[5.2/10] A good premise can get you pretty far. Joss Whedon famously pitched *Buffy the Vampire Slayer* as a reversal of the typical horror movie trope -- the teenage girl hunting the monsters that go bump in the night rather than the other way around. And the novelty of that idea helped sustain *Buffy* through a heavily-rewritten film and shaky first season. But the series, at least, had the benefit of a talented writers’ room that kept the show humming even after the novelty wore off.

*Tucker and Dale vs. Evil* has a similarly subversive premise, presenting a story where this time, it’s the (unintentionally) scary rednecks holed up in the woods who are our protagonists, and the crop of sexy teens who are the bad guys. It’s a neat elevator pitch for a film, at times, the movie makes good on the promise of that setup, but more often than not, it stumbles into lame setpieces, outdated and undeveloped romantic beats, and weak humor, draining that novel concept of any boost it might otherwise give.

The film tries, I have to give it that. It still delivers the “good-looking college kids die horribly at the hands of hillbillies” trope, but does it through a series of wacky accidents, mishaps, and misunderstandings rather than any malfeasance from it’s two titular sons of the soil. The film seems to be going for Looney Tunes with most of these sequences, but most of them can’t find the right balance between ridiculousness and realism to make that work in live action. Again, it’s a good idea -- flipping the usual horror movie narrative on its head but still getting the same result -- but how the film gets there doesn’t cut the mustard.

That said, to the extent the film works on a moment-to-moment basis, it’s on the strength of its two main performers. Tyler Labine plays Dale, the protagonist of the film, with an Andy Dwyer-like combination of naivete and puppy dog sweetness. His presence through the nonsense events of the film gives them a center, and he makes awkward, contrived, or downright weird moments and interactions in the film endearing just with his presence. By the same token, Alan Tudyk has less to do as Tucker, Dale’s surrogate big brother, mostly reduced to those wacky sequences and some fractured “you can do it” encouragements, but Tudyk is a pro and finds the comic juice in bits that should be devoid of them.

Were that the same could be said for the rest of the cast. Most of the rest of the college kids are just fodder for the film’s implausible death scenes, and the actors give performances that are as superfluous as their characters. To give this the most charitable interpretation, the film could be riffing on the fact that invariably, some of the earliest characters to perish in the average slasher flick are undeveloped, because why bother giving someone personality if they’re just going to kick the bucket? But if that’s the intention, the film blurs the line from making fun of a trope and embracing it too much for the comedy to work or for the kids to feel like they have a purpose beyond dying in contrived, grisly fashions.

The main antagonist of the film is Chad, the group’s ringleader who (and we know this because he straight up announces it) thinks he’s better than everyone else. Chad is as one-dimensional a foil as you’re likely to find, and while there’s some laudable subversion in him becoming the crazy freak cliché that pops up so often in these films, the movie’s attempts to trade on the irony of his beef with hillbillies and his heritage is feeble at best and offensive at worst.

But maybe that’s a fate better than Allison’s, the main female college student in the piece, who basically exists to fall in love with Dale and become his prize for learning how to assert himself. Allison is a stock love interest, whose only personality traits are finding Dale unassumingly charming and a barely-sketched interest in psychology (which, to be fair, comes back around for a pretty decent gag). She is the peak of the “girl as trophy” trope in a “manchild grows up”-type story, and dull besides.

Actress Katrina Bowden does her best, but her purpose in this film is simply to be attractive and occasionally make goo goo eyes at Dale. She handles that task with aplomb, and even brings some charm to the role, but it’s so underwritten, so one-note, and so retrograde that it’s hard to take too much from it.

At least some of this could be forgivable if the film were actually funny. There’s a few laughs to be had here and there, mostly off the strength of Labine and Tudyk as performers, but for the most part, all that *Tucker and Dale vs. Evil* has to offer is not especially clever physical comedy and broad gags that wouldn’t feel out of place in a direct-to-video *American Pie* sequel. If fairness, that’s definitely the vibe this film is going for, and if it’s what you want out of this type of comedy, more power to you, but it comes off as a waste of a good idea and a pair of talented performers.

*Tucker and Dale vs. Evil* isn’t a lost cause, but it does feel like a missed opportunity. Had a team like Whedon and Drew Goddard (both of *Buffy* and *Cabin in the Woods* fame, tackled this idea, there might be genuine subversion and commentary on horror tropes and prejudices baked in the film, not to mention some snappy dialogue and good laughs. Instead, Craig uses the premise as fodder for an underwhelming romp, which can coast a little on the strength of its leads, but never escapes the downward pull of its lame jokes and contrived setups. A good premise is great, but if you can’t execute it well, you may as well just toss the results in the woodchipper.

Bloody and Bloody Hilarious.

Tucker & Dale vs Evil is directed by Eli Craig who also co-writes the screenplay with Morgan Jurgenson. It stars Alan Tudyk, Tyler Labine, Katrina Bowden and Jesse Moss. Music is by Michael Shields and Andrew Kaiser and cinematography by David Geddes. Plot has Tudyk and Labine as two harmless mountain/country men who head to their newly acquired vacation home in the woods to fix it up and get some R & R. But after a misunderstanding at a roadside store with some college kids, who think Tucker & Dale are hillbilly psychopaths, the wheels are set in motion for a bloody battle for survival, but who for?!

In 1996 Scream came slashing forward to inject witty life into a fading horror genre, with freshness and inventive splinters from the slasher formula, Wes Craven's movie rocked the horror faithful's world. Tucker & Dale vs Evil will not have the same impact, its limited release and low budget worth ensured it never had a chance of being a big thing, but still it's the freshest horror/comedy to have come out since Scream made its bloody bow at the box office.

It's such a simple idea at the core, you have to wonder why it wasn't thought of before? Craig and Jurgenson have flipped the age old Hillbilly Killers vs Preppy College Kids idea on its head, and in the process smothered it gleefully with dark humour, laugh out loud moments and inventive deaths. There's also some social comedy nestled nicely in the narrative, big points about first impressions and ideas of stereotypes, and hell yes! There's even an opposites attract arc - though that admittedly helps to bog the picture down as the central joke premise runs out of steam towards the end. In fact were it not for a relatively sloppy finale, this would surely be falling into sub-genre classic status. Thankfully all that comes before it is so full of vim and vigour, blood and bluff and fun and frolics, it's not hard to forgive the debut director his one misstep.

The neat trick is having the film unfold from the Hillbillies viewpoint, where the carnage that unspools gets increasingly difficult for them to explain, this in spite of their innocence. Each death is logical to the college kids who go on the attack when one of their number, they think, is kidnapped. And it's logical to us the audience as well, were it not for us being privy to these wonderfully funny sequence of events, we too would have them hung, drawn and quartered after a guilty verdict was reached in 10 seconds. This is the ultimate horror/comedy flip-flop movie. So many funny sequences light up the picture, with a chainsaw scene one of the finest moments to have ever graced a horror comedy movie, but the dialogue, too, is not found wanting in the fun and charming department. Cast are on top form, with Tudyk & Labine a most agreeable double act, where their comedy timing is impeccable, and Bowden & Moss are more than just pretty faces.

Craig (Sally Field's son) has started with a bang, if he can top this then he is a name to really get excited about. If he can't top it? Well he will at least always have one of the best horror comedy movies on his CV. Yes it's that good, fans of Scream, Severance, Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland should seek it out post haste. 8.5/10

**Overall : a self-aware satire that takes joy in ridiculing overused horror movie tropes in hilarious and, at times, heartwarming ways.**

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is a delightful satire of stereotypical teens trying to survive an attacker in the woods horror movies. I laughed nonstop from start to finish. This dark comedy hilariously mocks horror trope after horror trope producing a wonderfully funny film that horror and cinema fans will most appreciate. Still, anyone who has ever seen a slasher movie would also find it entertaining and amusing. Even with its dumb fun, Tucker and Dale somehow finds a way to make you care for the main characters and root for their survival. This movie is a hidden gem for any movie fan.

A bit of a breath of fresh air is this in a low budget and yet well produced comedy horror that gives Død Snø and the likes a run for their money. Tucker & Dale Vs Evil follows two redneck hillbillies- Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine) who head into the woods in the Appellation Mountains so that they can drink some beers, do some fishing and fix up a worn down cabin to turn it into the holiday home of their dreams.

At the same time a group of preppy college kids are on a camping trip into the same woods also to have a good time. After a couple of run ins with the hillbillies, they assume that they must be your stereotypical inbred manic chainsaw wielding killers right out of Deliverance or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So when one of the kids Allison (Katrina Bowden) is rescued from drowning by the hillbillies, prejudice and paranoia reign supreme with the others mistaking it as her being hauled away in a kidnapping attempt. So they embark on a mission to rescue her from her saviours with hilarious consequences.

Despite the premise of the movie being based on one long running joke of a massive misunderstanding, the story remains fresh and the scenes extremely funny for the majority. I'm not aware of any other movie that has done this type of role reversal with hillbillies in this type of scenario and managed to blend in the right amount of comedy with horror and gore. In fact across all the genres, it is not often that you get to see the perspective of the 'bad guys' (far from it in this film).

The best moments come from the writing as we follow the bickering between Tucker and Dale as a bromance emerges on screen. Both Tudyk (aka Steve the Pirate from Dodgeball) and Labine impress making the characters extremely likeable and charming so that by the end you really do care what happens to them. Bowden plays her part solidly as well and definitely brings some eye candy to the film!

Most of these types of films tend to lose their drama element but this keeps the anticipation and as I said, you end up really caring about what is going to happen to the characters. However, the only major fault that I can pick out is that despite all this, it does begin to fade as a spectacle in the last 15 minutes as they focus a bit too much on the back story and tying up loose ends when what they were doing up to that point was more than enough in my books.

It's usually hard to combine the right amount of comedy and horror without creating a somewhat tacky result so credit must go to the new guy on the block- director and co-writer Eli Craig. If you are looking for a unique comedy horror that has a chance of hitting cult status/settling in nicely behind Shaun of the Dead then you need look no further than this.

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