by Thomas Willett
11:00am PST, October 4, 2011
Imagine that you are at a convenience store and a burly man in flannel walks up to you carrying a scythe. He makes no implication of using it and instead just wants to introduce himself. Do you accept his smiling face as being generous or grievous?
This is how the title characters are introduced in Eli Craig’s debut feature Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. Two simple minded folk, Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine), are on vacation to repair their dream house: a creaky, dusty, wooden cabin in the woods. They are nice people who only want to go fishing and fix up the place. However, for a group of college students, they are perceived as psychopathic killers based on a story that their friend Chad (Jesse Moss) regales called the Memorial Day Massacre.
Besides a hostile meeting at the convenience store, the two groups are predominantly separate for most of the movie. It is only connected by the group’s desire to save Allison (Katrina Bowden), who Dale rescued from drowning and nursed back to health. It is about this time that the movie goes from simple misconceptions to progressively making each scene more ridiculous. As all good slasher movies, it knows to build to the best kill, even if they all are self-inflicted accidents.
It’s a simple premise that only deepens when Allison and Dale are alone in the cabin. They bond over her desire to major as a psychologist based on her belief that conflicts should be resolved by talking. They work on improving his grammar and building an outhouse, in which Allison accidentally gets hit by a shovel, knocking her unconsious. Like most scenes, this is misconceived and only creates more hostility. At some point, a wood chipper, lighter fluid, and a flimsy wooden post are used impractically as weapons.
The notable stand-outs are Labine and Moss. They take their one dimensional characters and add personal traits that create an immediate reaction. Where Labine is very nice and too good for the situation, Moss delivers a psychotic performance that only gets creepier as the story continues. Their polarizing personas may seem like an unfair match at times, but director Eli Craig knows how to play it off without becoming too masochistic. The tension builds so high that by the time they meet, there is no doubt that something terrible is about to happen.
Tudyk and Labine manage to create a relationship with a lot of humor and connection that breaks the stereotypes of inbred red necks. While they aren’t the brightest, most aptly social, they manage to evoke plenty of logic, especially against a group that they assume is committing mass suicides. They survive by hiding out in the cabin and using a nail gun as their weapon.
Fans of self-aware movies that parody the genre will enjoy this. Eli Craig knows the genre well and directs this with a sharp eye. The movie serves as one quick-paced montage of how ridiculous slasher deaths are without a real killer. It’s baffling, and often stupid how these characters die. However, Craig presents the story in a fresh perspective with an underlying theme that invigorates the decades old tropes. The underlying disaster of not communicating also helps to build some of the more profound sight gags.
This movie joins Attack the Block and Piranha as recent proof that there’s still something to get out of parodying horror. All that needs to happen is alternate the lead characters to someone different. Eli Craig definitely has a bright future if he can continue to bring his gift of gore, awkward characters, and quick pacing into more projects. As it stands, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is a great horror comedy that has a solid mix of gore, humor, and story that will entertain those looking for something exciting in their cinema.
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