By: debbie lynn elias
You see the trailers. You look at the posters. You think, “I’ve seen this all before.” Hillbillies, deep in the woods, no cell phone, no phone/no bikes/no motor cars/not a single luxury/primitive as can be, compounded by stupid drunk/high high school/college kids doing something else stupid and looking for trouble, nay, manufacturing trouble, all to dire effect. But TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL is not your average hillbilly movie! Thanks to the brilliance of writer/director Eli Craig and co-writer Morgan Jurgenson, TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL turns hillbilly horror upside down and give us what can only be described as “Deliverance” meets the Darwin Awards…and after seeing it, I’ll let you decide who fits each category.
With Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine as the title characters, we have the Hope & Crosby of the 21st Century. Sweet, kind, lovable and sorely misunderstood by the know-it-all city folk. And funny funny funny. These two create comedy out of everyday life. They don’t stretch for laughs. Everything is very organic. And their characters, tucker and Dale, well they just happen to love beer, fishing and their country way of life; not to mention Tucker’s new vacation cabin. A palace to them.
Playing every moment with sincerity and utilizing all the standard visual “horror” elements, the fun starts while stopped at a local gas station picking up supplies and materials to fix up Tucker’s “new” cabin. Of course, we have the requisite high falootin’ college kids who just happen to be at the gas station the same time as Tucker and Dale. Now Dale, shall we say, is a bit challenged with the ladies. Never at ease or comfortable around girls, you can imagine his terror at trying to make conversation with Allison, one of the beautiful but snooty college girls he spies at the station. Of course he’s holding a scythe while trying to talk to her.
As our parties go on their separate ways, we see trouble afoot as their separate ways aren’t all that separate. While our college infants are being led by the egomaniacal and bellicose Chad who likes to spend his time filling everyone’s vacuous heads with ridiculous stories of terror in the woods, Tucker and Dale head off to their wooded Shangri La.
With a quiet starry moonlit night enveloping our two little factions, Tucker and Dale had out for some late night fishing while Chad and company toss back some beers, joints, and contemplate skinny dipping. But Allison, while enjoying the peace and serenity of the night has a little accident. Falling from a rock and into the lake, she is knocked unconscious. And the only witnesses? Tucker and Dale. With Dale diving in to save this damsel in distress, the boys take her back to the cabin for medical attention. Meanwhile, Chad and his crew have no idea that Allison is missing. But when realization hits them, Chad jumps to the standard horror fare conclusion – Allison has been kidnaped by the presumably murderous rednecks. After all, aren’t all redneck hillbillies serial killers? While this could play out in an expected fashion, in the hands of writer/director Eli Craig, the situation gets a twist that is anything but “usual.” Capitalizing on the fact of people jumping to conclusions and assuming ( and thus make an ass out of “u” and “me”), Craig takes the film in 2 directions – the hysterical, calculatingly mean teens led by the somewhat psycho Chad who are determined to save Allison from certain death, and the kindness and simplicity of Tucker and Dale who live with good hearts in everything they do, including caring for injured Allison.
As Chad and friends plot and plan their attack and rescue, their actions of grave stupidity become hilarious when melded with the innocence and naivete of the backwoods simplicity and honesty of Tucker and Dale, the latter of whom who finds himself falling in love as he nurses Allison back to help. Twists, turns, dead bodies and comedy abound as the story evolves, giving rise to FUN, FUN, FUN, FUN, FUN and leaps and bounds of laugh-out-loud hilarity.
Tyler Labine plays Dale with all the innocence and naivete in the world which immediately riles sympathy and empathy with the audience when he is rebuffed by Katrina Bowden’s Allison at the outset. Your heart aches for him. He is a teddy bear of a guy with a head of fluff and a heart of gold. You just love the character from start to finish. For Labine, besides finally being the lead in a movie, in taking the role of Dale he was drawn to “the idea that I could strip away of my usual tricks…snarky, know-it-all, best friend tricks. Eli trusted me to really simply what I do normally. Just be a really sweet, dumb animal. I really liked the idea of doing it that way. Leading with your heart and just being confused all the time. Just overtly sweet. I thought, ‘That’s cool that somebody even sees that in me.’ That was pretty appealing.”
And then Alan Tudyk steps in as Tucker, devoted best friend who truly wants to help Dale. Bringing a very pragmatic and appreciative tone to Tucker, like Labine, the sincerity and genuineness that Tudyk brings to the role, jointly carries the film. Tudyk was “looking forward to just the comedy of it; it seemed like a lot of fun to do. Certainly the physical aspect of some of the stuff. Working with the woodchipper, actually trying to wrench something out of the gear of the ‘death machine’ is a fun bit to play while you’re getting sprayed in the face with blood. [Also] the scene when the sheriff shows up and having to explain yourself. I love those situations. It’s almost farcical. I like farces a lot and it reminds me of plays. I love keeping the balls in the air.” And in a nod to his inimitable role in Frank Oz’ ” Death At a Funeral”, Tudyk very openly laughingly admits that playing Tucker was “more fun than getting roof burn on my ass. I was glad to not have to get naked or even in the water in this one.”
We are given a very warm and welcoming introduction to both characters that is sustained throughout the film so that by credits end, you want to see more. A perfect straight man- funny man casting, what makes the pairing work even better is the role reversal. The fact that Tudyk and Labine didn’t know each other and only had one table read of the script before shooting is belied by their on-screen (and off-screen) chemistry. These two are magical together.
Shot in the Calgary area, according to Labine, “It was a good breeding grounds for gettin’ into some mischief at the time…We got to bond the way friends would naturally, as well as filming it while we were doing it.”
Not to be overlooked is Jesse Moss as the psychotic frenzied and bellicose Chad while Katrina Bowden adds a level of maturity and sanity to the cast of characters.
Five years in the making from conception to theatre, the key to the success of the film, outside of casting Tudyk and Labine, is the exacting perfection of parody and the core simplicity of the story and each element therein. First time feature director Craig, along with co-writer Jurgenson, keep it simple, recognizable, but provide basic fundamentals of decency and humanity that fuel the fun. The spontaneity of many scenes is attributable to the actors being giving liberty to ad lib at their leisure. According to Labine, “It was a very unique brand of ad-libbing. It’s not like we did an [Judd] Apatow approach. We pre-ad libbed. Collaborated a little bit at the table read. Threw out some ideas and that would spark other ideas and then we would shoot it with the pre-approved ad libs in there and then those would inevitably lead to ad-libbing on the ad-lib. We kept the ball rolling with ideas all the time. It wasn’t like we were trying to show off and ad-lib. We were just trying to add things to every moment that felt like they aided in the story.” Tudyk elaborates that this is why he and Labine got on so well. “We would read [and think] what would be good here is this, or, I had an idea, oh you know what could be funny… With Eli, when we would start to one up one another, we had all these things out on the table so when we got to the day and were shooting some of those things got picked up, some of those things got left behind and some got added onto. It was a creative collaboration throughout.”
Craig’s use of calling on the use of everyday elements like chainsaws, woodchippers, bees, etc., to create perceived horror acts that are simply little mishaps that are just viewed by the snooty mean teens at the wrong times, just fuels the funny. I can easily see why one would be waving around a chainsaw when attacked by bees. Or how someone could land in the woodchipper without being seen. Again, simplicity. Nothing is outrageously written or designed.
Although they admittedly had some trepidation about Craig’s directing style during shooting, both Labine and Tudyk have nothing but compliments for Craig as a director. After watching the first cut of the film, Labine was “Whoa! He obviously knew what he was doing.” Tudyk describes Craig as “very unassuming.”
The production design is beyond reproach. Calling on designer John Blackie, Craig not only replicates the authentic visual backdrop experience of backwoods horror films, but pays homage to classic horror films and elements like the cabin in Sam Raimi’s “Evil Dead.” Fog, mist, smoke all has its place as well. But Blackie worked some real magic in turning a ramshackled old barn into a “functioning” sawmill.
Causing production headaches was unseasonable hail, rain, wind and lightening storms. This was also cause for some concern by Labine who had to jump into a small lake which two days earlier “had frozen all the way to the bottom” making it “cold as hell…it was freeeezing cold. I dabbled with hypothermia that night.” And Tudyk had his own “trials and triumphs.” “The hanging upside down was specifically very painful. Hours of that. Because we were shooting fast we didn’t have a lot of time so it made sense to just leave me there…it was like 15 and 20 minutes..it was bad. It was bad! I couldn’t think for 3 days afterward. My head was swollen. My eyes were swollen. I had headaches. It was a bad thing.” The end results show these hardships were well worth the effort.
Editing by Bridget Durnford is tight and not only keeps pace with the humor and timing of Labine and Tudyk, but heightens the effects of the violence…and teen stupidity. And the blood letting and gore (of which there is no shortage) is just too funny for words. David Geddes’ cinematography showcases the beauty of the region, the mystery and fear of hidden shadows and also gives a beautiful umber or golden tone to the cabin, lending to a homey feel. And the night shots at the lake are serene and beautifully lensed. But at the heart of it all are Labine and Tudyk. Can’t imagine anyone but them in these roles.
Wicked, wild, funny and fun. TUCKER & DALE VS EVIL is a perfect blend of comedy, heart and horror. Eli Craig, where’s my sequel?
Tucker – Alan Tudyk
Dale – Tyler Labine
Chad – Jesse Moss
Allison – Katrina Bowden
Directed by Eli Craig. Written by Craig and Morgan Jurgenson.
