Rednecks, Serial Killers and Beer

Rating: Null/10 (3 October 2011)

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2010)
*** (out of 4)
This horror-comedy is slowly making the rounds but the strong word-of-mouth has already gained it a strong cult following. Rednecks Dale (Tyler Labine) and Tucker (Alan Tudyk) are going to the country to work on their summer house when they run into a group of college kids. After the rednecks save one of them from drowning, the rest of the group thinks that they are serial killers and soon the two sides are doing battle. It seems like every year one or two horror films build up a strong reputation but more often than not I often find myself disappointed. I'm not sure why it is but much too often these type of low-budget films are given all sorts of hype and they usually don't live up to it. TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL is the exception because it actually does deliver a good number of laughs and it plays against the horror genre quite well. With that said, I still think the film contains quite a few flaws and it certainly isn't the masterpiece some people are making it out to be. One strong point is certainly the screenplay that is smart enough to know how to make fun of the genre by setting up familiar things that fans are going to pick up on. Just check out a hilarious sequence where Tucker is using a chainsaw on a log and hits a bee hive. He starts swinging the chainsaw like a maniac, ala Leatherface, and this joke really pays off and especially how it eventually ends for one of the teenagers. Another terrific sequence deals with Dale and Tucker thinking that the teens are in a suicide club and that the two rednecks have interrupted them. A lot of the humor is the over-the-top kind and this here includes quite a few bloody death sequences. Most of the deaths happen accidental but this does lead to plenty of the red stuff including one poor soul who runs into a wood chipper. Fans of movies like DEAD ALIVE are going to know the type of humor that this film has to offer even if the end result is several notches below that Peter Jackson classic. Both Labine and Tudyk are extremely good in their roles. The entire redneck genre has been done to death but I thought the two actors handled their parts quite well and managed for them to come across rather fresh. Katrina Bowden plays one of the college girls who ends up on the redneck's side and she too is quite good. There are several problems with the film including the fact that many of the jokes fall flat on their face. Another problem is that even at just 88-minutes the film seems a bit too long. With that said, fans of the genre are still going to want to check this out and especially with the strong performances, sick humor and the gore.