Best to think of it as Deliverance
combined with The Man with One Red Shoe
This movie should be considered a rarity in modern cinema. It’s
been a long time since I’ve seen a horror comedy that I not only enjoyed, but can
actually praise. “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil” is what I can only describe as
comedic genius. It manages to accomplish what very few movies of this genre
have: to successfully combine horror movie cliche with witty satire.
The story follows two hillbillies, Tucker (Tudyk) and Dale
(Labine), on vacation to their
recently purchased vacation home in the woods who, through no real fault of their own, get taken for psychopathic
killers by a group of (entitled and judgemental) teenagers.
The main story starts after, while out fishing, Tucker and Dale
stumble upon Allison (the female lead played by Katrina Bowden) while she is undressing to take a night swim in the lake. She
gets startled by the two, slips, falls, bangs her head and ends up unconscious
in the water only to be rescued by the heroic and kind-hearted Dale. The boys
proceed to call out to her friends in the hopes they will come to her aid, but
Dale’s call for assistance, “We have yer friend!”, is misconstrued as a warning
that the psychopaths have captured Allison and that they are next. What follows
is entertainment gold, and I recommend you go watch it to see what happens next.
“Misunderstandings” basically sum up everything that happens from
the point the two protagonists first cross paths with the group of teenagers,
to all the accidental, but hilarious tragedies that follow.
Overall, the story is well constructed and the characters are very
well crafted. On one side we have the clumsy, socially awkward, and shy Dale
and his best friend the pessimistic, and slightly arrogant Tucker (who is
arguably just as dumb), on the other we have the douchebagiest, dial-turned-to-11,
Chad (Moss), who due to a personal vendetta against all
things hillbilly, decides that he must wage a one-man war against them; mind
you he doesn’t do it to “rescue” the girl, he does it because he’s a
self-deluded sociopath. This role reversal is more than just amusing to watch, its
use of exaggerating the reflex reactions people generally have towards
individuals that they find abnormal makes the story that much more compelling. It’s
also really fun to watch the story unfold from both perspectives. The teenagers
misconstrue every encounter with Tucker and Dale as confirmation of just how
sick and disturbed the two are and of the danger they are in. While the boys are
scared and confused at seeing, what they interpret as, “a bunch of college kids
runnin’ around killin’ themselves”. It should be mentioned that Bowden does a
decent portrayal of a misunderstood intellectual trapped in the body of a
cheerleader, although some of her dialogue is as emotive as Hannibal Lecter.
The attention to detail and in-setting comedy is what gives this
movie its edge, as it creates a nuanced comedic landscape. I found it quite
amusing how the vacation house that Tucker bought seems to have been previously
inhabited by an actual serial killer. That combined with the use of references
and homages paid to the horror movies that were the source of its inspiration,
which are made tastefully and do not overwhelm the audience, only serve to add
to the overall plot.
To make a movie like this
work you need more than an interesting premise or large amounts of flimsy dressed
co-eds, you need quality acting. (That’s not to say that there aren’t any
flimsy dressed co-eds running around). What I consider to be the crucial
element that made this movie so fun to watch was the spot-on comedic deliveries
by Tucker and Dale. Their pseudo-philosophical back-and-forths about society
and the current generation added a dimension to the characters that is rarely
seen in horror-comedy movies. (But the creative and hilarious death scenes
didn’t hurt either.)
The only criticism that I have for this movie is the overextended
third act involving the heroic rescue of Allison. The movie should have ended
after the cabin fire scene, continuing from that point wasn’t fatale to the
movie’s plot but it did nothing to add to the overall story or the characters.
It’s not a huge drawback, as it manages to keep a consistent tone throughout
the whole movie, but I felt I had to criticise something.
Not to be questioned for its lack of educational worth, the movie
also teaches us the valuable lesson of not judging other people based on
appearance, preconceived notions and stereotypes. (It also confirms a long
standing theory of mine that popped-collar, teenage douchbags are usually
sociopaths.)
[pro] highly entertaining; great acting; funny
and smart.
[con] a bit long; and some of the scenes are
poorly edited.
