I've always enjoyed any movie that can subvert genre tropes and put a new spin on a well worn and familiar story. Tucker and Dale vs Evil is one such film, putting a unique and hilarious spin on a very familiar sub-genre, the hillbilly maniacs in the woods, a well-worn genre that would include such genre classics as The Hills Have Eyes, Deliverance, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Wrong Turn.
Tucker (played by Alan Tudyk) and his best friend Dale (played by Tyler Labine) are two affable but dim-witted friends traveling to Tucker's newly purchased lake home to start fixing it up. They are just simple rural guys looking to have a relaxing weekend together. Traveling up to the lake at the same time is a group of affluent college kids who upon seeing Tucker and Dale assume the two are creepy, homicidal maniacs. Later that evening, Tucker and Dale decide to go fishing and come across some of the kids skinny dipping. When one of the kids, Allison (played by Katrina Bowden), falls while trying to dive off a boulder and hits her head, Tucker and Dale go to help her while her friends run away, assuming Tucker and Dale are maniacs kidnapping her. They take Allison back to their cabin where she soon comes to. Meanwhile, the other kids return to camp and inform their friend Chad (played by Jesse Moss) what happened. Rather than go for help, Chad decides they need to rescue their friend themselves. The following morning, Allison is still recovering at Tucker and Dale's cabin and begins to bond with Dale over breakfast. Her friends outside begin to mount an ill-fated rescue attempt that leads to one by one her friends getting killed through a series of bizarre accidents and mishaps, such as one accidentally impaling himself or another trying to tackle Tucker while he feeds old tree branches into a wood chipper only to miss and go head first into the wood chipper instead). Naturally, the remaining friends misinterpret this as Tucker and Dale killing them as things only escalate and spin out of control from there as poor Tucker and Dale try to make sense of what is happening.
The film was directed by Eli Craig from a script he wrote with Morgan Jurgenson. They manage to find the right balance for the film with showing how the kids were able to completely misread the situation while also making the titular characters completely lovable. At the same time, the film is completely over the top in it's humor, striking a good balance between the outrageous and gruesome aspects of the film. They do a really adept job at subverting the standard tropes at almost every turn in really amusing and funny ways. They also set up the scenario perfectly by having Chad tell his friends a story around the campfire about a murder spree that happened in the area perpetrated by a pair of murderous hillbillies so the idea is already seeded in their heads, so when they come across Tucker and Dale, they immediately connect them to the killers from twenty years prior. It also helps that almost none of the characters, save for Allison, are particularly bright.
The two lead performances from Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine are quite good. Tudyk manages to find that right note of perpetual annoyance for Tucker, who just wanted to spend a relaxing weekend at his newly purchased "vacation home," but instead has to deal with perhaps the most insane situation ever. On the other hand, Labine infuses Dale with a real teddy bear sweetness. Dale is a character who has never had much luck with the ladies, which may be in part because he seems to lack any sense of self-awareness. A perfect example comes early in the movie, when he decides to try and talk to the girls when they are all stopped at the gas station and decides to walk over while carrying a giant scythe. Katrina Bowden has a nice turn as Allison, a psychology student who begins to bond with Dale as they spend time together but also tries to be the voice of reason to her friends when things begin to get out of control. Jesse Moss does a great job playing the preppy Chad with a deep hatred of hillbillies and alpha male hero complex who only succeeds in exacerbating the situation.
Tucker and Dale vs Evil has developed a bit of a cult following over the years. It's a very funny film that succeeds because it is very smart in being very dumb. It's certainly a film that is more funny than scary, but I included it this year because it does still fit within the horror comedy genre (it is very gruesome despite mostly being played for laughs). It's well worth checking out, especially for fans of the genre.
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