In what was one of the most heavily anticipated screenings of the festival, Eli Craig’s Tucker and Dale Vs Evil arrived on Friday night and immediately became a favourite of almost everyone who saw it. Playing with hillbilly horror conventions established by classics like Deliverance (1972), Tucker and Dale Vs Evil proved to be a true crowd pleaser and arguably the best horror-comedy since Shaun of the Dead (2004).
The story revolves around Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine), two well meaning hillbillies who are looking forward to a peaceful vacation in their new holiday home. Unfortunately for them, a group of horror-cinema savvy teens are also camping in the nearby woods, scaring themselves with tales that play like deleted scenes from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974).
When Alison (Katrina Bowden), one of the teens, falls into the nearby lake, Tucker and Dale lend a helping hand but their innocent cries of ‘We’ve got your friend’ start off a chain of deadly misunderstandings that leave the group thinking the harmless hillbillies are actually the kind of backwards folk they see hacking teens to bits on the big screen every weekend.
Craig then takes extreme pleasure referencing his favourite horror movies as each hillbilly horror trope goes against the lovable duo in increasingly bloodier ways as the teens begin to accidentally kill themselves off. To go into anymore detail would be spoiling some brilliantly clever misunderstandings but suffice to say, a chainsaw is at the heart of one of the best.
Despite the first hour essentially consisting of a series of horror conventions being turned on their head, it is a real credit to Craig that the film never feels formulaic or repetitive. Each gruesome mix-up is both clever and funny but the real strength and heart of the film lies in the performances of Tudyk and Labine as the title characters. Tudyk once again brings another reliably assured performance as the straight man of the couple whilst Labine brings that strange warmth and vulnerability that seems to come naturally to bigger actors with beards.
In what are clearly outrageous circumstances, the cynical Tucker and good natured Dale convey a real friendship that is actually affecting and is sure to induce glassy eyes in parts. What makes this even more impressive is that this kind of emotionally twang is somewhat absent from most comedy-horrors, with the only other recent example coming in the latter stages of Shaun of the Dead, “I don’t think I’ve got it in me to shoot my flatmate, my mum and my girlfriend all in the same evening.”
Funny, clever, gory and sure to leave a lump in the throat, Tucker and Dale Vs Evil is one of the best horror-comedies to date. A real winner at Frightfest, it prompts the thought that maybe Leatherface and co have been gravely misrepresented all these years.
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