Wonderfully smart and witty

Rating: 10/10 (23 July 2011)

I have been on an epic journey to find a companion piece for one of my favorite horror/comedies for years, a search that has been tormented with poorly made and abysmally acted b-rate flicks that could torment the soul with their mediocrity and poor cinematography.
Since seeing Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon I have fallen in love with the black humor style that doesn't quite make one think of movies like Very Bad Things so much as a very dramatic Monty Python sketch. Worse still is trying to find one that is smartly written and has acting that at the very least can be considered on par with a sci-fi original movie. Tucker and Dale VS. Evil far exceeds the bill.
Lets not get crazy here and say the movie is packed with award winning actors or special effects but for a cast consisting of mostly unknowns (sans the titular Tucker and Dale of course) the level of acting far exceeds expectations. Not only is it better than one would expect it gets better the closer to the end one travels, compare the scene early in at the gas station with the hunt at the end and you will see a particular inhaler-using characters' acting grow leaps and bounds, in fact this early salvo of college co-ed banter is quickly dismissed as possibly a test shot when you compare the kids to what they will become a mere 30 minutes later.
The humor is relentless and insanely funny, the use of villain shots, for Dale particularly, is interspersed beautifully throughout. At times one could imagine that if you knew nothing of the soft hearted hillbillys you would certainly think they where on a vendetta to murder you. I grew so attached to Dale that I actually wished he could be protected from having to witness the senseless, and extremely funny, violence around him.
Combine an evening of Behind The Mask with some Tucker and Dale VS Evil and you will laugh your ass off, and maybe think a bit differently when looking at the bad guy in any classic horror movie.