Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2010)
Oh hidy ho officer,
we’ve had a doozy of a day.
There we were minding our own business,
just doing chores around the house, when kids started killing themselves all over my property.
A Canadian horror/comedy about two hillbillies, Tucker and Dale, who have just bought the holiday home of their dreams and are on their way to renovate this run down shack in the middle of the woods.
Also going on a holiday are a group of spoiled, snobbish students on a camping trip and when simple minded and likeable Dale (played by Tyler Labine) with a lot of prompting by Tucker (Alan Tudyk) goes over to talk to one of the girls Allison (Katrina Bowden) but ends up accidentally scaring the group of friends and we see the main selling point of this film.
In the style of Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006) this film turns the tables on many of the horror clichés we’ve either come to love or loathe. Using the group of friends over imagination as well as desperation at trying to rescue their friend (Allison ends up accidentally injured so Tucker and Dale take her back to the cabin to look after her) and a series of misunderstandings, this film makes the teenagers the villains and the redneck hillbillies the ones fighting to survive.
Their ineptitude but determination to rescue Allison causes the teenagers to charge head first (literally in some cases) at Tucker and Dale with fatal results for themselves. I don’t think anyone who dies in this film is killed by someone else or deliberately but by their own actions or a random event of their own doing.
The premise of Tucker and Dale being surround by people who are killing themselves looks to disappear about two thirds of the way through as is sadly normal for films relying on a premise as the story goes in another direction but thankfully here the movie goes back to it’s roots for a satisfying ending staying true to what it is we came to see.
The ways people die in this film might not be too original at times but as some are classic deaths you have seen over the years in horror films but done by themselves and can come out of the blue they are funny, sudden and very bloody and gory. The humour works too and the characters are stupid when needed, unlikeable when needed that you will not be cheering for them and then our heroes Tucker, Dale and Allison are all very likeable you will want them to survive. Something missing in a lot of modern horror
When I first watched this I wasn’t that impressed with it. I wanted to enjoy it but it just didn’t work for me so I am very glad I gave it another chance. Maybe I wasn’t in the right mood first time round and I’m so happy I gave it another go.
The performances work, the effects, whilst using cgi in places, are very good and all in all a very watchable film that offers something original to the horror genre.
Might not make you laugh out loud or be your cup of tea but give it a go and with a possible sequel in the works maybe Tucker and Dale will grow on you too.
