Halloween horror marathon: Tucker & Dale vs. Evil

poster-tucker-daleThe independent horror comedy Tucker & Dale vs. Evil is a flick I heard about almost two years ago, probably on Ain’t It Cool or some other movie geek site. It was being touted by the writer as a wonderfully funny take on the horror genre, and something that breathed new life into the idea of the cabin in a woods slasher flick (a la Evil Dead, Cabin Fever, Hatchet, et al). Well, it took ages for it to see any sort of release, with the film never quite finding a distributor. So, when a copy leaked to various BitTorrent sites, I snagged a version and watched it.

Holy hell, did it ever live up to the hype. The tone perfectly matched that of the films off of which Tucker & Dale was playing, but you’re seeing them from the other side. It’s seems overly simplistic to describe the movie as a role reversal, where the ostensible villains of the piece the heroes, and vice versa, but that’s pretty much the tenor of Tucker & Dale. The creepy backwoods rednecks are just two guys fixing up their vacation cabin on the lake, and the college kids are violent idiots bent on death.

You get a sense of what to expect with the various trailers and clips floating around online, but the sight gags and plays upon basic horror conventions are so well done, it seems a shame to mention any specifically. Suffice it to say that the deaths are inventive. Director Eli Craig does a marvelous job of using a change of camera angles and editing to show you how these deaths look from the side of the folks accused. These kids aren’t being maliciously murdered – they’re just clumsy idiots.

The more I see of Tyler Labine, the more I want to see of him. He was the real star of the CW series Reaper, and his small role in Rise of the Planet of the Apes was actually one of the more pivotal. He and Alan Tudyk do a marvelous job of carrying this film, along with Katrina Bowden, who once again proves herself an able comic actress, as well as eye candy (I’m not being sexist – she’s cast as the babe in both this and 30 Rock, with the emphasis primarily on her looks, not her character’s inner self).

While Tucker & Dale could’ve been played as full-on splatstick, there’s a good amount of emotional pathos here, giving the characters of Tucker and Dale something more than misunderstood hillbillies. You end up rooting for the characters because Craig gives you someone to like in these guys. It’s the slasher equivalent to Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz – a film that, while parodying a genre, is still a quality entry into said genre.

It’s finally gotten an official release date, too, meaning you can buy a copy on Blu-Ray and DVD on November 29 from Magnolia Pictures. I suggest any horror fan on your list get this for Christmas. I certainly wouldn’t mind one myself.