By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
If you’re a fan of horror legend Joe Bob Briggs, then you know that rednecks are a vital part of Hollywood history. These salt-of-the-earth characters can shine in any genre, but they work particularly well when it comes to horror. And if you want to watch the greatest R-rated redneck horror comedy ever made, you’re in luck because Tucker & Dale vs. Evil is now streaming for free on Tubi.
Tucker And Dale Vs. Evil
The plot of Tucker & Dale vs. Evil involves our titular characters simply trying to enjoy a weekend in that most familiar horror location: a cabin in the woods. However, they keep running into a group of fresh-faced college students going on their own camping trip, one of whom they save from drowning after she hits her head. This causes the co-eds to assume she has been kidnapped by evil rednecks, and their fatally clumsy antics lead them to believe that they really are getting murdered by murderous hillbillies lurking in the woods.
If it’s not obvious, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil is a kind of meta-horror comedy in which we see a genre staple—evil rednecks—from a different perspective. The college students are looking at our titular characters through the lens of a spooky film and see them as uncouth savages out to victimize a young girl. Meanwhile, we see that the would-be victims are actually the unintentional architects of their own demise, dying in increasingly over-the-top ways that never fail to entertain.
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil had a relatively small cast of veteran genre performers. Our lead antagonist is played by Jess Moss (best known for the Whistler TV show) and our damsel in distress is played by Katrina Bowden (still best known for her hilarious role on 30 Rock). But nobody steals the show like our titular redneck duo, played by Tyler Labine (best known for the New Amsterdam TV show) and Alan Tudyk (best known for Firefly and assorted Disney animated features).
By a country mile (as our rednecks might say), Tucker & Dale vs. Evil is one of the funniest horror comedies you will ever see. Unfortunately, its box office was no laughing matter: against a budget of $5 million, it earned only $5.2–$5.5 million. After the movie became a cult classic there were talks of a sequel, but star Alan Tudyk later confirmed in 2017 that those plans were dead on arrival thanks to a disappointing script.
Fortunately for the stars as well as director and cowriter Eli Craig, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil managed to win over film critics in a big way. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has an impressive critical score of 86 percent. Critics generally praised the film for its fine blend of humor and horror while also lauding its surprising amount of heart, making this one of the most accessible (and still funniest!) films in the entire spooky genre.
If you’re still on the fence about watching, it’s worth emphasizing that Tucker & Dale vs. Evil never takes its expectation-subverting plot too seriously. It’s possible to enjoy this as a humorous subversion of an entire genre as well as a metatext forcing us to examine our own assumptions about rednecks. Mercifully, though, it’s also possible to simply enjoy this as a smartly written film full of more laughs and gore than you can shake a stick at.
Will you find Tucker & Dale vs. Evil as side-splittingly hilarious as I did when you watch it on Tubi, or will this be one movie you’d rather toss into the wood-chipper? You won’t know until you load up a cold beer in your favorite koozie and stream it for yourself. Afterward, you may never look at “scary” rednecks or seemingly hapless college coeds the same ever again.
