Tucker and Dale vs Evil

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We are fast approaching my favorite season, Fall. This means colorful leaves, cooler hoodie weather, Thanksgiving feasts and, of course, the end all be all of holidays for yours truly, Halloween! I do have a whole special getting rolled out next month, but I'd like to take this opportunity to get the jump on recommending some of my favorite horror comedies. Let us start with one of the best of recent years, 'Tucker and Dale vs Evil'.

Our story starts out as most American horror does. A bunch of teens head out on a camping trip somewhere in West Virginia. Automatically reminiscent of a typical 'Friday the 13th' setup, it's easy enough for the audience to realize that not everyone is gonna be safe here. Although, there tends to be some mystery behind it, as nothing to us seems directly threatening.

Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine) are introduced as the film's would-be psycho killers, but we soon find out that they're just a couple of redneck dudes. All they wanna do is head for a cabin in the woods that was left to them, do some repairs, and make themselves a nice retreat for the summer. The key scene has the teens running into them at a gas station, where they give off a sort of creepy vibe. To the teens, they're a couple of dangerous looking freaks, but in truth, they're just kinda awkward and shy - namely Dale.

Coincidentally enough, the teens end up camping out very close to the cabin Tucker and Dale are repairing. When one of the girls, Allison (Katrina Bowden) wipes out when attempting to go for a swim, Tucker and Dale rescue her. However, the other kids still see them as crazies, and assume that they straight up knocked her out and kidnapped her. So, they take it upon themselves to go retrieve her, lead by Chad (Jesse Moss).

What follows is dark hilarity at it's finest, as no one seems to know what's going on and the body count keeps piling up. The whole thing is about misunderstandings, and clearly the moral is "don't judge a book by it's cover". BUT the idea is truly original, and one that's surprisingly not bee explored all that much. It plays as a "what if" scenario in which the question is essentially "what if all this time Jason Voorhees was just misunderstood and wasn't actually killing these kids?" The question remains, what DOES kill these kids? Well, I won't tell you because it's pretty damn funny and truly highlights the stupidity of the teen victims in almost any horror movie.

So, if you're looking for something that might get you into the spirit of Halloween nice and early, I highly recommend this title. I've seen it more times that I care to admit, but it does end up being one of those titles you can keep coming back to.

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