Hillbillies in a Haunted House

Rating: Null/10 (4 June 2013)

Call me crazy, call me corny... but I have fallen head over heels for this exuberant little bluegrass comedy thriller.
Two endearingly dumb hick hillbillies, Dale (Tyler Labine) and Tucker (Alan Tudyk) are happily settling in for a vacation at their ramshackle cabin in the woods when their bliss is disrupted by the arrival of a carload of mindless college kids.
During a late-night fishing excursion, the beer-loving buddies witness a swimming party and rescue one of the girls from drowning, taking her back to their cabin to recover.
While Tucker spends his day working in the woods, Dale devotes every moment to humbly caring for their unexpected guest. Nice, pretty, intelligent and bland Allison (Katrina Bowdan) quickly loses her initial fear of her bearded, beer-bellied Bear of a captor as she discovers him to be awkwardly shy, gentle, sweet-natured and seriously cute. In turn, the self-negating Dale is overwhelmed by the unexpected acceptance and warmth of this unattainable dream person. The two develop an unlikely friendship and cozily settle down to await the return of her friends.
This is not how Allison's friends perceive the situation. They have been frightened by tales of bloodthirsty killers in the area and are certain that Allison has been captured by savage rednecks. In their zeal to rescue her, they each rush to the attack - and accidentally cause their own violent, bloody deaths in the best Friday THE 13th manner.
TUCKER AND DALE vs. EVIL, like the classic ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948), is that rarity: a Horror-Comedy that honors the genre and works on every level. It can be seen as the Laurel and Hardy version of such rustic thrillers as DELIVERANCE and THE Texas CHAINSAW CHAINSAW MASSACRE. In this case the humor is restrained and character- oriented, and all physical comedy stems directly from the situation.
The film's admirable achievement is that it maintains a buoyant sense of humor without ever mocking or compromising genre conventions. The point of view of the two groups of characters determines the alternating shifts of tone. The good OK' boys and their open-minded girl friend see the story as a rustic romantic comedy whereas the shallow college kids exist in a generic slasher-flick dimension, played straight with menacing music and every edge-of-seat beat in place. Whenever the two worlds happen to meet, the resulting absurdity twists the standard blood'n'guts "Kills" as a dynamic unity of shock and laughter. The deft balancing of this sharp contrast is the key to TUCKER AND DALE's success.
Central to the movie's charm are the appealing performances of the three leads; especially big -- and big-hearted -- Tyler Labine, whose personal warmth and good-humor make this a splatter with soul.
Add to this a genuinely warm and moving story of love and friendship between characters we come to care for, and you have a one-of-a-kind indie winner to treasure and remember.