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Chris Cabin Beloved by Ebert. full bio of Chris Cabin Eli Craig's Tucker and Dale vs. Evil deserves some credit, which is more than I can say for most of its ilk. To be perfectly frank, I've never understood the idea of satirizing or parodying horror films: In nearly every memorable horror movie, the blatant conceits of the genre are held up for ridicule outright or acknowledged, contorted and cleverly redeployed (most recently: Craig Gillespie's whip-smart Fright Night remake). Craig's interest in the horror genre, thankfully, lands more on the side of the latter than it does on the side of the Wayans brothers, focusing on nuance, character, and a certain ingenuity when summoning its humor, with tongue planted firmly in cheek. In this case, the Other is not a family of mutinous, inbred hicks, but rather a pack of hyper-moronic, ever-fearful college kids indulging in a booze-soaked, bong-ripping camping trip on a long weekend. On a piss break in the middle of nowhere, the atypical virginal lead, Allison (30 Rock's Katrina Bowden), bumps into Dale (Tyler Labine), a lovably dimwitted bumpkin who takes an instantaneous shine to the blonde-haired sorority sweetheart, much to the chagrin to her malevolent would-be boy toy, Chad (Jesse Moss). Flanked by his best friend, Tucker (Alan Tudyk), Dale is also looking to enjoy the weekend, albeit in a ramshackle cabin in the woods. No matter: Tucker and Dale aren't fussy and need little more than a few sixers of PBR, snack foods, and a loyal dog to enjoy themselves.
Of course, whereas Tucker and Dale are utterly content, Chad and his cronies are bored and paranoid. So, when Allison nearly drowns and is saved by Dale, the frat boys assume the worst and set out to rescue Allison from a presumably Deliverance-type fate. But the college kids seem far more adept at disposing of themselves and each other than they are at playing Allison's knight in shining armor, giving the film a shade of gallows humor not unlike that found in Alexander Mackendrick's The Ladykillers. All the while, Allison is cozying up to cute buffoon Dale and Tucker is (humorously) suffering the torturous run-off of Chad's machinations.
Things get ludicrous and more than a bit gnarly but the film remains relatively clever, enjoyable, and smartly paced until its final quarter. With most of the crew wood-chippered and ran-through to death, it comes down to Dale squaring off against a severely disfigured Chad, whose lineage inevitably intertwines with a spook story he continuously references. The big "reveal" shows a disappointing adherence to structure and plotting that blunts all the talented performers' energy and makes the final stretch of the film groaningly predictable. Even Chad's increasingly monstrous visage is a bit on the nose amidst a cornucopia of grotesque sight gags.
Craig, working from a script he co-wrote with producer and fellow Canadian Morgan Jurgenson, shows enough know-how with setting up gags to merit attention, but he largely allows an open ground for the comical death set-pieces and for the oddly effective back-and-forth between Labine and Tudyk. Both Bowden and Moss have their moments, but a large part of what makes Tucker and Dale vs. Evil a slightly better-than-competent comedy is the devotion that the film shows to the relationship between the titular do-gooders, who are reminiscent of nothing so much as hillbilly Ren & Stimpy. Also check out... The Ten Best Horror ComediesA Horror Comedy with Bite Tweet Comments: See more in: Tucker and Dale vs. Evil Alan Tudyk Tyler Labine Katrina Bowden Jesse Moss Eli Craig Morgan Jurgenson Albert Klychak Rosanne Milliken Deepak Nayar Morgan Jurgenson Eli Craig Newest Oldest Most Replies Most Liked
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