Tucker and Dale vs Evil

Good things come to those who wait, and I've waited for this movie for long enough. I'd wanted to see this movie from the first time I stumbled across the synopsis and learned that Alan Tudyk would be playing one of the title characters. Instant win. I knew there was little chance that this movie would be anything but awesome, and I was proved right when it was released at long last on home video (since I wasn't lucky enough to live in one of the few cities blessed with it's limited release). It's a new spin on the classic horror movie cliché of the deranged hillbillies terrorizing innocent victims in the woods. In this case, Tucker and Dale are a couple of good ol' boys heading out to the West Virginia wilderness to renovate Tucker's new vacation home/cabin in the woods. A handful of college students have also decided to make use of the backwoods for a camping trip, where they mistake the pair of bumbling rednecks as psycho killers. The misunderstanding leads to a series of unfortunate events where the college kids begin accidentally dying off in gruesome fashion, only solidifying their fear in the harmless hillbillies. TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL is equal parts comedy and horror movie in a perfect balance of the two genres from director Eli Craig (who hasn't really got much else under his belt, directing-wise). This movie is guaranteed to achieve cult status once word gets around about how awesome this movie is.

It's such a simple idea that I'm really surprised it hasn't been done before. It's just a simple 180º twist on the sort of horror we've seen in Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE or THE HILLS HAVE EYES. Tucker and Dale are a couple of simpletons played to perfection by Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine. They really just want to enjoy a simple vacation of fishing and renovations when the posse of judgmental college kids led by Chad (with his own dark side) arrive and fudge it all up. Alan Tudyk is awesome in pretty much anything I've seen him in. I honestly can't think of a single instance where his character was a weak spot in any film or TV show. He's given the spotlight as one of the title characters for once, and he makes an excellent redneck. Tucker is the more levelheaded, headstrong leader of the duo who's not really interested in the new arrivals and wishes they'd just have kept to themselves. Dale (Labine) is the socially inept doofus who develops a crush on beautiful Allison after rescuing her from a near drowning and essentially setting off the chain of bloody events. He steps into the hero role as he gradually comes out shell to Allison and stands up against Chad and his crew. Katrina Bowden fulfills her basic obligations as the blossoming love interest Allison, a beautiful girl with a hot cheerleader vibe and a heart of gold who's willing to overlook Tucker and Dale's social status. Of the remaining college crew, the only standout is of course Jesse Moss as Chad. The kid is demented and reeks of cheese, but his campiness suits the tone of the movie so you can't complain.

In my opinion, this is the best horror movie parody since Edgar Wright's SHAUN OF THE DEAD. It succeeds in all the aspects of a good comedy/horror movie that the SCARY MOVIE franchise (primarily any the sequels) fails at. The jokes in the movie are hilarious, thanks for Tudyk and Labine. And the kills in the movie can be just as gruesome as any mainstream horror film; I'd give examples but, as with any horror/slasher movie, I don't really want to spoil any potential kills. Everything in this movie works great with the exception of the third act. After the characters leave the main cabin in the woods location and arrive at the final conflict in a saw mill, it loses some steam. Maybe because it drops the horror parody vibe I'd been enjoying for the previous hour, but the whole end confrontation felt like a misstep. It doesn't exactly ruin the movie, it just didn't feel like it fit for me. As a whole, I really loved this movie and I expect it'll garner a pretty nice following on DVD/Blu-ray. The filmmakers have done an awesome job here and all I ask is that they enjoy the movie's success without tarnishing its awesomeness with an unnecessary sequel. I don't want to see more TUCKER AND DALE hijinks; their battle with evil was cool enough on it's own.

What if you showed a backwoods-horror movie where city slickers take a wrong turn from the hillbillies point of view? What if they turned out to be basically decent folks who just wanted to go fishing at their vacation home? And, finally, what if it was the hillbillies who had to fend off against a murderous psychopath and got to take the pretty girl home?

But of course make it so that our surrogate watchers, a bunch of college kids out in the woods, should presume to know that hillbillies are a bunch of violent inbreds because they're familiar with the same movie lore we are, say Deliverance onwards. Make it so that a man with a chainsaw whizzing above his head recasts the most epochal scene from Texas Chainsaw as accident. Our enjoyment is that we're always placed a little closer, watching for a little longer, to know that there is no horror movie outside what is being imagined.

So there you have it; a Two-Thousand Maniacs with misunderstood maniacs. It's a clever idea, and new as far as I know in this field.

Now if horror is generally looked down upon, even in cases of solid craftsmanship, I wager it's for how it posits a battle with evil in absolute terms. We know that life is more a complex struggle than Hammer served us. Every horror film that matters has innovated by placing us one step closer to where real horror is assembled. Vampyr posited that it happened because we wanted to. Psycho moved the monster from the swamps to next door, and that was important enough at the time. Night of the Living Dead posited an entire world of insensate havoc but with no malice in the instinctive drive. The Tenant and later Videdrome transferred every visible distortion back in the retina of the mind's eye. In Possession, horror was the visual representation turned inside out from tortured soul.

This is just as good in this way. There is no evil outside a series of unfortunate events, we come to understand. There is only circumstance and our built-in notions of what any set of circumstances ought to mean. With film having saturated so deeply the world we know, in a lot of these cases what we claim to know we know from movies.

Our loss is that the idea must have seemed so striking and novel to whoever was approached to fund, that the project was rushed ahead before there was a chance to iron it out. So the first joke, a great joke, is played over and over again and wears itself thin. The finale resolves with just sparks flying from a chainsaw fight.

The extra layer that was probably tucked in at the last moment, is that the massacre backstory that we understood was just a campfire tale improvised on the spot, and was generic like a Wrong Turn sequel, is supposed to be culled from real life. So there was truth behind the legend, mangled many times over in the telling, that powers the chain of events to replicate it.

It makes sense then that one part of the movie, where evil is imagined, always plays out like a movie. Every time he appears on screen, he swirls everything into the narrative he was taught to have sprung from. It's pretty nifty.

I did not have many expectations when I sat through this gem of a movie. This movie takes the horror/comedy genre to new levels. The plot is fairly simple, Lots of misunderstood situations that take place between Dale and Tucker and their fix-ur-upper vacation home, and some overly critical, unstable college kids. Very original script, good acting (Tucker and Dale are fantastic), and clever direction. How can a brilliant movie like this not make it to the big screen, yet movies like Season of the witch, Skyline, and Gulliver's Travels do. If you want to laugh till milk shoots out your nose, watch this movie. Should be on everyone's must-see list.

TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL takes on the typical "killer hillbillies" movie by turning the entire sub-genre inside out. Through accident, misunderstanding, and assumption, a comedy of errors becomes a bloodbath!

Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine) look like a pair of rustic maniacs, at least to the group of college kids who have crossed their path. Multiple deaths occur, sending everything into chaos. Will anyone live long enough to figure out what's really going on?

Hilarious, and at times, poignant, this could be a movie for the whole family, if it weren't for the outrageous gore...

Eli Craig did a masterful job in presenting the best horror comedy since "Suck."

Playing on the tried and true "Flinstones Plot" of miscommunication that may drive some viewers crazy, Craig brings the gore and the humor with great special effects and wonderful acting. Best of all, of course, the story is solid with an interesting and poignant antagonist development that is extremely impressive.

Better still, the laughs aren't cheap and silly.

And if you live in the southern United States and hate how "southern folk", "backwoods families" and "hillbillies" are exploited for horror purposes, you'll love this tremendous twist on such a overused and ill-conceived cliché.

This is one of the greatest horror comedies ever presented on film.