Jason Segel and Jorma Taccone on ‘Over Your Dead Body’ [Interview]

Over Your Dead Body is now playing in theaters from IFC Films. Directed by comedy royalty Jorma Taccone (“The Lonely Island”), the genre hybrid follows a dysfunctional couple who retreat to a remote cabin to reconnect, only to reveal that each has secretly been planning to kill the other. The film features an all-star cast, including Jason Segel, Samara Weaving, Timothy Olyphant, Juliette Lewis, Paul Guilfoyle, and Keith Jardine.

Speaking with Taccone and Segel, it’s clear both are drawing from very different reference points when it comes to what scared them growing up.

“I remember being really scared when Large Marge’s eyes popped out of her head in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” Segel said. “I don’t know why. That really, really scared me a lot.”

Taccone, on the other hand, points to one of cinema’s more intimately visceral and brutal moments.

“I had to turn off Reservoir Dogs when the ear-cutting scene was so unbelievably real and disturbing,” he said. “That guy’s performance is so dark and sad and brutal. I couldn’t take that one. Natural Born Killers also did that to me. I was just like, I can’t take this.”

That contrast between references, outlandish shock versus visceral violence, lines up with how both approach Over Your Dead Body, which constantly shifts between tones. Both men come from comedy, and the transition into horror isn’t accidental. Segel sees the two genres as fundamentally linked.

“I think comedy as a genre has a lot in common with horror,” he said. “They’re designed to elicit a physical response. They’re both designed to make your body do something in spite of you.”

Taccone expands on that idea from a craft perspective, pointing to editing as the shared backbone.

“The edit of horror is very similar to joke telling,” he said. “It’s all about timing, suspense, release. There’s a lot of buildup to violence, just like there’s buildup to a punchline.”

That push and pull between tension and release is exactly what defines the film, letting it pivot between uncomfortable violence and sharp humor without ever slowing down. I then find it especially interesting that the only film he would be interested in rebooting is one of the most iconic hybrids between genres for young audiences.

So, which movie, if Taccone had the chance to revisit a classic himself, would he want to tackle?

“The Goonies,” he says with a grin and a bit of hesitation.

And honestly, I think it’s a great fit. Someone get Spielberg on the line.

Over Your Dead Body is now playing in theaters from IFC Films.

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