Samara Weaving and Jason Segel are lethal in Over Your Dead Body – a gory, hilarious riot that reinvented the cabin-in-the-woods trope at SXSW 2026.
Going into Over Your Dead Body, I had high hopes, but I wasn’t quite prepared for the absolute adrenaline shot that Jorma Taccone delivered. As a massive fan of Samara Weaving’s work in the horror-comedy-survival niche – let’s face it, she is the undisputed queen of the genre after Ready or Not – I knew she would shine in this movie. However, seeing her paired with Jason Segel felt like a wild card. We know he is a comedic genius, but he hasn’t exactly carved out a niche in the high-octane action world. I am thrilled to report that this pairing is the duo I didn’t know I needed.
The premise is simple – a dysfunctional couple, Lisa and Dan, head to a remote cabin to “reconnect.” In reality, both have brought secret plans to murder one another.
The first act is filled with the perfect combination of tension and comedy. Samara Weaving and Jason Segel spend the first act going tit-for-tat, trading zingers that feel sharp enough to draw blood before the actual weapons even come out. They find this incredible sweet spot of comedy where you can tell they’ve tapped into those raw, ugly feelings of true spite. Watching them navigate their mutual hatred is genuinely hilarious. Their chemistry is off the charts, fueled by a shared commitment to being as petty and lethal as possible.
Jorma Taccone was the perfect choice to direct this reimagining of the 2021 Norwegian film The Trip. I haven’t seen the original, I went in blind, which I highly recommend doing if you have not watched it yet. According to colleagues who have seen both, Taccone manages to capture the soul of the source material while injecting it with a unique, high-energy American comedic flair.
Jorma Taccone’s directing choices are brilliant, particularly when the film hits its hard pivot partway through. Once that happens, the movie hits the ground running and never looks back. Because of this, and so much more, Over Your Dead Body is a film that begs to be seen in a theater. There is a communal magic in hearing a room full of people gasp, squeal with glee, and roar with laughter simultaneously. The fight sequences are massive, inventive, and – to my absolute delight – dialed up to eleven on the gore scale.
We’ve seen the “cabin in the woods” trope a thousand times, but Over Your Dead Body manages to feel fresh. At its core, the movie is about being forced to work together when you’d rather be doing anything else, and the strange, twisted way that shared trauma can remind a couple of what connected them in the first place.
There are some unforgettable supporting characters here as well. Timothy Olyphant, Paul Guilfoyle, Juliette Lewis, and Keith Jardine all shine. They nail the comedic timing of it all, and really bring to the table what is necessary to take the film to the next level.
Without venturing into spoiler territory, the final moments of the film are some of the funniest I’ve seen in years. I was practically dying of laughter, and the energy in the SXSW theater was electric. Seeing Jason Segel hold his own in these grueling, gory sequences was a revelation, and Samara Weaving continues to prove that no one plays a blood-splattered protagonist better than she does.
Over Your Dead Body is everything I wanted and more. It is a wild, insanely fun ride that balances laugh-out-loud humor with genuine grit and gore. If you love action-comedies that aren’t afraid of gore, this is for you. It’s a hilarious, high-octane celebration of marital dysfunction and survival that I can’t wait to see again.
About Over Your Dead Body
A dysfunctional couple head to a remote cabin to supposedly reconnect, but each has secret plans to kill the other.
Over Your Dead Body played at SXSW 2026.
