Dale (Tyler Labine), the lumbering, bearded idiot-savant on the hillbilly end of this mock-horror, is a sweetheart. Even despite his leering, ghoulish entrance, he quickly wins you over with his bulky vulnerability and skills at Trivial Pursuit. Without him, and his interactions with his hillbilly-buddy Tucker (Alan Tudyk), this would be just another horror parody where obvious genre conventions are flipped and teenagers end up in woodchippers. With him, it's a fun buddy-romp through the hills of West Virgina which just happens to have a high body count.
Tucker and Dale are two buddies vacationing to a dilapidated shack in the West Virginia woods (which unsurprisingly looks like Canada). On the way, they pass a group of vacationing college kids, off for a different sort of vacation, one that involves beer and skinny dipping and whatever else college kids get up to. Leggy blonde Allison (Katie Bowden) is among them, and the smitten Dale is cajoled into approaching her at the truck stop. Of course, he happens to be accompanied by a gigantic makeshift scythe, and the kids get the wrong idea.
When Allie bumps her head later that night and the two Hillbillies attempt to rescue her, it's all-out war between the races. Or, classes. Is "hillbilly" a race? Of course, among the college kids is the psychotic Chad (Jessie Moss), who intentionally or unintentionally leads the kids into pointless deaths as they try to rescue the (perfectly fine) damsel from the (lovable) hillbillies.
The movies start a bit choppy, awkwardly switching between the genre-stale college kid dialogue and the fun and heartfelt interactions between Tucker and Dale. Don't get me wrong, it's still a pretty good movie. I just wish the college kids' parts were a little more entertaining. As the story gets its legs, Tucker and Dale dominate the screen and it's smoother sailing. Even the troubled romance between Dale and Allison is believable: he's a big galoot, she's a sweet farm girl. And while people get impaled or skewered or set on fire, it's Tucker and Dale's believability that keeps it all going.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
There's a cut of the film called "Tucker and Dale ARE Evil," which only shows the scenes from the college kids' point of view. Hilarious idea, but I don't think I'd actually need to watch it to know how it goes. The college kids scenes are pretty weak anyway.
There's two documentary featurettes, and some pretty funny outtakes. The audio commentary with Labine, Tudyk and director Eli Craig is what you expect, with fun banter and a good mix of horseplay and shooting details for this low-budget Canadian feature. Plus there's a crap load of storyboards. If you're into that.
"Tucker and Dale vs. Evil" is on sale November 29, 2011 and is rated R. Comedy, Horror. Directed by Elaine M Brown, Eli Craig. Written by Eli Craig, Morgan Jurgenson. Starring Alan Tudyk, Tyler Labine, Katrina Bowden, Jesse Moss.
