Over Your Dead Body

Television commercial director Dan (Jason Segel) is just a little too eager to tell a coworker how dangerous his wife Lisa's (Samara Weaving, "Ready or Not 2") plan to go hiking on her own during their trip to his dad's lakeside cabin is, doubling down on the idea when he visits his dad Michael (Paul Guilfoyle) at his assisted living home. When we see the couple interact, Lisa's behavior is grating, both during their drive and as Dan attempts to prepare her a nice dinner, but it doesn't take her too long to figure out Dan's murderous plan and once she does an all out war erupts in "Over Your Dead Body."

Laura's Review: C

There is a simple premise to "Pizza Movie's" Nick Kocher & Brian McElhaney's adaptation of Norway's "I Onde Dager" - that a common enemy can bring people together - and while that is what happens here if neither of those people is likable what you're left with is no rooting interest. "Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping" director Jorma Taccone evidently thinks that seeing someone's head get blown in half is a punchline and it could be if violent escalation wasn't all this movie has going for it.

We're given a preview of Lisa's problems with her husband from the father-in-law who shares them, the WWII veteran berating his son as a weakling always looking for money who a 'good war' would toughen up. During Dan and Lisa's drive, Dan tries to converse, apparently to allay any suspicions, but Lisa appears determined to pick a fight, the actress disparaging his career path. Her demeanor is so grating, we almost take Dan's side. But once his plan is out in the open and Lisa turns the tables, all their grievances come pouring out and it isn't pretty. Things get both more complicated and resolved when outsiders enter the mix, the first being Dan's old high school pal Henry (Jake Curran, TV's 'Gangs of London') who was supposed to help him get rid of Lisa but instead ends up their inadvertent victim when the double-barreled shotgun they're battling over goes off in his direction. That same shotgun will unearth a threat when a bullet through the ceiling causes a collapse which exposes two escaped convicts, Pete (Timothy Olyphant) and Todd (Keith Jardine, "Kill Me Again"), and Allegra (Juliette Lewis), the guard besotted with Pete who helped them escape (shades of Dannemora). Pete demands cash to fund their getaway, money that Dan and Lisa don't have. The formerly warring couple become a united front in a fight for survival (and yet, when they manage to get all members of their threat in the basement at once, fail to lock them in there).

There will be blows with blunt objects, strangulations by electrical cord, an entire knife block emptied into a felon's back and nose biting before Pete decides to have some fun with a lawn mower. And when a surprise savior arrives, Dan and Lisa's reaction is to run away and leave the person to a terrible fate, further alienating us from this film's 'good' guys.

There are some attempts at humor, Allegra attempting to alleviate the trio's boredom as they wait things out in the attic with a game of charades, but they make such a commotion it's a stretch to believe Dan and Lisa wouldn't have heard them. And Kocher and McElhaney try to work in rebuilding blocks for the marriage as Dan and Lisa exhibit individual fortitude, each taking notice of the other's efforts, but the effect is weakened when Lisa hesitates during a critical moment. Everything is tied up in too neat a bow, the couple's horrific experience fodder for an Andy Cohen interview and renewed professional careers exploiting that experience with a surprise cameo standing in for Dan in his movie version of what we've just seen. It is impossible to view the Dan and Lisa we are left with as a happy couple when they had attempted murder over a situation resolved by an open conversation.

The Independent Film Company releases "Over Your Dead Body" in theaters on 4/24/26.