Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010)

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010)

7/10

Starring

Tyler Labine

Alan Tudyk

Directed by Eli Craig

At first glance, the thought that crossed my mind was, “Darn, another movie about young adults getting killed in the woods.” Well, it is another movie about young adults getting killed in the woods, but this time, the teenagers are the bad guys.

Tucker and Dale vs Evil is a movie that turns things on their head very quickly. It’s a film that takes the phrase “looks can be misleading” and builds an entire castle with it. It starts with an idea of how everything is going to end and then takes you on a wild ride to get there. The whole topsy-turvy dynamic of the characters is something that will take you by surprise. It’s like everyone assumed the worst about everyone else and ran with that idea instead of stopping to consider other possibilities.

Guaranteed to leave you smiling by the end, this movie is well-scripted to be entertaining, thrilling, and packed with fun on all sides. The acting is top-notch, and the characters seem tailor-made for each actor—kudos to the casting director.

The movie’s plot starts with a nosy reporter trying to get juicy details about a crime scene where multiple murders took place. Then, we’re taken three days back to see what led to the incident that landed the reporter in the morgue.

A group of young adults is heading on a trip to the woods when, on the way, they come across two scruffy-looking men, one of whom is staring at the girls.

They realize they forgot to buy beer and decide to stop nearby to pick some up at a store. Meanwhile, the two men they saw—Tucker and Dale—are also going on a trip. They just bought an old, abandoned house in the woods and decided to go fishing and have some fun (innocent fun, just two friends chilling).

Tucker notices that Dale has a thing for one of the girls in the group and tells him to walk up to her and say hi. Dale’s nervousness makes him come off as scary as he mumbles, which frightens the girl and her friends.

Later, in the woods, the same girl decides to go swimming with her friends. She jumps into the water and hits her head. Tucker and Dale save her from drowning, but when they’re retrieving her unconscious body from the water, her friends see something else entirely. To them, the hillbillies look like they’ve killed their friend and are taking her body away. Tucker and Dale see her friends scream and run off, leaving them confused about why they’d abandon their friend.

They take her to their vacation home and care for her, while her friends start plotting ways to save her and kill the two hillbillies they believe are holding her against her will.

The movie wasn’t a box office success, even though it was a critical hit. It’s one of those films that never gets the attention it deserves. This is a movie that will slip under the radar for many viewers, but I hope you get to see and enjoy it as much as I did.