Since we did a deeper, more upsetting movie last night, let’s do a horror comedy tonight. Welcome to the hilariously gory, insanely co
mical “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil” by Eli Craig.
I’m going to start doing one night of serious horror that I review deeply and the other night a shorter review of lighter, more comical horror, or shallow horror with a lack of strong purpose. So look forward to a longer review tomorrow!
A group of college kids goes camping in the backwoods with plans of drinking, smoking, and swimming. But when they run into a pair of stereotypical looking hillbillies, they assume they’re murderers. The hillbillies, innocent and sweet, rescue one of the girls when she drowns, and the college students, assuming they’ve kidnapped their friend, spiral into panic. In various attempts to rescue their friend, they end up killing themselves and each other off by accident. Whether they’re falling into wood-chippers, running into sharp tre
e branches, or throwing themselves onto blades, they always seem to kill themselves in a way that makes it look like they were viciously murdered.
The main source of comedy in the film is how kind-hearted the hillbillies are, and how ignorant the college kids are- one of them even turns out to be a murderer and rapist. The usual stereotype would be the other way around. People usually assume hillbillies and rednecks are uncivilized outsiders who love guns and incest, and apparently murder.
At its core, this movie is a social commentary about judging a book by its cover and dumb shit like that. I say its dumb shit, but ignorance is a national phenomenon that causes hate crimes and war to this day. Prejudice against major groups of people is something we all see every day, and it destroys communities, families, and national safety.
“It may not have been you, but it was definitely your kind.”
One of the college boys explains that his father was killed by hillbillies, and now he harbors a great hatred for all hillbillies. This also stems to current events today, like the extreme and often violent hatred Muslims have received since 9/11. The idea that an entire group of people should be prosecuted for a completely separate group’s violent crimes is ridiculous.
OKAY. I may have gotten a little political there. Re-watching this movie has made me realize there’s more under its surface. Moving on.
I find horror comedies so interesting. I think they stem from slapstick comedy, which is a comedic style used first in 16th century Italy. Slapstick comedy consists mostly of people hurting other people or themselves (by accident) in big, dramatic ways. However, it has rarely been bloody until more recently. The fact that someone can show a guy throwing himself into a wood chipper and it can be funny (after the initial “oof!”) is so intriguing to me. I think it says a lot about human culture, but I’m going to talk about that in a different post after my Spookfest is over.
This is a great Halloween movie filled with perfect, disgusting gore, a few decent jump scares, and great watch-ability for a spooky night with friends.
Eli Craig is an amazing screenwriter and director when it comes to comedic horror and comedy in general. I’ll be reviewing his 2017 film “Little Evil” in a little bit!
Mooney's Corner 