Not Your Average Slasher Movie

Tucker & Dale Vs Evil (2010)

Director: Eli Craig

Rated: R

I recently came across this movie after browsing through the horror tag over on Trailer Addict, and I couldn't be happier for finding it. The premise of the movie is a flip on the tired old "college kids being hunted in the woods" one that we have seen over and over. Instead, the unfortunate hillbillies are mistaken for murderous kidnappers and are attacked by the college kids.

Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine) are a pair of best friends set out to a cabin in the woods of West Virginia to fix it up as a vacation home and do a little fishing. Early on in the movie you get the feeling that these two have known each other since they were little kids (which is proven in a line of dialogue later on), and they are a pair of really likable guys. 

In parallel, we have the stereotypical college kids heading out to the backwoods to party. The usual horror tropes follow: the kids are nearly in a car accident as Tucker is pulling out in the road, the kids are off-put by Tucker's appearance at a gas station, and Dale accidentally scares the crap out of the kids by trying to flirt with Allison (Katrina Bowden) whilst inexplicably holding a scythe (he was given advice from Tucker to "smile and laugh" and the payoff is both hilarious and slightly sad). 

Let's be honest here. He's adorable.

So, plot things happen, Allison cracks her head on a rock while getting ready to go skinny dipping, Dale (who is night fishing with Tucker and trying not to peep at Allison while she takes her shirt off) jumps in and saves her from drowning, and her friends see this:

"We got your friend!"

They assume that Dale is trying to eat her face. Because they're kind of dimwitted. They run off, leaving Tucker and Dale to return to the cabin with Allison. They bandage her head, dress her in some less revealing clothes, and Dale makes her breakfast. Twice. 

Meanwhile, back with the college kids, they are all assuming the worst has happened to Allison. Chad, the "leader" of the group, vows revenge. One character, Chuck, decides to go back to the car to drive into town and get help. Upon finding Tucker's cabin, everyone assumes the worst. Everyone except Mitch (whose name I only know because it's on his shirt), who keeps interjecting with actual logic. Such as: "perhaps they took Allison to the hospital," and "it's just a cabin, it doesn't mean they're psycho killers." Mitch is therefore the only smart one of the bunch. But he's still nervous about just going in there alone.

To be fair, this place does remind me a lot of the cabin in Evil Dead.

Meanerwhile, after some awkward explanations, Allison and Dale end up playing a trivia game together while Tucker does some yard work. All while this is going on, Mitch is approaching the cabin to talk with either Tucker or Dale, and Tucker is using a chainsaw to break up a tree stump. Which has a bee's nest inside it. This leads to Tucker fleeing the immediate area all while swinging the chainsaw around like Leatherface and causes Mitch (and the others) to run in a panic.

This is when the insane accidental deaths start happening.

Back with the trivia game, we're given a little more insight into Dale. It's revealed that he is incredibly good at retaining information but never made it past the third grade. He considers himself stupid because of that fact. Allison tells him: "there's a difference between education and intellect." 

In general, Dale has very low self-esteem. We see Tucker often try and boost the guy's mood and point out the positives in Dale's personality, but it's hard to just suddenly gain self-worth when it's so easy to think negatively about oneself. It also doesn't help when Tucker loses his temper with Dale and blames him for some things. 

Allison then proceeds to nail the premise of the movie on the proverbial head when she says that: "so many of the major problems and conflicts in the world are caused by a lack of communication."

Such as: "we've got your friend."

Tucker returns, covered in bee stings, and tells Allison that he saw one of her friends while he was outside. Allison suggests she go find them herself, but Dale is rightfully concerned about her leaving considering she hit her head hard enough to knock herself out for quite a while. Instead, he and Tucker head out.

Then the group of college kids find Mitch and assume that Tucker and Dale killed him. 

There's a nice touch here where one character is starting to call someone on her cell phone, but Chad breaks it in a fit, claiming that it'll never work out in the woods. She could have gotten a through to someone if the idiot hadn't destroyed her phone—which is a nice turn on the "phones don't work out here" trope so often used in horror movies. 

Chad is starting to show signs of being, well, a little unhinged. It does not help whatsoever that he and the other college kids overhear an out-of-context conversation between Tucker and Dale. It really doesn't help when Dale decides it would be a good idea to leave them all a note to let them know that Allison is safe. 

It really, really doesn't help that Dale wrote the note with a freaking axe.

So things get worse. College kids die like they're competing for Darwin awards. Allison gets knocked unconscious again, Chuck finds a cop who was established earlier on in the movie, and shenanigans ensue.

Stupid: diving headfirst into a wood chipper. 

The movie just keeps escalating from here on out, and I won't give away anymore spoilers because it's worth watching. Alan Tudyk is perfect, Tyler Labine is a big ole softy, and Katrina Bowden is blissfully normal (especially in comparison to the other two girls who are pretty much just caricatures).

Essentially, Tucker & Dale Vs Evil is a spoof movie for the "creepy/murderous hillbillies" horror genre. I would have liked to have a better idea of who each of the college kids were, considering I didn't know half of their names. That, however, is the only complaint I have for the movie on a whole. Well, that, and one continuity issue regarding fingers that bothered me. I do recommend it, though. 

Watch it for Tucker and Dale.

All in all, Tucker & Dale Vs Evil is a fun movie to watch. Go buy it, rent it, or whatever it.