The story of "city slickers heading into the woods and meeting an untimely demise at the hands of hillbillies" is a story that has been done to death in the horror genre. More often than not the scenario comes about because the people from the city underestimate the abilities of their counterparts and find themselves being gruesomely dispatched with. The movies are usually violent, and often unpleasant to watch. Being that this story has been done so often it shocks me that it has never really been played for laughs. Consider that rectified as this movie does it's best to turn the convention of that horror sub-genre on its ear. From there it is just a matter of whether the movie works or not. The answer for me is- a resounding yes.
Tucker (Alan Tudyk from Dodgeball and 3:10 to Yuma) and Dale (Taylor Labine from Reaper and Invasion) are two well meaning hillbillies who are going into the woods to work on the vacation home that they just bought. The house is a run down cabin near a lake which looks like any number of houses that would be in this type of film. Along the way they encounter a group of college students out on vacation (led by Katrina Bowden of 30 Rock) and the boys are pegged immediately as creepy hillbilly losers. At the general store Dale becomes smitten with Bowden's character Allison and Tucker encourages him to go and talk to her. For some unknown reason Dale walks over with a sickle and tries to start a conversation. He takes Tucker's advice to laugh no matter what she says which leads to an awkward situation that makes the two men seem even creepier than first thought.
Once out in the woods the college students head off skinny dipping in the middle of the night in the same lake where Tucker and Dale are fishing. Allison shows up and gets startled by the two while undressing to go skinny dipping. She falls underwater, hits her head and doesn't come up for air right away leading Tucker and Dale to rescue her. When her friends go looking for her they see Tucker and Dale loading her into their boat so they can help her. Tucker yells to the college students, "We've got your friend" which only exacerbates the situation. From there it is a constant stream of misconstrued situations that lead to a battle between the college students and Tucker and Dale. I wouldn't dare ruin them but suffice to say the result of these situations are often hilarious and are well laid out set pieces. I will say though that my favorite piece in the film is when Tucker accidentally cuts through a beehive with a chainsaw leading to a chase where Tucker and the student are both running from their perceived, or very real, antagonist. Also, Tucker and Dale's reactions are exactly what they should be to these events as the viewer can see what is happening and they can identify throughout.
Labine and Tuudyk have a great chemistry here and they play well off each other throughout the film. There was a chance of their characters being played as goofs and turning the film against them but the script and direction make it clear from the first frame that these guys mean no harm to anyone and are just as confused about what is happening as the college students are. The script also makes a smart move to show everything from the point of view of Tucker and Dale for the first hour or so of the film. Once things start going nuts they probably should have switched narrative places with the college students to make the concept work fully but it is really a minor complaint. At every turn, the viewer feels for what is happening to Tucker and Dale and you root for them from start to finish. It works in the last act of the film especially when the one college student goes full on Rambo trying to wipe them out.
For all the aspects of these types of films that the movie gets right the best one is that final part of the previous paragraph. Too often in these films one protagonist turns into an action hero way too quickly and can fight their way out of anything. In this film- had the character just talked with people and listened nothing happens. However, because he tries to be a hero he in turn screws up everything.
This is a great film and again- if I said too much I risk ruining what the film has in store for you. The film has had a tough road to theaters and they have finally gotten a distribution deal and should be hitting theaters at the end of September. If this film opens anywhere near you I encourage you to check this out- especially if you are not a fan of this genre of film. The director and writer, while they love those types of films, see the inherent problems that others do and make fun of those deficiencies at every turn. This is a solid laugh out loud film and while horror comedies may be infrequent, this is one that hopefully leads to a resurgence of that particular sub-genre of the horror film.
The only thing that prevents this from becoming an instant classic is the last 20 minutes or so, but it is excellent up to that point until it just becomes a good film.
No comments:
Post a Comment