Tucker & Dale vs Evil Review

Movie: Tucker & Dale vs Evil
By: Kries Tyfus
Date: August 2, 2011

This year springbreak is cut short!

I've seen a lot of movies about deranged hillbillies slashing people into pieces up in the woods. I've seen a lot of movies about a group of youngsters going on a vacation together. And I've seen a lot of movies about deranged hillbillies slashing a group of youngsters into pieces, while being on a vacation together up in the woods. From what I’ve heard (and the little I’ve seen), Tucker & Dale vs Evil should be different from all those movies I’ve had seen before.

I remember a Friday night earlier this year I was home with my girlfriend and my 19 year old cousin came to visit with her boyfriend. She told us they were heading to the local cinema later that evening to watch Tucker & Dale vs Evil. I didn’t really knew much about that movie back then, except for the fact that the dude (Tyler Labine) from ‘Breaker High’ and ‘Reaper’ was in it. They asked us to come along with them. I was actually pretty tired from work and the movie started at 10 PM, but I thought “oh well.. why the hell not”, but I warned them already I was damn tired and they shouldn’t bitchslap me if my tiredness would put me to sleep. And guess what.. it actually did. The movie lasted 90 minutes and I only got to see the last 30 minutes or something. I was already sleeping before the movie even started. “Damn it!”, I thought. Because from what I had seen, the movie looked like a funny and enjoyable bloodfest. Oh well, with its Dutch release this past Wednesday I went to the local DVD store to get my copy of Tucker & Dale vs Evil, to watch it in its entirely and to give it a rating for SlashingThrough.com.

Dale and Tucker are two great hillbilly friends. They just bought an old and desolated cabin up in the woods and planning on to spend the summer together fixing it up and turning it into a vacation home they have always dreamed of. And then there’s this group of youngsters planning to spend their summer in the same woods the vacation home of Dale and Tucker is located. The kids and the two hillbillies first meet on the road that’s heading to their summer location, almost causing a car accident by inattentive driving. Then the kids realize something really bad. A nightmare to everyone that’s already heading for their destination: they forgot to bring along the booze!

Luckily for them, they come across a gas station and they decide to take a look, hoping they sell some good beer. Once they’re in the store, they are confronted with Tucker and Dale once again. Dale is amazed by the looks of one of the kids, named Allison. He just can’t get his eyes off of her. Then Tucker tells him to take a chance and that he should talk with her and her friends. Dale, filled with uncertainty and low self-esteem, walks right to them and tries to start a conversation, which ends up in a useless conversation that’s actually hard to follow. Instead of having a nice and harmless talk, he actually scares them, so they get in the car and drive off. Leaving Dale and Tucker behind.

Then later, Dale and Tucker are already on their summer location and decide to go fishing. On the exact same moment, the kids are already there as well and they decide to go swimming. The young blonde Allison, sitting on a cliff by the water, gets noticed by both Dale and Tucker. When she sees that the two hillbillies are staring at her, it scares her and falls into the water while her head is getting hit by a rock which knocks her unconscious. Dale freaks out and says that they should help her. By the time they get to her and pulling her out from the water into their tiny boat, two of Allison’s friends are all suddenly witness of the whole thing going on. They get noticed by the two hillbillies and they start shouting: “we’ve got your friend!”. Despite the good intentions Dale and Tucker are having by saving Allison’s life, her friends think that they are making a threat, wanting them to actually kidnap Allison. So they run away as fast as they can, leaving Allison behind. Tucker and Dale are quite clueless about what to do next, so they decide to bring her to their vacation home until she wakes up. Allison’s friends still think the two hillbilly friends are holding Allison hostage and declare their war on them.

Tucker & Dale vs Evil is writer and director Eli Graig’s first full-length feature film, which took about 3 years to finish. Graig isn’t really a well-known figure in the movie business.. yet. When I saw the first Evil Dead movie by Sam Raimi, I was amazed by the fact that a person who didn’t had much experience in the movie business came up with a product so damn good.

I had these exact same thoughts while watching Tucker & Dale vs Evil. Because this movie, especially for a full-length feature debut, is actually one hell of a good production. It pokes fun at all those corny teen slashers we have seen in the past, present and beyond. While the kids and the two hillbillies blaming each other for a number of kills, there is no actual ‘killer’ among them. All kills, or so called ‘murders’, happen by accident or just stupidity.

There’s one scene where Tucker is chopping wood with a chainsaw, while one of Allison’s friends is trying to get a closer look on what he’s up to. Then suddenly Tucker hits a bees nest causing him to parade like a complete berserk trying to shake off the bees around him and starts running like an idiot. The guy spying on him sees Tucker coming his way, swinging around with the chainsaw, thinking he’s actually after him.

Another scene is the instant classic wood chipper scene. While Tucker is throwing wood into a big yellow wood chipper, one of the kids try to attack him from behind. Then Tucker ducks to get more wood off the ground, ending up this kid diving straight into the wood chipper causing a massive gorefest for Tucker’s eyes to see and shrieks while thinking the poor kid committed suicide. Even though he tries to pull him out of the wood chipper, there’s another kid witnessing that very moment as he sees Tucker holding both his friends’ legs, thinking Tucker is the one putting him into the wood chipper.

You see, everything happens on the wrong place at the wrong time. Once Allison has woken up, she finds out the two hillbillies are actually real friendly and complete harmless. As Allison and both Dale and Tucker don’t have a clue where her friends are at, she decides to help them fixing up things in and around the cabin and wait for her friends to show up soon. When Dale starts digging a hole, for no reason whatsoever, she tells Dale she grew up on a farm when she young. To show Dale her abilities of digging a nice hole, she takes the shovel and starts digging. While her friends are hiding between bushes saying: “he’s making her digging her own grave”.

The scenes and corresponding mix-ups are just hilarious. There were times I was laughing so hard, I think the neighbors could have heard me. Tucker & Dale vs Evil is absolutely not scary at all, it’s a dark comedy with lots of splatter and gore in it. Unlike Scary Movie and that sort of bullsh!t, this movie pokes fun at everything you’ve seen before in a horror movie. Even though the ending felt kind of weak, I personally think that even the ending is a way of making fun of previous horror films. Just don’t get all too serious and critical about this movie, because it’s definitely no horror flick. I find it really amazing how Eli Craig put it all together with no actual killer on the loose. In my honest opinion, Tucker & Dale vs Evil already captured the number one spot for Best Movie of the Year and is definitely listed in my top something of favorite movies ever made.