Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
I’m not a fan of Rob Zombie’s Halloween movies for one reason: they try to humanize the killer. While John Carpenter’s Michael Myers kills without prejudice, Zombie spends nearly the first half of his remake giving us Myers’ backstory. By showing the audience exactly how Myers turned into a depraved killer, the audience is supposed to empathize with him. But I never did. I’m not interested in seeing how my monsters come into being; I’m content to be entertained without needing to know why the bad guys do what they do.
I was thinking about Rob Zombie’s Halloween while watching Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. Like Rob Zombie, first-time director Eli Craig spends a lot of time on the “bad guys.” But Craig turns the sympathy plot on its head. In TDVE, Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine) aren’t evil, just always in the wrong place at the wrong time. Craig’s flaunting of horror conventions makes the exploration of bad-guy nature in TDVE much better than Zombie’s attempts in Halloween.
The premise to TDVE is brilliant. The film starts out like so many horror films do, with a group of college kids headed to a remote cabin in the woods. When they stop for gas, one of the girls Allison (Katrina Bowden) is approached by Dale. Allison is creeped out and the kids hightail it away from the gas station as fast as they can.
Little do the college kids know that Tucker and Dale are also headed to their own cabin in the woods. Not for anything nefarious; they just want to fish and get some repairs done. But every interaction they have with the group of college kids go awry. While they’re fishing at night, they spy Allison, getting ready for the classic horror-trope skinny dip. Allison accidentally falls into the water and passes out, so Dale goes to the rescue and fishes her out of the lake. Then He and Tucker take her to their cabin to nurse her back to health.
Only the other college kids don’t see it that way. In their eyes, two maniacal hillbillies have kidnapped their friend. Led by Chad (who is more than a little unhinged), the kids try to save Allison, with disastrous results. You see, every time they try to save Allison, one of the kids ends up dead, fueling the others’ paranoia that Tucker and Dale are a pair of psychopaths out for blood.
Tucker and Dale vs Evil both wallows in familiar horror tropes while remaining fresh. By setting up the college kids as the bad guys, TDVE shows how every single horror movie villain could have been explained away by a simple series of unfortunate events. The movie is more funny than scary, although there are plenty of gruesome deaths for gore buffs. Joss Whedon fans will rejoice at Alan Tudyk, beloved cast member of Firefly and Dollhouse. As Tucker, Tudyk brings heart and soul to the character. Likewise his partner in non-crime Tyler Labine as Dale. Their hillbillies aren’t caricatures; the two are well-rounded characters the audience can’t help but root for.
Tucker and Dale vs Evil has developed a cult following since its limited 2010 release, with good reason. Like its spiritual successor Cabin in the Woods, TDVE both embraces and subverts genre cliches. This unique movie deserves a watch.
tl;drys
Quick summary: All Tucker and Dale want to do is spend some quiet time fishing and relaxing at Tucker’s dilapidated cabin in the woods. Their idyllic vacation plans are ruined; however, when they’re mistaken for psychotic killers and chased by a group of inept college kids.
Too many writers? Just one other writer besides the writer/director.
Recommended if you like: Horror/comedies like Zombieland or Shaun of the Dead.
Better than I expected? The scene where the hero has to untie the girl before she’s mutilated by the whirling saw blades has to be seen to be believed; it’s an old trope, but in this movie it works.
Worse than I hoped? There’s almost too many college kids; it seems like I didn’t know the names of half the kids in the film before they all started dying.
Verdict: This movie isn’t to be missed for horror/comedy fans.
