Every week, Shelf Life sees Tom White select and talk about a movie that lives on his DVD shelf, one he thinks we should all see.
Like any genre, horror movies rely on a number of tropes and cliches, the most famous and recognisable being the creepy hillbilly characters who usually the portents of doom for the beautiful, usually college age fodder. But what if those conventions were turned on their head, and we were expected to root for the rednecks? Well, that exact question is asked, and answered to great effect, in one of the finest horror comedies of recent years, 2010's Tucker & Dale vs. Evil.
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil starts off like any other horror movie, introducing us to a somewhat likable group of young friends on their way to party it up at a weekend camping trip. It's when they stop at a run down gas station (another horror movie must), that we meet the real heroes, likable hillbilly buddies Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine), themselves on their way to their dream vacation: a run down lakefront cabin that wouldn't look out of place in Evil Dead. With the kids camped just a few metres away, and an innocent bout of night fishing mis-interpreted as something more hostile (especially when our heroes rescue one of their number after she slips and falls), Tucker and Dale are seen as crazed killers. What follows is your usual horror movie shenanigans as the kids fall in increasingly gruesome ways, but with one absolutely glorious twist: all the deaths are accidents, and Tucker and Dale look on in bemused and increasingly terrified bewilderment, thinking they have stumbled upon some strange suicide pact. Labine and Tudyk are the real heart of this movie (the metaphorical one, not one ripped still beating from a victims chest), and they imbue roles that are usually a second thought in horror movies with so much likability and charisma. As they bicker and panic as the bodies pile up, you can't shake the feeling that you want to go out for a beer with these guys, and they go a hell of a long way to making the premise work perfectly. The kids, on the other hand, are pretty one not, existing as both victim and killer. It's a wonderful reversal of cliche, and really highlights the horror genres over reliance of these well worn tropes.
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil also has a tremendous amount of fun with it's premise, letting the blood fly in increasingly gruesome, and fun, ways. From wood chippers to out of control chainsaws, the deaths are hilariously over the top, the movie embracing it's coal black comedy core with both arms, each instance punctuated by the lovable hillbille's looking on in confusion (one highlight being Tucker asking if one kid is o.k. while holding the severed lower half of his body. It's a movie that goes to great lengths to make you laugh at the horror genre, and succeeds every time.
Premiering at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, the movie didn't get a limited cinematic release date till almost a year and a half later, preceded by a work print that helped the movie get the recognition it deserved. It really found it's audience on DVD and Blu-Ray, and there is the beginnings of a cult following emerging for the movie, bolstered further by the announcement of a sequel being in development. It's a movie that has fun with the most overused of horror tropes, leading to one of the most unique and hilarious horror comedies we've seen in a long time, one fans of either genre should see.
