IFC and Shudder's new film Over Your Dead Body, which opens in theaters on April 24, 2026, brings together two icons of horror and comedy: Jason Segel and Samara Weaving. Not only does the pairing work flawlessly, but the two legendary actors helped each other be better by guiding the other through parts of genre acting that they might have felt more vulnerable in.
Over Your Dead Body follows Samara Weaving's Lisa and Jason Segel's Dan, a dysfunctional couple who, shortly after arriving at a secluded cabin in the woods for a mini vacation, soon realize that they both have plans to kill one another. While that's already bad enough, the situation somehow gets even worse when unexpected guests show up.
On top of Weaving and Segel, Over Your Dead Body, which is directed by Jorma Taccone, stars Timothy Olyphant, Yellowjacket's Juliette Lewis, Keith Jardine, and more.
The Direct spoke with stars Samara Weaving and Jason Segel about how their co-stars helped them during production.
Jason Segel, who many will know from How I Met Your Mother and Apple TV's Shrinking, admitted that he "was intimidated" because "there was a lot of stuff [he] had no idea how to do," especially when it came to the horror genre elements. Thankfully, Samara Weaving did know a lot about that, so he "leaned on her a lot about how to do violence and how to be scared, and some of the more gory stuff."
As for Samara Weaving, star of Ready or Not 2: Here I Come and Azrael, she explained how she "hadn't done a lot of comedy," so she "had to lean on Jason a lot because [she] felt quite vulnerable doing the really comedic stuff."
More of The Direct's conversation with Samara Weaving and Jason Segel, including a discussion with director Jorma Taccone about adapting Over Your Dead Body from an original film titled The Trip, can be read and viewed below.
Samara Weaving Helped Jason Segel Dive Into Horror
"There Was a Lot of Stuff I Had No Idea How to Go."
- The Direct: "Jason, Samara is obviously a scream queen, known very much for her scream. Were you at all intimidated by that scream and the fact that you were going to have to match it at points in this movie?"
Jason Segel: What I was intimidated by was, honestly, there was a lot of stuff I had no idea how to do. And I've done a fair amount of different stuff over [the] years... but there was a bunch in here I had no idea what to do. And [Samara Weaving] did know what to do, so I leaned on her a lot about how to do violence and how to be scared, and some of the more gory stuff. I just really didn't know how to do it, and so she was a great mentor.
While Jason Segel Helped Samara Weaving Master Comedy
"I Felt Quite Vulnerable Doing the Really Comedic Stuff."
- The Direct: "Samara, you've obviously been in tons of horror. I'm curious, when it comes to this movie, how did this let you flex your genre chops in a way that you really hadn't been able to before?"
Samara Weaving: Well, sort of the opposite of Jason, I hadn't done a lot of comedy. There are comedic elements in [my] movies, but I had to lean on Jason a lot because I felt quite vulnerable doing the really comedic stuff. So, as much as I was helping him with the violent stuff, I was also like, 'Is this good. Am I doing good? Am I making you laugh? I don't know what I'm doing, man.' So yeah, that was really daunting for me. But Jason was incredible, and I learned a lot from I mean, having Jorma [Taccone] and Jason was a real blessing.
Jorma Taccone on Adapting 'The Trip' to 'Over Your Dead Body'
The Biggest Change With the Adaptation Is a Wild Tonal Shift.
- The Direct: "The movie is actually based on a Norwegian film called 'The Trip.' Can you talk about just the adaptation process and what you wanted to keep, take away, and then enhance for this audience?"
Jorma Taccone: Yes, and it's hard to use the word enhance, because I think that it's a tonal shift, and it's just what you like, and it's what I like. Honestly, I loved the original, which, by the way, was originally called ' In Bad Days,' and then it was converted to the trip for being on Netflix. Also, there's a great comedy out of England called 'The Trip.' And I was like, why is it called that?...
So, I like our 'Over your Dead Body' shift as one of the many changes that we made. To me, deciding to make a remake, it's so scary, and especially when you like the original movie. And the original movie, to me, is very dark. It's pretty angry, completely by design. And it's exactly what Tommy [Wirkola] was going for.
And to me, I wanted the characters in this—I wanted to keep the teeth of the original... It's sort of more violent than the original, honestly, but I wanted the characters for me to be a bit more redeemable, so that I could earn the ending. So that was a big part of it. I think that the change in the bad guys in this, like, we've added Juliet Lewis' character, which I think is a big tonal shift, and then sort of created some symmetry that I really liked in just terms of [their relationship].
This is a movie, at its core, about relationships between, I guess, men and women... So, it was like one, honoring the original and really trying not to fuck with scenes that work to me. There's even similar framing that I'm trying to go for, because I felt like, if I changed those scenes, it would just be for my own ego to be like, Look, I did it differently! And so to me it's an overall tonal shift.
And then the other thing that I think we found... There's a scene in the middle of a movie that is a pool table scene that's f**king dark, but I wanted Jason's character to be broken down to the studs to rebuild him, kind of thing. And so there were things that we bought back... But one of the things I really like about this version, too, is that it kind of ramps up in a different kind of way. There's some stop-down stuff that happens in the original that is also by design and is what they were going for. So this movie kind of [zooms] to the end, and I really like that part, too...
The entire discussion with the cast and director of Over Your Dead Body can be watched below.
