A funny horror parody

Rating: 8/10 (19 January 2013)

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is a horror-comedy that quickly developing a cult following and there is good reason as it takes on and subvert the clichés of the slasher genre and twists them into something new.
Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine) are two hillibillies who have just brought a vacation home in the mountains of West Virginia and go there to fix it up, despite not seeing the strange iconography in the house. A group of college kids also go to the mountains to go camp and they imminently distrust the hillibiillies and through a series of misunderstanding think they are slasher killers, especially after they save one of them, Ally (Katrina Bowden). Most of the students want to go to the police, but their Chad (Jesse Moss) has a deep-seeded hatred towards hilibillies and wants to go war with the pair.
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil two main jokes, it is a series of misunderstanding and role reverses: but it does both of them very well. It is clear the filmmakers have a lot of knowledge of the horror genre and wanted to parody the genre. The role reversal was very well handled, that it was the college kid that was psycho-killer and the hillibillies are the protagonists. Tucker and Dale are made out to be likable guys and the college kids are actually aware of the situation and want to do the logical thing: go away and get the police but are led array by someone with serious psychological issues.
There are many different types of humour through the film. Besides from the satire and parody of the horror genre there is also plenty of violence slapstick as people start dying in very fun ways and there were also a lot of good dialogue and verbal jokes (my personal favourite involved a gun).
Tudyk and Labine have shown themselves to be capable actors in previous roles and they had great chemistry together. They did feel like there were friends for years and were likable enough presence on screen. Bowden and Moss were decent enough in their roles, but the rest of the college kids were bad: my theory was that it was deliberate so that the film can play on the fact slashers have bad actors but the teens in this film act more realistically.
At 86 minutes the running time is very short, even for a horror film. Director Eli Craig does a great job at moving the film forward, making sure there is no fat and keeps a scene of fun throughout, even when the film is not being a horror or comedy film, i.e. the final climax.
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is a fun film as a comedy but truly shines as a parody of the horror/slasher genre. Horror fans and people with a slightly darker sense but there is plenty for people to enjoy because of the comedy.