Tucker & Dale vs. Evil Movie Review – "College kids, we got you're friend."

Runtime: 89 minutes
Release Date: January 22, 2010
Rating: R
Director: Eli Craig


A group of college kids head into the woods for a weekend of camping and crazy hijinks. Alison (Katrina Bowden, "The Shortcut," "Piranha 3DD") catches the eye of a hillbilly redneck before her friends act like he's a complete loser. Enter Tucker and his best friend Dale (Tyler Labine, "Cottage Country"). Tucker just bought a cabin in the woods, and the two plan to go up and work on the cabin and do a little fishing.


Cut back to the college kids. Chad (Jesse Moss, "Final Destination 3," "Ginger Snaps") recounts the story of what happened to a previous group of college kids. A group of hillbilly rednecks murdered the group, and only one person survived: his mother. She told him all about the night that the murders occurred and how his father died on that night. While goofing around later that night and skinny dipping in the lake, Alison catches sight of Tucker and Dale fishing. She's so startled that she falls and hits her head, which knocks her unconscious.


Tucker and Dale pull her out of the water, and Tucker lets the group know that they're their friend. They, thinking that he's a murderous redneck, run away in fear. Tucker and Dale take her back to their cabin until she wakes up. While Dale tends to her needs the next day, Tucker spends time working outside and getting his cabin in order. When the college kids come back for their friend, all hell breaks loose.


I have an account on the DVD Talk Forums, and I saw someone mention Tucker & Dale vs. Evil when it came out on DVD. There was a whole discussion about how it was a terrible movie and not worth a single watch. Last year, I was scrolling through Netflix and gave it a short because I love Tyler Labine. It quickly became one of my favorite films of all time. This is one of those movies that you constantly quote to your friends.


The first time I watched it, my roommate and my then boyfriend were in the kitchen cooking together, and they came in to see what made me burst out laughing so many times. When I mentioned wanting to watch it again (for the fourth time), my roommate rolled his eyes. After quoting the college kids line, he gave it and gladly sat down for another view.


Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is absolutely hands down one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. Tucker and Dale are just two normal guys hoping to have a weekend of fishing when everything goes wrong all at once. As Tucker tells the officer coming to investigate the college kids' claims, "There we were minding our own business, just doing chores around the house, when kids started killing themselves all over my property."


All of the death scenes occur in fun and funny ways. There's the kid who accidentally impales himself on a tree branch after he sees Tucker whipping a chainsaw around and running from a wasp/bee nest, and the kid who throws himself into a wood chipper while trying to attack Tucker from behind. Nearly every death gets better from there.


The one downside is that the film lags towards the end. Once one of the college kids goes a little crazy and Dale needs to venture off on his own to save Alison, the movie isn't as strong. We really need to see the two characters together and not working separately. Luckily, Dale only gets 15 minutes or so by himself before we get back to our hapless duo. I'm sure most people have seen it by now, but if you haven't, go watch Tucker and Dale vs. Evil now!