Tucker & Dale vs. Evil Review

Hitting theaters this weekend after already being available On Demand, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil has a bit of a convoluted, yet quite ingenious, scenario. A group of young, good-looking college kids go for a trip to the woods and come across two hillbillies. These two hillbillies are perfectly nice, friendly guys – but the college kids think they are crazed killers, and in their attempts to thwart them, begin to accidentally kill themselves in horrific ways… which only continues to make our hillbilly heroes look worse to the remaining college kids.

From Deliverance to Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Wrong Turn, there have been many, many films about folks on a camping trip encountering bloodthirsty simple folk. The idea of having fun with that and imagining what would happen if two guys were mistaken for crazed killers is extremely clever and gives Tucker & Dale a lot of momentum.

The film also benefits from two likable stars in Alan Tudyk (Firefly) and Tyler Labine (Reaper) as Tucker and Dale, respectively. The two are obviously having a great time as these two guys who are just trying to fix up an old cabin – which, of course, previous owners left looking, like, well, Leatherface's house – and drink some beers, only to find themselves in the middle of a blood-drenched weekend they can't fathom the cause of.

Katrina Bowden (30 Rock) also stars as Allison, one of the group of college kids, who is saved by Tucker and Dale early on when she slips and falls – only for her friends to think she's been kidnapped by the presumed lunatics. Even as she bonds with the less than cultured, but very earnest Dale, her friends plot how to free her and get vengeance for Tucker and Dale's supposed crimes.

Co-writer and director Eli Craig obviously knows his film history and is taking a fresh and inspired approach here to a very familiar sub-genre of film. When you think about it, the killer hillbilly movie is ripe for parody, and Craig's approach – by making his hillbillies not the killers at all – is very appreciated. On the other hand, Craig's visual style is a bit flat and pedestrian, and I wish the film had a bit more of a lived-in, visceral feel to seem more like the films it's parodying.

There are several big laughs along the way though, as some of these college kids (who Tucker and Dale begin to believe have some sort of bizarre suicide pact going) die in some very notable and gory ways – you wouldn't believe the accidents that can happen around machinery, when you're in the midst of trying to hunt and kill two guys you have completely the wrong idea about.


Beyond its central conceit, the film doesn't have a lot of variations and there are definitely some moments in Tucker & Dale that lose steam. With the exception of the sweet portrayal of Allison, the group of college kids is not a very notable and interesting lot, beyond the one Total Douchebag dude who's the most gung-ho about going hillbilly hunting. And the film ends with a plot twist/reveal that seems pretty unnecessary.

Still, while it's not quite a home run, there's a lot to enjoy about Tucker & Dale vs. Evil. It's got its heart in the right place, and hey, it's just nice to root for the hillbillies for once in this scenario!

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