Horror spoof. R. 1 hour, 29 minutes. At area theaters
As one-joke horror comedies go, “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil” is built around a winner. That one joke is this: Suppose, in the usual cliched horror-movie plot, the inbred redneck rubes, with their penchant for chewin’ tobacco, bad dentistry, worse grammar and chainsaws, were merely innocent bystanders. Misunderstood. Victims.
Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine are the two bubbas who run afoul of an SUV packed with jump-to-wrong-conclusion coeds. Tucker and Dale inspire fear and contempt from the college kids. And as the kids start meeting with this accidental impaling or that accidental shooting/immolation or what have you, the terror among the survivors grows. And it’s all just one big misunderstanding.
Sadly, not much funny is done with this set-up. The yokels aren’t menacing, and the actors playing them don’t even dive into whatever Ozarks/Bayou/Appalachian accent that such characters usually sport. That’s a letdown, because Tudyk is normally hilarious without trying too hard.
Actor-turned-director Eli Craig is more fascinated with the next effect to fret much over character or comic timing or funny lines. Jokes don’t land, or they land flat-footed.
But “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil” still has the makings of a classic midnight movie — audience participation, horror fans howling at every creative killing. Stripped of the audience’s help, however, “Evil” fails to triumph. Utterly.
