Like Plot Twists? You’ll Love ‘Over Your Dead Body’

By David Fear

David Fear

You know how there’s always that couple you know who are one simmering argument away from turning a restaurant into a crime scene, one passive-aggressive putdown away from ruining a dinner party, one thrown half-filled wine glass away from a complete screaming meltdown? That’s Dan and Lisa. He (Jason Segel) was once a promising filmmaker, whose debut feature made a splash on the festival circuit. Now this frustrated auteur directs those pop-up ads you constantly see on your phone. She (Samara Weaving) is an actor who dreamed of being the next Blanchett or Streep. Now she’s straining to nab parts in Off-Off-Broadway black-box productions. Neither of them are happy personally, professionally, matrimonially, you name it. Misery is supposed to love company, but these two? They truly, madly, deeply hate each other.

So it’s more than a little suspicious when Dan keeps casually, yet continually mentioning to everybody from his coworkers to his retired dad (The Good Fight‘s Paul Guilfoyle), how they’re heading upstate this weekend. Specifically, he keeps bringing up the fact that Lisa is planning a hike near one of the more dangerous areas near their place, and the weather is supposed to be bad, and look, he’s been warning her to be careful. It’s almost like he’s prepping an alibi in case, I dunno, anything bad happens to his “beloved.” The bag with the rope, duct tape, and hacksaw in his car certainly suggests an agenda that includes more than old-fashioned R&R.

Dan and Lisa fight on the drive up. They fight when they arrive at the lovely cabin in the woods near a lake. They fight over the way that Dan is cooking steaks, a.k.a. “her favorite meal,” for a dinner that conspicuously feels like a last supper. It’s not her favorite meal, by the way — that’s a whole other can of worms best left unopened — but the point is, they fight. And fight. And fight and fight and fight. Fight fight fight, fight fight fight! You’re so busy witnessing these two tear into each other that you might have missed an earlier TV news report about escaped convicts on the run. Or failed to noticed there’s one less knife in the wooden block in the kitchen.

Editor’s picks

The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far

The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time

The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

100 Best Movies of the 21st Century

Over Your Dead Body sets you up for something pitched around the midpoint of a rom-com and dark comedy, a tale of a missing wife and a “grieving” husband that’s equal parts Hitchcock, Nora Ephron, and a Today Show special news report. There are a few reversals of fortune on the way to Dan putting his divorce-via-murder plan into action, however, as well as a half dozen plot twists and wild tonal shifts heading your way at 120mph. Maybe Lisa isn’t quite as helpless or clueless as we think she is. Maybe Dan’s buddy Henry (Jake Curran) is even more incompetent than previously hinted at, in terms of aiding and abetting a homicide. Maybe some unexpected visitors, in the form of those fugitive felons — their names are Pete (Timothy Olyphant) and Todd (Keith Jardine) — and a lovelorn prison guard Allegra (Juliette Lewis), are about to throw a ton of monkey wrenches into the mix. Maybe lawn mowers, pool balls, sharp-edged trophies, and other seemingly nondescript household items can cause grievous bodily harm if needed.

Trending Stories