Movie review: ‘Tucker & Dale vs. Evil’
- Share via
Hell-raising, beautiful college kids heading for the Appalachians — what could go wrong? How about a couple of bearded woodsmen dragging one of those weekenders, a blond beauty, back to their dilapidated cabin?
“Tucker & Dale vs. Evil” is a farce of misunderstanding first, body-count nightmare second and at nearly all times a refreshingly upending horror-comedy bromance.
The titular hillbillies — shy, sweet Dale (Tyler Labine) and his best friend Tucker (Alan Tudyk) — are director/co-writer Eli Craig’s genre-redemption project, peaceful rednecks hoping for some R&R who save a girl (Katrina Bowden) from drowning, only to have her jerky, classist friends assume a “Deliverance”-meets-”Texas Chainsaw Massacre” scenario and haplessly lay siege on the befuddled pair.
What results is a lively homemade brew of parodic humor, over-the-top gore, and in the winning turns from Labine and Tudyk, an endearing (but never self-conscious) wit.
Watching the pair try to make sense of what’s going on is its own hilarious commentary on slasher-movie tropes — when one college kid has at Tucker, only to land in a wood chipper, the only conclusion a terrified Tucker can reach is: “This is a suicide pact!”
By underpinning the mayhem with its stars’ sincere chemistry, “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil” manages to make a situation with no small amount of grisliness feel anything but mean-spirited.
The biggest entertainment stories
Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
