johnlinkmovies

I recently reviewed a terrible horror/comedy/gore-fest called HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS . While it did have some gore, it was lacking on both the horror and comedy aspects of a horror-comedy. Last night, I watched another horror-comedy containing an ampersand in the title: TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL. But was it any better?

I watched TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL (2010) on 7.13.14. It was my first viewing of the film.

Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine) are just a couple of country boys who have recently purchased a ‘vacation’ home in the woods. Simultaneously, a group of college kids are heading out for a camping trip. For audience purposes, the important ones are alpha male Chad (Jesse Moss) and the beautiful (but sweet) leading lady Allie (Katrina Bowden).

Dale is somewhat socially awkward, which isn’t aided at all by holding a scythe while trying to talk to girls. Naturally, the college kids think that their camping trip is turning into a horror movie. They do all the cliched things they should: they smoke, they drink, they skinny dip, they tell scary stories, etc. When Allie is rescued by Tucker & Dale, the rest of the kids see it as an attack. They go into survivalist mode, accidentally offing themselves one by one.

This is a really smart film disguised as a really stupid one (not unlike its central hero, Dale). Every cliche is used toward the expected result, but always in a new and unseen way. The ‘suicide pact’ that Tucker and Dale think these kids are on leads to a little war in the woods. It’s all very funny and very well done.

But whatever you do, just don’t watch the trailer. I saw the trailer for this several years ago, before the movie’s release. Having seen the trailer once, I felt like I knew exactly what was coming next for the first 65% of the movie. The trailer is almost exactly a chronological highlight reel of all the deaths in the order they happen. Avoid it!

Everyone in this movie knows the kind of movie they are in. Nobody takes themselves seriously, even if some play it straighter than others. Death happens and characters are laughing ten seconds later. Yet, in the world of the film, this is never an uncomfortable film. The movie is absurd. The people who die are caricatures, not real characters, so we never really feel like there is anything dangerous happening until the final battle, which manages to work somehow.

This movie may not be for everyone, but it is for me. I love a good horror-comedy and this is one of them. I was immensely impressed by the performances of Labine as Dale and Bowden as Allie. Tudyk is also funny as Tucker, but he knows to stay out of the limelight at key moments in order to let his comedic partner shine. The comedy in this is almost always on point. I laughed more during this than I did 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN, which I saw for the first time this week, and I liked 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN a bunch.

SCORES

FILM: 5; MOVIE: 9; ACTING: 6; WRITING: 8

5+9+6+8+0=28

FINAL SCORE: 7 out of 10

~ by johnlink00 on July 14, 2014.

Posted in ~ T ~, ~~~ 2010 ~~~
Tags: alan tudyk, horror-comedy, jesse moss, katrina bowden, tucker & dale vs. evil, tyler labine