Unexpectedly hilarious

Rating: 7/10 (3 March 2011)

Let me just say that I am not a huge fan of horror comedies that rely purely on self-awareness, pop culture references and the ironic use of established genre clichés. There are a few good ones, like "There's Nothing Out There", "Behind the Mask", or Craven's "Scream", but most of them are so obsessed with self-irony that it becomes obnoxious and trite. For this reason, I did not expect "Tucker & Dale vs. Evil" to entertain me even one bit. Well, long story short, I was ashamedly mistaken, because underneath all the genre parody and tongue-in-cheekness of this movie lies a genuinely creative premise, namely that of an "accidental" slasher in the woods, which lends itself to a few beautifully absurd and absolutely hilarious, darkly comedic situations.
Aside from the basic idea, another element I liked were the rather atypical protagonists. Normally, writers aim for identifiability with their characters, which I assume is why so many horror comedies feature the same selection of cookie cutter college kids, or sarcastic, working class slackers. Tucker and Dale, as a pair of good-natured, slightly naive hillbillies, were quite refreshing in this regard.
There are a few things I didn't like, though. Towards the end, for example, there's kind of a typical horror movie twist/reveal regarding one of the college kids, which I thought was neither necessary, nor all that clever. From this point onward, the movie changes gears from absurd humor to somewhat bland action. It's still watchable, but the showdown certainly sticks out as the weakest part of the movie.
In closing, "Tucker & Dale vs. Evil" was a big surprise for me. It successfully dodged many of the pitfalls of modern horror comedies, did *not* try to be yet another "Shaun of the Dead" clone, and, for the most part, managed to walk the fine line between mere references and genuinely clever, situational comedy.