SXSW 2026: OVER YOUR DEAD BODY is One Step Ahead of You [Spoiler Free]

Definitively the movie to top at SXSW 2026 is Jorma Taccone’s Over Your Dead Body. 

Apparently a remake of Tommy Wirkola’s The Trip (which stars Noomi Rapace and Aksel Hennie so I must now track it down), this review will not touch on comparisons to that original as I had no idea what to expect walking into this film and no idea that an original version even existed. As I navigate this review I’ll similarly allow you to walk into the film as unspoiled as humanly possible while also giving it my highest of recommendations as a rip-roaring crowd pleaser par excellence. 

Jason Segal takes the lead here as Dan, a director with a single feature under his belt who is paying the bills by helming commercials and is wildly unhappy. Samara Weaving is Lisa, Dan’s wife and a struggling actress who is also wildly unhappy. Toxic to their cores, Dan and Lisa plan a getaway to a remote cabin where each secretly plans to kill the other. It’s a nice clean set up, and enough to tempt me into the theater to check this film out. But I’m here to tell you that this premise is just the tip of the iceberg for how clever and twisty this film truly is. 

The primary element that knocks Over Your Dead Body out of the park is just how ahead of the audience it is. With whip-smart editing, confident writing, and brilliant performances, it all comes together to constantly surprise and delight the audience with twists that don’t betray the simplicity of the premise, but which you truly may never see coming. 

In my opinion as merely a dabbler (at best) in modern comedy, Jorma Taccone is among the best in the business. Between Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping and MacGruber alone, he’s shown hysterical comedy chops as well as visual directorial panache. A master collaborator as well, he’s maturing into a must-watch talent as he expands his collaborative approach with projects like this one. 

Here he not only directs the hell out of a largely single setting feature, but also draws fantastic performances out of his entire cast. Jason Segal has had a long and successful career demonstrating not only comedic chops, but also a profound dramatic capability, and a sincere heart as well. Hilariously, the fact that he’s a massive giant of a man almost never plays into his roles. Finally, in Over Your Dead Body, his size gets to matter as things take a decisively physical turn in this film, complete with stunt work by 87 North Productions. I wouldn’t quite call this Segal’s action hero turn, but never has his oafish size mattered more to a role of his. Samara Weaving is having an incredible run here at SXSW with this film and Ready Or Not: Here I Come both delivering. But beyond that she’s simply crushing it in her career over and over again with recent films I adored such as Eenie Meanie, Azrael, and even Bill & Ted 3! Here she gets to use her Australian accent to brilliant effect, and similarly gets primal, physical, and taps into heretofore unseen rage. Segal and Weaving have remarkable chemistry as a couple whose seething resentment of each other is so palpable precisely because their relationship began with a genuine love which they both mourn. 

The cast beyond Segal and Weaving is as delightful and surprising as any ensemble I’ve seen in recent years. I almost don’t even want to say who else is in the movie or how or why they arrive in this scenario, but needless to say you’ll get amazing turns from Timothy Olyphant, Juliette Lewis, Paul Guilfoyle, and a frankly remarkable character/performance from former MMA fighter Keith Jardine, who should get a lot more acting work after this breakout performance. 

Again, this review is seeking to avoid even the mildest of spoilers and should serve primarily as a full throated endorsement to seek out Over Your Dead Body knowing as little about it as you possibly can. Jorma Taccone has set out to delight and surprise you, to entertain and outsmart you. He succeeds wildly with a film that fires on all cylinders thanks to the creativity and camaraderie he’s clearly able to inspire on set and in post-production as well. Over You Dead Body is not only one of the funniest movies of 2026, but it’ll also boast some of the gnarliest stunts of the year, along with one of the most surprising and satisfying scripts we’re likely to get this year as well. Seek out Over Your Dead Body at your earliest convenience.

And I’m Out.