Film review: Tucker & Dale vs Evil (2010), directed by Eli Craig
Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine) are a couple of hillbilly friends who decide to spend the weekend in the woods in Redneck Country, where they’ve bought an old cabin they’re planning on fixing up as a holiday home. Travelling to the cabin they stop at a petrol station and because of an unfortunate choice of gardening accessory (namely a scythe), they end up scaring a bunch of college kids.
The college kids are going camping in the same woods as it turns out, and one of them, Chad (Jesse Moss), tells the others the story of how a group of campers, just like them, were brutally murdered right in these woods some twenty years earlier.
As luck would have it, Tucker and Dale end up startling one of the girls, Allison (Katrina Bowden), who is taking a midnight dip in the lake. She hits her head and they dive in to save her. Her friends, on the other hand, think they’ve kidnapped her and are going to kill her. And so it begins, in a never-ending spiral of fatal misunderstandings.
It’s bloody hilarious. Literally.
Also starring: Brandon McLaren, Christie Laing, Chelan Simmons, Travis Nelson, Alexander Arsenault, Adam Beauchesne and Joseph Sutherland as the other college kids.
Tucker and Dale vs Evil is a film some friends of ours recommended, and we saw it around their place. We quickly saw why they recommended it. Not only is Alan Tudyk brilliant as a comedic actor, but the film is really too funny.
I’m not a fan of blood-splatter movies but wow, the way things happen here, you can’t help but laugh. First, Tucker and Dale manage to “kidnap” a girl, who then realises that she’s not actually kidnapped and the guys really aren’t meaning her any harm whatsoever. Second, the girl’s friends think Tucker and Dale are evil and want to harm their friend, and launch upon a scheme to try and get her back from the “monsters”. It’s just a question of who is really a monster.
It’s the sort of film that perhaps isn’t that funny when you try to describe it, but it’s truly very funny once you see it. It takes the “murderer in the woods” trope to a whole new level. It’s also not the most well known film, or well publicised, but don’t let that fool you. If you like horror comedies and don’t mind a bit of gore, this film needs a watch.
4 out of 5 brewskies.
