experiences, Dan and Lisa are brought face-to-face with the complacency that led to their murderous intentions for the trip. What follows is a satisfying redemption arc for both characters, as a bloody and violent mess reveals whether their marriage is something worth fighting for.Â
