"Clever and funny."

Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland gave us a new way to look at horror movies, but only the zombie genre. Using that idea, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil takes on the slasher movie genre with hilarious and surprising results.

Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine) have purchased a vacation home up by the lake. They're both hillbillies and proud of it. They are those people who seem to always be covered in a thin layer of dirt and motor oil. Dale is genuinely nice, helpful, and shy. Tucker is his best friend. Neither of them would hurt anyone -- or would they?

A group of teenagers are going up to the lake to camp. At a rest stop they meet Tucker and Dale, only from their point of view Tucker and Dale resemble the inbred monsters from The Hills Have Eyes. Threatening music invades the soundtrack as the teenagers come face to face with Tucker and Dale inside the rest stop. They are sure that these hillbillies are fixing to kill them. When one of the girls in the group falls into the lake and hits her head on a rock, Tucker and Dale rescue her while they're fishing. But to the group of teenagers on the other side of the lake, it looks like the hillbillies are scooping their friend out of the water and kidnapping her. What follows is a hilarious bloodbath as the bungling teenagers off themselves one by one through accidents as they try and kill Tucker and Dale in order to rescue their lost friend. Tyler Labine as Dale is the best part of the film. Tudyk does a humorous job as always, but Labine steals the show as the always sweet Dale, even when he's covered in someone else's blood.

The movie does waver a bit with its constantly stupid teenagers. I know that's the point, and we're supposed to laugh whenever someone suggests calling the cops and another person says, "We don't need the cops." But sometimes the lines spoofing cheesy dialogue from past horror movies comes across too forced, like the writers were looking desperately for a joke that just didn't materialize. However, barring a few minor missteps, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is another worthy addition to the growing spoof horror genre. Most of the time it's clever and funny. Labine's heart-warming Dale is the icing on top of this blood-spattered cake.

Grade: B+

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