Well, it is the month of October. In the Philippines that means, well, that means we’re starting to celebrate the Christmas season. Yeah, we generally bypass Halloween in the country. So, instead of mall personnel decorating the wall with spooky stuff, they start dressing the area with more festive designs. I kind of feel we’re missing out as Halloween should be a fun holiday.

Although we don’t generally celebrate it here, we here at 3rd World Geeks have decided to, in our own special way, commemorate the season. So, for the entire month of October, we are devoting our I’ll Review Anything section to reviewing horror adjacent things with Spooktober. Note that I said “horror adjacent” as we’re not going to go whole hog on the scares all the time. We’re going to review some stuff that do have horror elements to them because, although we like Halloween over here, we still like to have a good time.

For our inaugural Spooktober entry, I’ve decided to go with a modern cult classic. But we’re not looking at something super scary. No, we need something to ease us into this new annual tradition. That’s why I’ve opted to review Tucker and Dale vs. Evil.

Although it has been a solid fifteen years since Tucker and Dale vs. Evil was first released, I’m still going to make this a SPOILER FREE warning. Oddly enough, despite this being a cult classic, it’s become pretty hard to find a legitimate streaming service that has this film! But, there are places where you can still stream the movie for free. You just have to know where to look. Anyway, I’m rambling. Just know this is a SPOILER FREE review.

Tucker and Dale are two dimwitted but kindhearted hillbillies who have just bought a “vacation home” in the woods. When Allison, a college student, slips and falls into the river, the two rescue her from drowning. Unfortunately, Allison’s other college friends see this and mistakes them for kidnapping Allison instead. The misunderstanding then turns hilariously deadly.

First off, one of the best things about Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is the utter subversion of the “hillbilly” trope found in horror movies. Tucker and Dale are just good people but, because of how they look and behave, the college kids think they’re psycho killers. In their minds, they’re the heroes of the story and, in your typical horror movie, they would be. But here, they inadvertently become the aforementioned “evil” of the story, not the hillbillies. It also helps how, besides the general setup, the college kids do behave rather trope-y. It adds another ironic layer to the entire thing.

I also do have to commend the performances of the three main leads. Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine star as Tucker and Dale, respectively. If you’re any self-respecting geek, you’re already familiar with Alan Tudyk as he’s pretty much a chameleon and he plays Tucker as the realist of the two. He manages to instill Tucker with a sort of worldly wisdom. He tries to encourage Dale to be more self-assured in his own way. On the other hand, I’ve never heard of Tyler Labine but, from what I’ve seen in Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, I do believe I need to see more of him. He manages to make Dale a lovable goof who is just generally a nice guy. The two of them together also have a good amount of chemistry, so their interactions are fun to see.

The third lead is Katrina Bowden who plays Allison. She makes this budding psychologist nice and down to earth. Honestly, it’s pretty amazing as it could have easily come off as very superficial or fake. But Katrina Bowden made it come off so naturally. That makes it easy to believe she can form a bond with Dale. Although she doesn’t really get to do much in the grand scheme of things, she does seem like the ingredient necessary to make the viewers grow more attached to these generally nice hillbillies.

Still, at Tucker and Dale vs. Evil’s heart, it’s still a spoof on the horror/slasher genre. As such, there are going to be people who are going to die. And, boy, are the kills gratuitous and satisfying… in a stupid and comedic sort of way. I have to say, if possible, don’t go see the Red Band trailer for this movie as it spoils most of the kills. As this is a SPOILER FREE review, let me just say most of the kills are really idiotic but satisfying. They’re also pretty funny as they come of more cartoony than gruesome. Still, those with very weak stomachs might want to avoid seeing this movie. The deaths are cartoony but still very bloody.

My complaints with the movie are pretty small. The climax seems weirdly out-of-place. I understand how they got to that point of the story. My issue is this new location just popping out of nowhere. I also have an issue with another aspect but, as it’s not in any of the trailers, I can’t really talk about it. SPOILER FREE review here, remember? The best way to explain what it is it feels more like a deus ex machina as it only pops up a couple of times when it’s needed. As such, these feel like the writers needed to add a couple of more scenes or something. So, they added this element to Tucker and Dale’s lives. Still, when all is said and done, these problems are very minor and you might not even notice them.

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is a great spoof of the slasher/horror genre. It’s a hilarious film of how judging a book by its cover can lead to disastrous, bloody and deadly results. Most horror fans will definitely get a kick on this inversion of something they’re so familiar with. But even if you’re not a fan of slasher films, I do think you’ll still get a kick with the film’s somewhat sadistic, sick twisted sense of dark humor. Go give it a watch if you can.

Have you seen Tucker and Dale vs. Evil? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments section below!