Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
A group of preppy college students go on a Spring Break camping trip in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia. Meanwhile two good 'ol boys named Tucker and Dale are going to a cabin they purchased to fix it up in the same vicinity. Unfortunately for Tucker and Dale, they are attacked by the preppy kids in this comedy horror satire from director Eli Craig (Sally Fields' son).
At the start they end up at a gas station together. Dale has his eye on a blonde girl named Allison but doesn't have the nerve to talk to her until Tucker gives him some advice that doesn't quite work out. He gently strolls over to the gas pumps where all the teens are with a sickle in one hand and a nervous laugh that comes off as very creepy. The teens get in their SUV and take off quickly.
Right off the bat you can see that direct Craig intends on inverting the 'scary hick' horror meme.
That night while quietly fishing at the lake in their boat, Tucker and Dale sees the group of teens skinny dipping while Allison (the girl that Dale is crushing on) goes off by herself and ends up falling off of a huge rock, bumping her head and almost drowning. The two kind hicks save her, but the teens think they're kidnapping her. So the next day they launch an all-out operation to rescue her from the crazy hillbillies they think they are. It all is just one giant misunderstanding that drives the preppies (especially the leader, who suffers from a hilarious backstory relating to rednecks) to attack the benign rednecks.
Soon the body count rises when Tucker uses a chainsaw on a tree with a beehive that sets it all in motion. He's running madly from the bees as one of the teens is running along side of him, thinking he is after him, then impales himself into a tree limb. From that point on it doesn't hold back one bit from the gore. One teen falling into a wood chipper to one accidently shooting himself in the head it really goes all out in that department. Even the cops doesn't believe they're good guys. They just think they're cold blooded killers.
Only Allison understands them and during all of this a romance sparks between Dale and Allison. But I'm not sure if it is that believeable, especially after all that has happened to her friends. She seems a bit non-chalant after the whole ordeal. She's easy on the eyes, too!
I think in the end it kind of is a surprise that this movie really succeeds in what it's trying to do. Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is a campy Dark Comedy/Horror flick built on huge stereotyping and predictability -- and everyone involved seems to be enjoying skewering the two genres of oversexed college kids and dangerous rednecks. It's a parody that works if you can get past the gore. It's funny, campy and the dialogue is clever.
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is sure to become a cult classic.
