31 Days of Drafts and Darkness:

"Tucker and Dale vs. Evil" (2010)

Note: This film is available on Netflix Instant Streaming right now. Check it out, as I feel it's a seriously underrated gem that deserves far more praise than it got.

While many Halloween movies blend comedy alongside horror, few of these films lean further towards the comedy side than they do the horror. "Ghostbusters" and "Shaun of the Dead" quickly come to mind, but otherwise I'm hard-pressed to think of an essentially comedic film that happens to have horror elements, rather than vice versa.

Enter Tucker and his bud Dale, who do for slasher movies what "Shaun" did for zombie films.

The Plot:

Take your standard cookie-cutter band of teenage hooligans and put them into the woods. Like any self-respective teens in a slasher film, they've arrived for booze, drugs, and scantily-clad shenanigans. As slasher movies routinely feature their own warped brand of karma, you can probably imagine what fate befalls these partying teenagers. And you'd be only half right.

Soon after the teens arrive at their campsite, they run across a pair of back-woods locals by the name of Tucker and Dale. Shifty-eyed and grizzled, the two look about ready to take a cleaver to the hapless partiers before the revelry can even begin. Naturally, the teens avoid these suspicious characters, that is until one of the girls in their group gets kidnapped by them. Or so it would seem.

If truth, Tucker and Dale are a good-natured pair of innocent hillbilly friends out for a relaxing weekend. They're far from the brightest bulbs in the box, but genuinely mean well. When one of the teens hits her head on a rock while skinny-dipping, the pair just so happen to be fishing for trout nearby. They rescue her and take her back to their cabin to dress her wound and nurse her back to health. Problem is, the girl's friends only witnessed the 'take the girl back to the cabin' part, and assume Tucker and Dale mean to torture and kill her in classic creepy-hillbilly fashion.

Each attempt made by the group of teens to 'rescue' their friend results in some horrific, accidental death. From the view of the campers, each grisly demise is the direct result of Tucker and Dale's murderous ways. From Tucker and Dale's viewpoint, each random mishap leading to a teenager's demise is some sort of ritualistic suicide pact among the teens. 

With each group outright terrified of the other, things go from bad to worse. A classic slasher villain does appear, but not necessarily from the place you'd think.

The Flavor:

I fell in love with "Tucker and Dale vs. Evil" from the concept alone. The premise of  two buddies being mistaken for slasher killers by a clueless group of teens, only to wind up the heroes of the story, is pure comic gold. That "Tucker and Dale vs. Evil" has a plot founded on the age-old 'can't judge a book by its cover' adage sounds like it'd be a stale concept. It's all the in inventive ways that the film executes (at times literally) all the standard slasher-movie cliques and warps them that makes it hysterical.

For any fans of the slasher-movie genre ("Friday the 13th", "Sleepaway Camp", about 1,000 others), "Tucker and Dale" provides a buffet of parody on old standbys. Shadowy figures, farm tools used as lethal implements, and of course, the obligatory chainsaw, all show up. Only now, perhaps for the first time in a horror film, a character honestly just planned to chop some firewood with that aforementioned chainsaw. Naturally, the nearby teenager, used to watching slasher films himself, sees this and assumes the crazy redneck is coming to kill him. In a blind panic, the fleeing teen fails to notice the sharp tree branch behind him and promptly impales himself running from a threat that was never a threat to begin with.

Alan Tudyk ("Firefly") and Tyler Labine (the cancelled-far-too-soon "Reaper") play Tucker and Dale, and watching their generally good-natured antics get mistaken for murderous intent is hysterical in its own right. That we then get to see their respective freak-outs at what looks like a bunch of suicidal teenagers adds icing to the comedy cake.  The leads do a great job not only portraying a pair of lovable goof-balls, but are back-woodsy enough that you can easily tell why they'd be taken for closet serial-killers. Of course, it's that snap judgment and how wrong it is that's the whole point of the movie.

Best Paired with:

"Tucker and Dale vs. Evil" is a Halloween movie that leans far more towards the funny side than horrific. Thus, even those outright opposed to jumpy moments will enjoy this movie. It's a great film to watch alongside a group of friends, especially when everyone has different tastes. While the horror-fans will gleefully eat up all the slasher-movie nods and how they're parodied, the more casual crowd will get to enjoy just how frickin' funny the story and characters are.

There's plenty of gore to satisfy those looking for it. While pretty much all of the deaths are simply accidental blunders, that they involve wood-chippers and weed-whackers should give you an idea of their squish factor. Yes, "Tucker and Dale" has its splattery moments, but they're cartoony and silly enough to not offend those with low gore tolerance. No moment strikes me as any more nasty than a Halloween store's severed-arm prop. Plus, the air of silliness that surrounds the movie more than cuts through the blood spray. Let me put it this way: the fake guts don't disgust because of how well-aware you're made that they're fake guts.

Accompanying Brew:

I wanted tonight's entry to pay homage to Tucker and Dale's taste in beer that's simple, American, and arrives in tall-boy style cans. Though Pabst Blue Ribbon's likely one of the more well-known choices, oddly via the hipster movement rather than redneck tone of Tuck and Dale, it doesn't meet the seasonal vibe. Perhaps something with a bit more malt?

Enter Narragansett 'Fest, the seasonal offering from the Rhody-based brewery that comes in full-on 16 ounce cans. Typical beer bottles and cans are 12-ounce, so 'Gansett (as it's known in RI) provides some added volume for your buck when it comes to their brews. Now yes, I'll grant you, my years spent in Rhode Island make me biased towards Narragansett, as it was frequently a go-to brew for a student without lots of spending money.

That said, for the sheer volume of beer per 6-pack (16 oz-cans mean you're essentially getting 2 free beers if you're used to a 12 oz-can 6-pack) combined with quality, 'Gansett Fest remains one of my favorite seasonal offerings. Attack me if you will, fellow beer-snobs, but Fest offers up a refreshing blend of malt + lighter lager that helps cleanse the palate of the typical spiced fare.

As an Octoberfest lager, Fest doesn't bother with the heavy cinnamon and other Fall spicse seen in most pumpkinhead-style seasonal brews. Instead, it focuses on the malty and slightly nutty flavors provided by added malt. The brew is combines traces of American-style lagers (very little on the hops and thus, very low on the bitter scale) with some added malty sweetness to create a beer that's both highly drinkable but far from watery.

I'm not a fan of watery beer, and while the tall-boy style cans may lead you to believe, at first glance, that 'Gansett Fest will be a mass-produced sort of affair, much like "Tucker and Dale vs. Evil" you'll find far more substance under the surface.