Blair Russell’s review published on Letterboxd:
This is a brand new review of something that I rated here the first few days I was a member of this site, where I only said a few words about it. I figured it was time to give it a more proper review; I was happy to do so as to me this is one of those films that are always rewatchable.
This sends up the slasher genre by having two white trash men (the titular Tucker & Dale) be nice and charming people but to the prejudiced “city slicker” college students who happen to be camping close to Tucker & Dale's new cabin in the woods, T&D look like creepy killers. From there, several unfortunate accidents happen (as in, very gory deaths) which to “the college kids” only reaffirms their incorrect suspicions. There's even a romance as Dale and college kid Allison (Katrina Bowden) fall in love and personally, I don't blame Dale for that at all.
To me, this movie works. The first time I saw this was on the big screen at the arthouse joint in Orlando which sometimes shows films like this. I wasn't sure of the first thing, which was a weird found footage type thing that wasn't really needed and I wonder if “a higher up” wanted that scene. After that, though, this movie is a home run as it's a hilarious take-off of the slasher genre which at the same time doesn't crap on the slasher genre for all the faults it has. You enjoy all the stereotypes or the twists on stereotypes, and for those that love gory movies, this has plenty of bloody moments.
But it is Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine as the leads that make the film; they are great in their roles. Sure, Tucker & Dale are rednecks who love fishing and drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon... they are still very likable people and you enjoy following their adventures and feel bad for all the trouble that happens which appears to be caused by them and yet none of it was. I am not sure why director Eli Craig (his mom is Sally Field!) hasn't done anything theatrically since this movie; I'll just blame it on Hollywood being lame, whether or not that's actually the case.
As for Cabin in the Woods, I've never seen that as I am not a Joss Whedon fan and what I heard about the film, it doesn't sound too entertaining; maybe I should be fair one day and at least give it a shot to see how I compare that spoof to this motion picture.
Blair Russell liked these reviews
All
' ].join(''); if ( adsScript && adsScript === 'bandsintown' && adsPlatforms && ((window.isIOS && adsPlatforms.indexOf("iOS") >= 0) || (window.isAndroid && adsPlatforms.indexOf("Android") >= 0)) && adsLocations && adsMode && ( (adsMode === 'include' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) >= 0) || (adsMode === 'exclude' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) == -1) ) ) { var opts = { artist: "", song: "", adunit_id: 100005950, div_id: "cf_async_76119d6c-42a7-4359-8916-d79bb4430e8b" }; adUnit.id = opts.div_id; if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } var c=function(){cf.showAsyncAd(opts)};if(typeof window.cf !== 'undefined')c();else{cf_async=!0;var r=document.createElement("script"),s=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];r.async=!0;r.src="//srv.tunefindforfans.com/fruits/apricots.js";r.readyState?r.onreadystatechange=function(){if("loaded"==r.readyState||"complete"==r.readyState)r.onreadystatechange=null,c()}:r.onload=c;s.parentNode.insertBefore(r,s)}; } else { adUnit.id = 'pw-76119d6c-42a7-4359-8916-d79bb4430e8b'; adUnit.className = 'pw-div -tile300x250 -alignleft -bottommargin'; adUnit.setAttribute('data-pw-' + (renderMobile ? 'mobi' : 'desk'), 'med_rect_btf'); if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (event) => { adUnit.insertAdjacentHTML('afterend', kicker); window.ramp.que.push(function () { window.ramp.addTag('pw-76119d6c-42a7-4359-8916-d79bb4430e8b'); }); }, { once: true }); } } tag.remove(); })(document.getElementById('script-76119d6c-42a7-4359-8916-d79bb4430e8b'));
' ].join(''); if ( adsScript && adsScript === 'bandsintown' && adsPlatforms && ((window.isIOS && adsPlatforms.indexOf("iOS") >= 0) || (window.isAndroid && adsPlatforms.indexOf("Android") >= 0)) && adsLocations && adsMode && ( (adsMode === 'include' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) >= 0) || (adsMode === 'exclude' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) == -1) ) ) { var opts = { artist: "", song: "", adunit_id: 100005950, div_id: "cf_async_fc5c1ca0-7a07-49cb-9354-d87b857a0066" }; adUnit.id = opts.div_id; if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } var c=function(){cf.showAsyncAd(opts)};if(typeof window.cf !== 'undefined')c();else{cf_async=!0;var r=document.createElement("script"),s=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];r.async=!0;r.src="//srv.tunefindforfans.com/fruits/apricots.js";r.readyState?r.onreadystatechange=function(){if("loaded"==r.readyState||"complete"==r.readyState)r.onreadystatechange=null,c()}:r.onload=c;s.parentNode.insertBefore(r,s)}; } else { adUnit.id = 'pw-fc5c1ca0-7a07-49cb-9354-d87b857a0066'; adUnit.className = 'pw-div'; adUnit.setAttribute('data-pw-' + (renderMobile ? 'mobi' : 'desk'), 'sky_btf'); if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (event) => { adUnit.insertAdjacentHTML('afterend', kicker); window.ramp.que.push(function () { window.ramp.addTag('pw-fc5c1ca0-7a07-49cb-9354-d87b857a0066'); }); }, { once: true }); } } tag.remove(); })(document.getElementById('script-fc5c1ca0-7a07-49cb-9354-d87b857a0066'));
