Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010)

The idea of a group of college kids getting away from it all, blowing off steam but falling foul of some crazed killer is a well used one.  Perhaps most famously done in Evil Dead, and most recently in Cabin in the Woods, the concept has been done to death in all kinds of ways in between.  By making the hillbillies the victims, and all the events a series of accidents and misunderstandings, Tucker & Dale vs Evil completely turns the genre on its head.

Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and  Dale (Tyler Labine) have recently acquired a log cabin that they want to clean up and make their holiday home.  One night a bunch of college kids - who are on holiday in the same area -  go skinny dipping and Allison (Katrina Bowden) slips off a large rock.  When she doesn't resurface, Dale jumps in to rescue her and takes her back to the cabin to recover.  However, Allison's friends think that she has been kidnapped!  So begins a story of mistaken retribution.

Central to the film is the sweet developing relationship between Dale and Allison.  Tyler's Dale is sweet and bumbling, just unintentionally fearsome-looking; Katrina's Allison is also very sweet as she grows to like Dale, but in contrast is typically movie-college-kid smoking hot.  Alan Tudyk is perfect as Tucker, and the chemistry between him and Tyler is brilliant and provides a lot of humour.  Beyond the three main characters who all play off each other wonderfully, the film is hilariously funny and suitably gory for the genre (but not over the top).  I don't really want to say any more because I would spoil all of the best bits.  Great characters, sweet, very funny and suitably gruesome, Tucker and Dale vs Evil is well worth 80 minutes of anyone's time.