Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil
★★★★
Where as Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard’s admittedly great The Cabin in The Woods lovingly demolished the expectations of the humble slasher film with high concept style and budget, Eli Craig’s Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil seems as intent on doing the same with hillbillies, using only slapstick comedy and blood. This real underdog of a film has kind of slipped by unnoticed but it certainly hits its mark as truly as the Cloverfield and Avenger’s helmers crowd pleaser but with a home made bow and arrow.
Once again a typical car load of college kids head out to the woods for a bit of fleshy shenanigans, booze and ghost stories around the campfire. After pulling off the road for some petrol and being freaked out by a slobbering pair of overtaking hillbillies on the road, the film switches sides and puts us under the supervision of those very bumpkins who put the willies up our college friends. The pair awesomely turn out to be shy, self conscious, unlucky in love all round sweet fellas Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine) on a holiday to fix up Tuckers cabin for a spot of fishing. Later that night, after rescuing one of the kids from drowning and taking her to the cabin to recuperate, things get a little confused and the other kids, carbon copies of every slasher film past, believe that their friend Allison (Katrina Bowden) has fallen victim to their dastardly ways.
Basically a comedy of errors with a load of solid reference points, a smart twist on the genre and load of laughs and nasty deaths, Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil is wonderfully entertaining. Tudyk and Labine are perfectly matched as the sweet but ludicrously dumb Deliverance negatives, creating loveable comedy characters in no time at all, leaving the remaining college scamps as the films only real weak point. Though neither compassionate or likeable in any way, the gang are prepared to do anything to get their friend back propelling the layers of misunderstanding to preposterous levels and failing and falling in horrible ways.
Director Eli Craig, plays it all very fast and loose, getting the most out of his leads comedy timing and, all the while amping the splatter and sound effects up to 11, manages to give it a serious weight and a large surprisingly effective (though predictable) heart. A great little film that may have been ignored due to bad performance on DVD and on the few screens it was released onto but it’s sure to become a oft quoted little cult shlock horror comedy.
