Some hillbillies are just like spiders!

Rating: 9/10 (14 October 2011)

'TUCKER AND DALE VS EVIL': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five)
Backwoods hillbillies horror spoof which uses popular B slasher film clichés and gimmicks to turn expectations completely around on the viewer. The look and style of the film is reminiscent to a Bruce Campbell film, or 'SHAUN OF THE DEAD' type flick, but it takes the satire one step further by completely reversing all predicted stereotypes. It entertains with tons of horrorhound gore and enormous laughs but it also teaches a valuable lesson at the same time (as cheesy as that sounds). For that I think it deserves a lot of credit. The film is directed and co-written (along with Morgan Jurgenson) by Eli Craig and stars Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk in the title roles. If you're a fan of the genre this is one you definitely don't want to miss!
Tudyk plays Tucker and Labine plays Dale, two well intentioned but socially naive hillbillies in West Virginia. They recently bought a cabin in the middle of the woods to go fishing and vacation at. While enjoying their time at the cabin they cross paths with a group of narrow-minded and extremely superficial college kids. Dale immediately begins crushing on one of the girls, named Allison (Katrina Bowden), but feels to shy and awkward to talk to her. When the two accidentally startle her and she falls into the lake, knocking herself out, they decide to take her back to their cabin until she comes to. Her friends mistakenly think she's been kidnapped and immediately jump to the conclusion that Tucker and Dale are psycho killers so they decide to take it upon themselves to rescue her. One misunderstanding leads to another as the college kids begin attacking the shocked hillbillies and continue to accidentally kill themselves in the process, thus furthering their belief that Tucker and Dale are insane killers after them.
The movie is packed with big laughs like I said and you do get the gore as well, it's just that it's almost all accidental deaths (played out in very dark comedic ways). The death scenes are almost reminiscent of a 'FINAL DESTINATION' film, just far more satirical. My favorite part of the film though is the way it plays with people's prejudices and stereotypes. It shows that usually the one's that think others are scary or creepy are usually the flawed ones with much bigger problems and the people that are perceived to be 'freaks' are usually much more mentally stable and well intentioned. The classic analogy comparing social misfits to spiders often works which shows that people who are thought to be frightening and or creepy are much more afraid of you than you are of them. There's so much more discrimination and hate crimes going on in the world than most people even begin to realize and it's most often done with out any awareness to it. That's the message of this film, it's played out in an extremely comedic way but the message gets driven home all the same and with a surprising amount of heart. Tudyk and Labine are great in the leads and the directing and script are topnotch as well. This is a film I very much look forward to seeing again and would be equally excited to see some sort of a sequel revisiting the characters. It's definitely horror comedy done right!
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