Saturday, December 31, 2011

Horror Film Review

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2010):  I admit, I've been looking forward to this one for quite a while.  I know, I know...what the hell am I doing getting my hopes up?  Again.  If you've seen the trailer, though, you understand.  So did it meet expectations?  Let me put it this way:  This movie does for cabin-in-the-woods massacres what Shaun of the Dead did for zombies.  Yeah.  It's good.

Best friends Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine) are headed up to Tucker's newly purchased "vacation cabin" to begin work on the remote fixer upper.  They run into an SUV full of preppy college kids at a gas station who are on their way up the mountain to camp and party.  The kids mistake them for creepy, possibly homicidal hillbillies when an extremely nervous Dale musters up the courage to talk to the beautiful Allison (Katrina Bowden) and inevitably makes a mess of it.  The kids freak and burn rubber. 

Later that night, the kids go skinny dipping while Tucker and Dale happen to be fishing nearby.  The guys pull Allison out of the water after she slips off a rock conks her head.  Her friends run away screaming because they think she's been kidnapped (and maybe even eaten) by the two psycho hillbillies.  And so begins the most amazing and hilarious sequence of misunderstandings ever put on film.  The kids find the cabin and decide to save her, only to wind up accidentally killing themselves in a variety of interesting if not bizarre ways.  Meanwhile, Allison wakes up and learns her "captors" are nice guys, even hits it off with Dale.  In the end, one of the college kids turns psycho and tries killing Tucker, Dale, and Allison.  Ironic, huh? 

Breakdown

Acting:  Tudyk and Labine are excellent and have great chemistry.  Bowden also does well, but the rest of the college kids' performances are forgettable. 
Story:  Wonderful twist on the tired and cliched "cabin in the woods" theme.  For me, this theme started with Evil Dead and ends with Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
Direction:  With all the craziness involved, director Eli Craig does an admirable job of keeping the train on the rails.
Production Values:  No complaints.  It's obviously low-budget but since it's mostly shot on location, it looks great. 
Gore/FX:  Lots of blood, a little gore, and a guy diving head-first into a wood chipper.  Good times...
Scares:  Not really.  Not in the classic sense.  Maybe one or two "gotcha" jumps.
Ending:  It sort of ends with a sigh instead of a splash.  Still, I liked it.

Verdict:  Should you see Tucker and Dale vs. Evil?  Absolutely.  No question about it.  You'll laugh, you'll cringe...you'll thank me later.

 My Rating:  4 out of 5 stars.

1 comment:

  1. Yay!
    You're back! Good. Flick sounds fun. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete