Nate At The Movies

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

All hail Jason Segel! I’ve been a fan of his since How I Met Your Mother, and I just finished Season 3 of Shrinking two days ago, so I was pretty excited for Over Your Dead Body. Sure, horror may still not be my favorite genre, but given Segel’s penchant for comedy and Jorma Taccone at the wheel, I figured this movie was going to blend the horror and comedy pretty well. Not only was I right, but I had my expectations routinely exceeded tonight, and somehow came out of the theater hailing Over Your Dead Body as my favorite Jorma Taccone movie.

It was pretty evident from the trailers that this was going to be a retread of War of the Roses—the second one in as many years, believe it or not—but how Taccone subverted that already-trod story kept his movie very interesting. I loved the parallelism in the first half of the movie as new people took control of the situation and started their time in the driver’s seat with “Wakey, wakey”, and I loved how the problems and players kept piling up for Dan and Lisa. I was game for every addition, from the escaped convicts to Dan’s dad at the very end, especially because each new addition brought the juice comedically. Having Dan and Lisa at each other’s throats for the first half and teaming up for the second half was also a nice change, one I quite enjoyed as I was constantly comparing this movie to The Roses while I was watching.

As expected, Taccone and Segel absolutely nailed the necessary balance between the horror and humor, and both were in high supply and quality. The gore was stupid and so fun and very SNL, and once I abandoned the idea that the events unfolding in front of me would resemble something realistic, I was bought in. I just about jumped out of my seat when Dan stomped through Allegra’s knee; I was dying laughing. I was laughing for pretty much the whole movie, and it wasn’t just Segel. He certainly did the heavy lifting, but Weaving and Timothy Olyphant were so funny as well. Mostly, it was these actors working so well within the rules of the loony, bloody world Taccone had set up for them. Everyone had their moment, even Dan’s dad: “No, I’m gonna eat your nose”. Comedy gold. And can we talk about the faces Jason Segel made? He’s like a dang cartoon character! The best surprisingly real faces since Jim Carrey in How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

I thought I would get tired of the innumerable problems and failed solutions that Dan and Lisa faced—Lisa missed a flare shot from point-blank range, for goodness’ sake—but I only got more hyped. Taccone kept the energy high and ascending for the entire second half, and I was sad to have to go home at some point. I knew I was going to like Over Your Dead Body, but I had no idea its humor, story, and performances were going to invigorate me in the way that they did. I don’t usually come out of horror movies wanting to see them again anytime soon, but you could stick me in that same theater tomorrow night and I’d be game. Over Your Dead Body was as fun as unashamed, unadulterated gore and comedy could possibly be, and I’s consider this film in the running for the Natey for Biggest Surprise of 2026. It’s the year of the Segel!