Tucker and Dale vs Evil
00:36:45
About
We’re back in the deep dark woods for 2010 horror comedy “Tucker & Dale Vs Evil”. A film in which we learn the pitfalls of a “fixer-upper” for the first-time buyer; observe the dangers of mixing chainsaws with bees; and you can actively hate the clueless teens (even more so than usual). Based on a simple but hilarious premise; “Tucker & Dale…” manages to sustain it for pretty much the whole of its runtime, with a necessary swing into more familiar horror territory for the last act. The heart of the film lays with its (wonderfully portrayed) titular characters; a refreshingly sweet, honest and hilarious double act, who you cannot help but love and root for as they blunder through an increasingly ludicrous series of coincidences and misunderstandings. Watch (or re-watch) to avoid spoilers and join us.
Transcript
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LeeGood evening and welcome to Horror. I'm Lee.
ChrisI'm Chris.
AdamI'm Adam.
LeeAnd we're here again for yet another episode, despite the fact nobody's asked us, but we've got nothing else to do and it's Sunday night, so we are here with spoilers and swearing for 2010s Tucker & Dale vs Evil.
Chris
LeeJust before we get into that though, we did want to discuss very briefly. It seems like ages ago now, but it's the first time we've recorded since. The three of us went to Horrific, the Romford Horror Film Festival a few weeks back. Yeah, and we had a nice time, didn't we?
AdamYeah.
ChrisYeah, fantastic.
AdamI'm so pleased it happened again because obviously we went last year and there was the whole thing with Lumi, with Premiere, the cinema closing or changing hands or whatever. And it was good to see that it was, you know, the strength of the festival and everything actually reopened it for that weekend before sort of like before they're launching it as Lumiere.
AdamAnd, yeah, it was just great to go back and just, it was a nice exactly as it was, as it was the last time.
ChrisIf if not better.
AdamAnd they're so well, so well organised and so well run and it's and it's in a cinema, you know, which is it's that is the one sort of beautiful thing, you're actually in a proper cinema complex and it's there's enough of it that they can run a program. It's not like you have to nip off around the corner or, you know, go and go and sit in a pub somewhere or whatever like that for certain bits of it. It's like they can run it all as a proper cinema.
Adamwhole weekend's program. I mean we saw, we saw Evil Dead 2.
LeeYep. On the big screen.
ChrisFirst time for me.
AdamFirst time for you?
LeeYes, first time.
AdamSo that was really.
ChrisI wish I could have been there.
AdamOh, mate, that was a fucking joy.
ChrisIt really was.
LeeYeah, I also got an opportunity to chat with the gentleman who's taking it over as well.
AdamOh, yes.
LeeWhich is good to get a face to put to the name.
LeeBut yeah, so he was telling me all about the things they've got planned and how they're planning on laying it all out and use of all the screens and everything.
ChrisYeah, they are really going at it properly, aren't they?
LeeOh yeah, 100%. He's got so much in the pipeline and he was just so nice.
ChrisYeah.
LeeHe's just such a nice guy. You know when you just meet someone and you just like you just intrinsically trust this person immediately.
LeeYeah, he was just a really nice bloke.
AdamA dangerous power sometimes.
LeeYes, yes.
LeeBut yeah, so I drunkenly rambled at him about 10 o'clock on the Friday night, but he was he was very friendly and still said hello to me on the Saturday, so I couldn't have said anything too dot.
AdamI did ask him for a job, but you know.
LeeI was there.
Adam
LeeYeah.
LeeYes, so the film festival went great on the Friday when we were there, so we were there for Video Shop Tales of Terror 2 and Evil Dead 2.
AdamWe because obviously we're in myself and Lee are in Video Shop Tales of Terror 2 Last and Revenge. Not just in it. In it in a very fun way. But we're we're we're in it and so there was no way on earth we weren't going to another film festival that a film that we were in was showing, so and we wanted to get the opportunity because who knows when it will be out on general release, who knows when, I mean, I'm hoping that there will be an equally wonderful little Blu-ray set. Yeah, me too. as there was for the first one.
LeeYeah, me too.
AdamAnd, yeah, it was.
AdamWe also, what was it we saw? I can't remember what we watched in the afternoon. We went into that one that was it looked like it was a couple of shows put together as one thing as like a promo or a pilot, didn't it?
LeeYes, yes. So it was the ghost hunting. That was it, yes. Yeah, sort of Most Haunted type thing.
LeeYeah, it was it was it was quite good. I quite enjoyed it.
AdamIt was it was watchable, it was, but equally, you know, amusing in its own terms and amusing to watch in places, but it was sort of, yeah, just exactly what that sort of show would be, you know, just a daft afternoon of we went to Rectory.
LeeYeah.
Adamand asked various people their theories and so on and so forth.
AdamSo yeah, funnily enough, I've been watching Strange But True repeated.
LeeOh, nice.
Adamwith Michael and it's sort of very much in a similar vein of, you know, people being interviewed about appearances and stuff.
LeeYeah, so so we had a great day on the Friday, so much so that on the Saturday, there was a film on that I really wanted to see.
LeeIt was a short, but the atmosphere there was so good, Lady Jennifer and myself went back again just to see the short. Yeah, and hang out at the bar and chat to people and stuff.
LeeSo we went back for The Domestication of Vampires in Essex.
ChrisOh, yes.
Leewhich is a new film, it's a first film by director Angie Darling Baby who Adam and I met on set with at, oh, when we were doing video shop. Video shop, yeah.
LeeAnd she was telling us all about it and it sounded fantastic, so when we saw it was showing at the film festival, I was like, I'm going to go back the next night and watch it.
LeeOh, and I'm so glad I did, it was fucking marvellous.
ChrisCool.
LeeIt was really, really good.
ChrisThere is a bit of a funny title.
LeeYes, but once you see it, it makes sense.
ChrisOkay.
LeeBut it's one of those again, I don't I don't want to give any of it away because the way it unfolds is really good.
LeeIt was full on laugh out loud funny.
LeeEverybody in there.
AdamHow how long are we talking in terms?
LeeI think it's about 20 minutes.
ChrisNice.
AdamThat's good.
LeeYeah, so it's a it's a nice contained story. I say really funny. The gore was excellent.
LeeThe crew working on it, it was the same, it was Jason Jaylow who did all the special effects on it.
LeeSo that's.
AdamOh, right, yes.
LeeYeah, so that gives you an idea of the gore you're going to be getting.
LeeBut yeah, and it was just it was just a really good fun time. It was really well received on the day as well, so yeah, I think.
AdamOh, cool. Cause because like you say, we we we met her at the filming the other one and it was literally she was just discussing what this was going to be. And yeah, I don't want to give the game away. I have not, I have not seen it, but I don't want to give the game away because the way it was told, it was like that sounds brilliant, but again, I'm respecting people's opportunity to walk in without, you know, knowing what they're getting what they're coming in.
LeeYeah.
LeeYeah, but I mean and for a first for a first short it was fantastic.
LeeHow they managed to get the location there, because it's it's it's pretty much a single location shot. Yeah, and it just looked excellent and she had a really good cast as well. Everyone was you'll see a few faces who you will recognise pop up unsurprisingly enough.
LeeOh, yes, and it was just it was well worth the trip all the way into Romford again for another day just to catch that 20 minutes. It was fantastic.
LeeAnd even so they made cocktails for the specific cocktails for the weekend, and The Domestication of Vampires had its own cocktail that they did, so.
ChrisThat's a nice touch.
LeeSo I had to have one of those.
AdamDid they have the chili sauce on sale by then?
LeeI never saw the chili sauce.
ChrisI never saw the chili sauce.
AdamYeah.
LeeSo I think I missed out on that unfortunately, but.
LeeBut yeah, so keep an eye out for The Domestication of Vampires in Essex. When it gets a release, we will give you a shout and let you know. Yeah, and I would recommend everybody get out and watch it because it's an absolute blast.
LeeSo on to this evening's main feature.
LeeSo Chris, you saw this before, didn't you?
ChrisI did. Yeah, in fact, it was very nearly a year ago. It was for we've been watching, I think it was around October last year. It might have been for the, in fact, it might have been for the Halloween one.
LeeYeah.
ChrisYeah.
AdamCause cause obviously this this was the first time one for me. I assumed you might have seen it when it came out. Chris, did you see it at the time it came out Lee, when was that?
Lee2010.
Adam2010.
Lee2010, yeah, I I've seen this probably five or six times now, I think.
ChrisWow.
ChrisSo I was a bit worried because I thought it wasn't that long ago that that I watched it. Is it going to is it going to be as good second time? It might be one of those that it gets better for at least the next 10 or 20 times, I reckon.
ChrisCuz yeah, like because you think a comedy like that is like you sort of remember some of the jokes and like, yeah, they're funny, but is that, you know, is it just going to be the same jokes seen them again, but actually, there's a lot more going on in this that really gives it depth that you might not always remember clearly.
LeeYeah, that's true.
AdamAs as it struck me, unlike a lot of cause it was funny, but I can't but it wasn't it wasn't lines.
AdamDo you know what I mean?
ChrisA couple, couple of times, but that wasn't its main.
AdamYeah, I don't feel it's got lines that have stuck in my head or particularly, but it is just that characterisation.
LeeYeah.
AdamLike Tucker and and it encompasses everything because it's conversational, it's it's physical and everything else like that.
AdamSo it is funny, but it wasn't it was when I was going, I didn't think there was like a line that I particularly caught, it was just, I mean, to the point of the lovely situation that the police cruisers comes around just at the point.
Adamthat they're dragging a half chicken boy.
ChrisAnd and it's the way they're trying to explain and it's like Yes. that could so not work because it's like, well that is so obvious what they're saying.
LeeYes.
ChrisBut because you know them by then, you're like, yeah, they would they're just honest and they're just say it and they don't know how to not be that.
LeeI think you're right. I think the I think the comedy is in the delivery rather than in the lines.
LeeIt's the way that Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine give that give those characters life that makes it so funny.
ChrisReally does.
AdamIt was much more that. That was the thing is I got it. It was just their sort of back and forth. It was really really great.
ChrisAnd and even the situations as well, like where they've got the the post inside and it's like, oh watch out for that. And of course, then later on, they play it again and you're like, oh yeah, watch out. But then when it actually hits, it's like that's awful, but also funny because it's been set up to be that's going to go wrong at some point.
AdamCan I say, thank you for saying that, Chris, because I just have remembered a line from it that got me.
AdamWhich was distinctly, "No, no, no, he's walking it off."
LeeYeah, yeah.
Adamthat sort of.
ChrisBut it's almost lost in the entire entire situation.
AdamNo, no, no, the situation isn't getting this bad. You know.
ChrisYeah.
AdamHe's looking all right. Yeah, you know, just that sort of vain hope of like, he'll be fine. He'll be fine. Oh, no, no.
AdamI got.
LeeThe watching it back this time, the line I kept getting actually was a line that Claire used for something else, when she said it was slapstick, but it wasn't stupid.
LeeThat's what I got from, like it is very slapstick, the timing of everything.
ChrisYeah.
LeeBut it just it plays brilliantly. It doesn't feel like stupid humour.
LeeIt's just, yeah, it's just everything always happens at the worst possible.
ChrisJust goes wrong.
AdamEveryone's right to a heightened extent.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, it's not basically, if you presented this as a drama, people would not believe you.
LeeYeah.
AdamBecause it's like what you you know, if it was just sort of like what a series of accidents and it still just keeps.
ChrisWell and that's it. Yeah, if you if you if you sort of hear that as the idea, I think when I first started watching it, I sort of just thought are they going to be able to do this for the whole film?
ChrisBut then you realise as it goes on that they do that it sort of twists around and the story develops and it's like they can keep doing that because there's a lot more to learn even or even right up to the end.
AdamI think I think it's up until the point that Tucker gets captured. I think up until that point, they maintain that.
AdamAnd that's the point they have to switch it a bit to yeah to actually have because because by that point you could not just then knock off eight people genuinely without knowing that it was happening or or that there was something really weird going on.
ChrisYeah.
AdamThey've already got to the point where this is weird, you know, when when a man's impaled and someone's in a wood chipper, at that point you would start asking questions.
AdamAnd you would start hopefully trying to take precautions, which they they do, you know, they're not they're well meaning in sort of every sense.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd the one and I'm I don't know, because I didn't because I was going into it, like first time. I didn't do my usual sort of like go through on sort of the making of and things like that.
AdamSo I don't know if any of this is true, but the one thing I also felt was is that there's an interesting way that they switch it's like a warmth in the screen.
AdamAnd whenever it's the bits which involve the college kids, which is what I'm going to call them. So it's sort of like I'm pretty sure, and who knows? I might have watched this in a in a less than sober state. And I might have imagined this. You know, it's storytelling and stuff.
LeeYeah.
Leecollege kids.
AdamYeah.
ChrisYeah.
AdamI am convinced that they had like almost like a blue filter.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd then a warmer like sort of filter whenever it was Tucker and Dale without the interactions going on, when it was just them, it was actually quite sunny and sweet.
ChrisWell and and and the way they are with each other is also that they're just so so.
AdamYeah, absolutely. I'm sure that's I'm sure that it's cinematically they are doing that.
ChrisYeah, it would make sense.
AdamIt does make sense.
ChrisIt's well polished. It's it's a good great production.
ChrisI mean, I don't know what the budget was, but but it it has that idea. It feels a bit independent in, you know, it's not like a it's no near a Triple A, like but yeah, it still seems excellently produced. Like the effects fantastic.
AdamOh yeah, not only that but also just to be able to do that sort of level of gore because the gore's accurate, you know, and the gore hurts. It doesn't look.
ChrisNo.
AdamYou know, it's not sort of flippant in that sense.
AdamAnd the gore, I mean the guy getting impaled on the tree.
LeeOh.
AdamAnd and just the beauty of that, that because normally in a horror film, it's not the monster that finds it when Dale stumbles across it. And it's just that proper, you know, it's just a absolutely real reaction, how you would be because. No, he isn't the stalker, he isn't the slasher or whatever like that. So when he stumbles across it, he's even more so than the friends stumbling across it. Do you know what I mean?
AdamIt's like just around them. What the fuck.
LeeYeah, I just this is just one of those films that, you know, one of those ones that you can put on no matter what you're in the mood for and it always works.
ChrisIt's just got.
LeeIt's a great late night.
LeeBut I think that's why, as you were saying, Chris, I always remember the first half of this film, so the last half of the twist, I always forget, I think because I normally put it on around midnight and fall asleep after about an hour.
ChrisRight.
Leeand miss the end. So every time I go, oh yeah, that's it back.
ChrisYeah.
AdamCause that was that was the thing as well is because I kind of it was weird that they sort of like the Chad character is up until the sort of point that that isn't what the case is. It just felt more that I thought while I was watching something was like, actually, yeah, no, he's just a dick.
AdamRather rather than sort of then putting in the actual sort of cliché from a slasher film of, well, my parents were killed, my mother was captured by hillbillies, etc, etc.
AdamAnd but I actually just thought, yeah, just a privileged preppy American prick probably would just be like that.
AdamAnd from the bit where he's talking to Alison right near the start about just sort of like, yeah, but, you know, we're better people. You know, we are better people. It's like, oh, you're a fucking shit house mate. And the lovely turnaround of him becoming the villain or essentially becoming the villain and on the reflective side, he's actually the hero of the film he's in.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisAbsolutely. He really cannot see it any other way.
AdamAnd it's and it's actually a lovely thing to see that there's a because it's it's almost like, right, here's the guy who wins in a traditional slasher film. He's a prick. He doesn't care about hurting people, blah, blah, blah.
AdamAnd then on the other side of it, you've got Tucker and Dale, who are so fucking nice and normal, but not even normal because they are just I know that it's a phrase that gets thrown around like toxic masculinity. And they are not it.
LeeNo.
AdamYou know, they are just two mates who look out for each other and support each other and okay, one of them, you know, one of them's smarter than the other, but only in certain ways.
ChrisYeah, that is interesting as well.
ChrisYeah, how they both see him as the smart one and yet it's like, yeah, not quite, not quite.
AdamYou know, he's he's more capable for but that's literally the only thing.
AdamYou know, it's he's just slightly more capable, but they are just very lovely emotionally in touch people.
AdamAnd actually, I was quite and normally I wouldn't be a sucker for a romance or things like that, but I was very worried. I was like, well, don't kill off Ally because he's been done this sort of way. Although I do think Ally was a bit of a nothing role because I don't think she got to be as funny as Tucker and Dale.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, and it's sort of it's would have it would have suited it. But I think, yeah, it's just it was just really nice that it was this sort of thing of no, the two bumbling lovely people are, you know, there your heroes.
Lee
AdamYou know, well, heroes amidst a series of terrible coincidences, but just, you know.
AdamBecause because let's face it, you watch this from the outside. Apparently, I think there's a version of it because I I got it on I got it on a German Blu-ray.
AdamSo I couldn't find it available physically, I don't think there's a I don't think there's a Blu-ray certainly.
AdamBut apparently, I think the I think there's like on one of the I don't think it's on this one, and I can't, I don't know, because it's in German, so I don't know the menu screen. But it didn't seem to have any particular extras or anything, but apparently one of the releases you can watch it edited as the college kids slasher film.
LeeWow.
ChrisThat's funny.
AdamSo you can sort of which which I'm assuming works up to a point until, you know, they must come the point where Chad just out and out becomes the villain, yeah, to the circular saw.
ChrisYeah, it's got to be quite a short.
AdamWhich is oddly wonderful to see something so like that cliché, of of all the others that they sort of pick into and sort of like, you know, the college kids are very much the usual bunch of pricks that they send in into the woods and you don't mind that evil people are killing them.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd then, so it's so immediately you're on Tucker and Dale side because they're not even killing them.
LeeYeah.
AdamThey're just sweet and sort of, you know, and, yeah, it sort of just, I don't know.
ChrisAnd who is it who plays who is it who plays Chad, because he he does a great job.
ChrisHe really does play the whole range needed for this.
AdamHe does so well done.
ChrisAbsolutely.
ChrisAll the way through. Like you hate him when he's meant to be the nice one, obviously, like, you know, then you hate him when he's evil as well and it's like.
LeeYeah.
LeeJesse Moss, the actor. He's I tell you he reminded me of.
ChrisFantastic.
LeeIt reminded me of, you remember the Friday the 13th remake, the guy who owns the the cabin in that one, who's who's playing a very straight role of effectively the same character. Everyone's his friend because he's rich and stuff, but everyone really knows he's an asshole and no one really likes him.
ChrisYeah.
LeeBut he is he is the coolest, richest person, so everyone kind of puts up with his.
AdamThey have to they suck up to him because he is power.
LeeYeah, exactly. He is the influence of the thing.
AdamYeah, and it's sort of oh and that was where I was kind of like, I was just going, yep, yep, no, he would be a prick.
LeeYeah.
AdamI didn't need his, I didn't need his parents killed like that. I think actually just him just nebulously wandering in from a tennis cult, you know, to to be an asshole.
LeeSo.
LeeAnd I mean and everybody's good in this, considering the only person who I knew in this going in obviously was Alan Tudyk.
ChrisYeah, I knew from Firefly. I totally did not realise he was in Firefly. That must have been the first ever saw him. No, no, I know. But yeah, I've never seen I've never seen Firefly. I'm going to have to watch it again. I highly recommend it. It is one of the best sci-fi. But I but weirdly enough, he was the only name I recognised because he's the voice of the Stroppy Robot in Rogue One.
LeeThey told me Firefly.
LeeI'm going to have to watch it again.
LeeHe's also if you haven't seen it, he's in a show called Resident Alien, which is absolutely incredible.
ChrisI don't think I heard of that.
LeeSo a quick setup, basically an alien lands, he has to take over someone's identity. So he finds this empty cabin, so he goes into it and assumes the appearance and life of the person who lives in it, who is a pathologist, but it's like he's, you know, like his summer home type thing, so he doesn't have to go to work or anything.
LeeBut then someone kills the town's pathologist, so the police come to get him to come and do the job until they can find one, but he's an alien, so he only knows what he's seen on TV and things he's found around the cabin.
LeeAnd it is absolutely brilliant.
ChrisThis this pretty new, isn't it? It only came out.
LeeYeah, it's only a few.
LeeYear.
ChrisYeah, because I saw the trailer for it. I thought it did look good.
LeeOh, it is, it's really, really amazing.
AdamWe'll pause here as we check the internet.
Lee2021 it came out, so yeah.
ChrisOkay.
LeeIt is new, but yeah, and he's he's he's excellent in it.
Leeplaying someone completely out of his depth and just trying to wing it all the time, because he's got no idea what's going on.
ChrisIt's a bit like bit like this role. His character.
ChrisHe's he's definitely got more confidence, which helps him a lot, but not always.
AdamAlso, the other regret that I have about not having looked, you know, done done the usual sort of like looking into it is because I lit like I said, I didn't know anyone on the cast list.
AdamBut I want to know if the dogs done other films.
LeeThat dog was kind of cute.
LeeYeah, and it's slobbery.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd this was just one that sort of I sort of a very late sort of thing that is one thing I did do was oh I'll I'll just check what the director's done, like other films he's done. Didn't recognise any of them, but he has got a film coming out that I kept seeing adverts for.
AdamSo it was weird to I was like, oh well I can check out Tucker and Dale and see and I'm much more enthusiastic about the film because it had the it's got a really unpromising title, which is Clown in a Cornfield. But now I've seen Tucker and Dale, I'm like, no, I want to see. He could he could manage to make a good film with that title. Yeah. But based on a book apparently, I'm not so I don't know, yeah.
ChrisHe could he could manage to make a good film with that title.
AdamI don't know much more than that.
LeeOh, cool. That sounds good. Yeah. I say I'd be very keen to see anything else he's done really.
LeeBecause yeah, this just as you say, it was one that it came out. I must have heard it reviewed somewhere sort of pre-release and was waiting for it. So as soon as it came out, I was I was, you know, as soon as the DVD was out, I was on it. But yeah, it's not it's not very well known. I wouldn't have considering how good it is.
ChrisYeah.
LeeFunnily enough, I was talking to my brother on Friday and unprompted, he said, oh, I rewatched Tucker & Dale vs Evil the other week. That's such a good film. And I was like, oh, we just we're covering that tomorrow.
AdamOh.
AdamAnd the one the one other thing that I did see before I was like, cuz I can't leave it. It was like a scab. I'm going to pick the scab on, but I still had to sort of just gently poke at the membrane of the internet of like, what else has Tucker and Dale got going on? there is a Japanese remake.
Adamcalled Handsome Boys or Handsome Men or something.
LeeOkay.
ChrisOh.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd yeah, I'm I'm intrigued.
ChrisOh, yeah.
AdamEspecially because it it's it's such a turnaround because it's usually Americans taking like Asian horror and remaking them. So I'd like to see, you know, whether whether they sort of whether they keep how much they keep to this or whether it's just a thread or what.
AdamBut yeah, could be worth could be worth it's quite recent as well, I think it's like a couple of years ago.
LeeYeah, I'm definitely going to track that down. That sounds great.
LeeHow soon mixed with this, I mean. Yeah, that was the one that was the one thing we missed at Romford as if they hadn't had Howl at 10 o'clock in the morning, I'd have been in for that even though we'd done it the week before.
AdamOh, yeah. Yeah, that was the one that was the one thing we missed at Romford as if they hadn't had Howl at 10 o'clock in the morning, I'd have been in for that even though we'd done it the week before.
LeeYeah, yeah.
ChrisI was trying to think what other films it it's closest to.
ChrisBecause the humour, you know, you might think of like Scary Movie type films where it's full on satirical but slapstick, but they are more silly.
ChrisWhereas this treads the balance, you know, fantastically between film.
