You know how it goes. You plan a nice weekend break with your wife so you can murder her, but things don’t quite go as planned. If there’s one thing you can say about this blackest of black comedies, it’s that it never stops surprising you as it lurches from an intimate tale of a dysfunctional marriage to an unhinged bloodbath of Sam Raimi proportions.
It’s difficult to reveal much about the plot without spoiling those surprises, because they start early, and escalate rapidly. Much of the fun of the film is trying to guess how it’s going to wrong foot you next.
But for what it’s worth Dan (Shrinking’s Jason Segel) is a failed film director now slumming it shooting inane adverts, who’s married to struggling actress Lisa (Samara Weaving). The relationship is severely on the rocks, and they communicate almost exclusively in snide remarks. So Dan plans to kill for the insurance money while they’re staying in a remote lakeside cabin, and make it look like she’s gone missing on a solo hike.
But Lisa, Dan’s ailing ex-military dad, Dan’s deadbeat best mate and a trio of on-the-run criminals have other plans that complicate matters in ways that invariably end with various bodily fluids splattering the cabin’s floorboards. And the film uses a number of witty flashbacks to keep you disorientated about what the next twist is going to be.
None of the surprises will be surprises, of course, if you’ve seen The Trip, the 2021 Norwegian film from renowned Dead Snow director Tommy Wirkola, that Over Your Dead Body is based on. Wirkola was even attached to direct the US version himself at one point before being replaced by former Saturday Night Live writer Jorma Taccone.
This US version is not so much a remake, as a near scene-by-scene cover version, with even large swathes of dialogue translated almost verbatim. At times it’s almost like they haven’t bothered with a new script, they’ve just used the foreign film’s subtitles.
Despite all the similarities, there are significant differences too, mainly in tone. The US version softens Dan and Lisa slightly, and beefs up the roles of the three criminals. Timothy Olyphant and Juliette Lewis play two of the bad guys, glorious chewing up the scenery like it’s an all you can eat log buffet, while the third is André Eriksen, a Norwegian rapper reprising his role from The Trip.
View Green Video on the source websiteThe resulting US version struggles to retain a consistent tone. While the plot is ludicrous, and many of the characters are outrageous, the film leans into this lunacy and the designer gore that results. But this gonzo approach sometimes sits awkwardly with the more tender moments between the two leads.
Ironically, the attempts to make the characters more relatable ends up making them feel less realistic. And stupider. Even Segel, fine comedy actor that he is, is an odd choice for Dan, his naturally diffident demeanour making him difficult to swallow as a wife killer. Weaving, however, is unnervingly convincing snide, cold-hearted bitch.
The film’s at its best when it’s full-on, no holds barred black humour fuelled by grand Guignol gore. And there’s plenty of that on offer. Some of the deaths and mutilations are very grisly and graphic indeed. Sadly, the shock value diminishes as the film progresses, and by the time of the big climactic splatterfest the film’s struggling to produce anything other than generic horror action tropes.
Luckily, there’s a great coda sequence, even if it’s the one twist you probably will guess well before the reveal. You won’t mind, because it’s the perfect ending. And deeply silly.
Over Your Dead Body is now streaming on Prime Video.
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