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TUCKER AND DALE VS EVIL

TWO HILLBILLIES IN THE WOODS WOULD RATHER FISH THAN KILL TEENAGERS



★★★★★ (A Must-See)

Director: Eli Craig

2011


As a car full of college students drives through forest roads to get to their campsite, something spooks them, distracts them from their weed and search for beer. A truck with two rough guys passes their car, and they look like they enjoy taxidermy, banjo music, and hunting humans. Even as the men go on their merry way, there’s a general freak-out because one of them gave the students what was obviously a murderous glance. Little do these “college kids” know (and they will forever be called “college kids” in this film) that Tucker and his best childhood buddy Dale are in the woods for a little fishing vacation away from it all. Do they have a chainsaw? Yes. A sickle? Of course. A wood chipper? It’s a must. All these items in the back of their pickup are so that they can fix up the dilapidated cabin Tucker just purchased. Or…are they for more nefarious purposes?


I promise these death tools will all be utilized. Tucker and Dale vs. Evil uses every part of the animal to make you laugh, cry, and feel joy in your heart. Tyler Labine plays Dale as a big sweetheart, a man who has always been a little less than his best friend Tucker (Alan Tudyk), the brains of an operation that isn’t up to code. These two drinking buddies bring heart to a story that should have had them chasing buxom blondes at a campsite with machetes. Here, everything is upside down and backwards, and the villains and heroes are not so transparent. Tucker and Dale vs Evil ‘s wonderful bromance and twist reminds me of one of my favorite books from childhood: Nighty-Nightmare by James Howe.



On the first night at Tucker’s new cabin (“A mansion!” they exclaim) the two go out to a lake to fish and drink beer. But the situation for these good ‘ol boys changes when they spy—actually, Tucker forces the gentlemanly Dale to spy—on hot college girl Allison (Katrina Bowden) as she swims in her underwear. When she notices them, she falls off a small cliff and hits her head. The men kindly take her home to patch her right up, but this, and everything they do with good intentions, winds up biting them in the end. The students Allison arrived with, a large group that gives us plenty of canon fodder, believe she’s been kidnapped to be raped and murdered, because what else would these two roughnecks do? These kids have seen Deliverance. In their attempt to concoct a rescue plan, the fraternity brother in the friendzone (Chad, played by Jesse Moss) takes the lead but…the night before, he got handsy with the kidnap victim. Maybe she doesn’t really want him to save her.


In another movie, Allison would be the typical hot blonde, a young woman who waits for others to help, but here, she’s one of many backward stereotypes. Allison is brilliant, a psychology student, someone who takes stock of a situation before she tries to fix it. She’s a great entry into the scream queen database. As for Chad, he’s not the collegiate hero or doomed kill, but someone who sends his soldiers into a battle they know nothing about—one that doesn’t have the high stakes they think it does. The only constant Tucker and Dale vs Evil shares with other teen horror is that his pals are absolute idiots. These lemmings follow Chad’s lead to their deaths, much to the surprise of Tucker and Dale, who can only watch. All actors in the film, with large or small parts, have the time of their lives playing in the woods, and this gives us a reason to watch this movie over and over again. The blood spurts, the writing is brilliant, the love between Tucker and Dale is strong. Tucker and Dale vs Evil is a first cousin of Shaun of the Dead and Cabin in the Woods, a cheeky but intelligent parody of horror that has come long before it.




GENRES: Body Horror, Diverse Characters, Funny, Teens in Peril


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