DIFF 2010 - Reesa Vacations w/ Tucker & Dale Again

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil Review

Tucker and Dale are two best friends on their way to their “vacation home” in the Appalachians. On their way, they meet up with some college students who are freaked out by the crazy looking hillbillies and mistake them for psycho killers.

Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine as Tucker and Dale are beer swilling buddies driving along a country road when they stop at a backwoods store for supplies. Dale becomes fixated on the pretty college girls and his friend encourages him to approach them to say hello. Unfortunately, Dale nervously picks up a sickle as a prop when he approaches and scares them with his nervous laugh. This makes the kids jump in the car and speed away.

At the college kids’ camp, one of them tells of a scary story about a hillbilly who attacked some students like themselves about 20 years ago with only one survivor. Since most students have short attention spans they decide to go skinny dipping.

Meanwhile Tucker and Dale’s vacation home is a run down shack in the woods probably owned by some weird backwoods shaman, evident by the bones and weird concoctions left in the house. To them it’s a dream mansion with potential. They decide to go fishing and spy one of the young ladies undressing to dive in (the obligatory skin shot, that’s chaste and PG-13), but she is startled by them and falls into the water. Dale dives in and saves her. When the other students see the hillbillies putting their friend in the boat they run away screaming. This begins the series of misunderstandings that result in unintentional gruesome demises that involve wooden stakes, a wood chipper, guns, and fire. I don’t want to give too much away.

First time director Eli Craig wrote the script with Morgan Jergenson and basically aimed the comedy aspect at some inventive and effect ways of killing off the characters. This is not your typical “Freddy in the woods chasing screaming young girls.” The college kids are a group of nice generic young people who are the equivalent of red uniformed members of Star Trek. The comedy team of Tudyk and Labine has a wonderful chemistry that makes one want to see more Tucker and Dale adventures. This is a whole other take on the slice and dice genre that is hilarious and satisfying. They are still trying to find a distributor for this film, so please fan them on Facebook and Twitter your friends. This was my favorite movie of SXSW and is looking like the tops at DIFF. (Review by Reesa Cruz Hawkins of Dallas Movie Screenings)