Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2010)

 

2010, 89 min.

Director: Eli Craig

Writer: Eli Craig, Morgan Juregnson

Stars: Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk, Katrina Bowden

As with so many other great horror movies, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil crosses a line between horror and comedy. In fact, I’d probably still classify it as solely a comedy if it weren’t for the gratuitous amounts of gore and typical horror movie tropes (particularly that of dumb teenagers go into woods, dumb teenagers are brutally murdered) within it. Silly is it may be, it’s a great “horror” movie all the same.

The movie involves two hillbillies, Tucker and Dale, and as already stated, a group of stupid, drunken young college students.  The movie is essentially just a big string of misunderstandings. Tucker and Dale are on the way to their cabin out in the woods and the college kids are on their way to go into the woods, drink, and just generally make a lot of terrible decisions; from the beginning, when the kids encounter Tucker and Dale at a run-down convenience store, it’s obvious that fear and tragedy are going to ensue.

As they sit out in their rickety boat out on the lake, sipping PBR and fishing in a general hillbilly fashion, Tucker and Dale accidentally scare one of the young college girls. She falls and busts here head open and Dale is her unexpected knight in shining armor, saving her from drowning. The college students, though, get the wrong idea of what has happened with the hillbillies and their friend and intend to find her, get back, or even kill the rednecks.

Tucker and Dale never actually kill anyone; in fact, they have nothing but the best intentions all throughout the movie– which is so much of what makes this movie fantastic and hilarious… as demonstrated in what is probably the funniest line in the whole movie…

Best Line &/or Scene: “Oh hidy ho officer, we’ve had a doozy of a day. There we were minding our own business, just doing chores around the house, when kids started killing themselves all over my property!”

Story: 3/10
Gore Factor: 9/10
Scare Factor: 1/10
Overall: 7/10