Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
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This week we dip back into comedy, where a case of mistaken-identity on the part of some overzealous college kids leads to their deaths and much confusion on the part of two rednecks just trying to enjoy some peace and quiet.
Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010)
Episode 24, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw
Todd: Welcome to another episode of 2 Guys and Chainsaw. I’m Todd.
Craig: I’m Craig.
Todd: And today, we decided that we’ll go for comedy. We’re doing Tucker and Dale Versus Evil. Craig, you suggested this one. Have you seen it before?
Craig: Yeah. I’ve seen it before. You know, we’ve talked about watching this one for a long time. You’ve seen it before too. Right? Yep. And it’s funny because not only have I seen it before, but I’ve watched it several times. This is one of those movies that’s, you know, kinda just easy to put on on a Sunday afternoon, and you can kinda pay attention here and there. If you got other things going on, it doesn’t really matter. It’s hilarious throughout, and so, you know, you can just kinda get having seen it all the way through, of course, you can then just kinda catch little parts that, are funny even, you know, without context.
Todd: Yeah.
Craig: It’s it’s just funny all the way through.
Todd: It’s pretty cool. I actually, as you know, owned and ran an independent movie theater for a while, and this movie came out at that time. I think it was about 2010 or 2011 when that when that came out, and this just came across my lap. It was one of the films that the distributors, the the particular distributor that I got most of my films from had, and I hadn’t heard of it. I hadn’t seen any ads for it.
Craig: Mhmm.
Todd: And all I had done was check out the trailer online and said, this is a cool looking movie. What an awesome premise where it takes that idea of the hillbilly killers and flips it on its head and says, what if what if the hillbillies are just minding their own business, and it’s the kids who were causing more trouble than good because they’re used to that trope? And, and so, yeah, I we watched it, it did pretty well at our theater actually, but I think it only got a limited release in the US.
Craig: It did. Yeah. I mean, it’s, in fact, I think the production was a little I don’t know if the production itself was trouble, but I think it was made and then sat on a shelf for a little while, before it got released. And then, like you said, limit I didn’t know it came to your theater because it was really limited, Todd, it didn’t really do that great.
Todd: No. Actually, in the US, I even have the figures here. Domestic gross, all, like, to date is, like, $224,000 Yeah. Which is insanely low. And, foreign gross though was 4 4a half 1000000. Right. So it’s really depressing that this, I guess it’s a Canadian American film. So maybe some of that foreign comes from Canada, but this is a kind of movie that just fits right in with a a genre film that a lot of American horror audience would love.
Craig: I think so. And I think that, you know, it’s it’s established a following enough so that, there’s a sequel planned. I mean, it’s in super early stages, so who knows if it’ll actually happen. But when I saw those numbers, I I was really surprised that any studio would green light a sequel, but maybe it’s generated enough buzz, you know, just kind of word-of-mouth. Yeah. Cult following that they might be able to have some success again.
Todd: Maybe it was a Kickstarter, effort to get sequel or something. Maybe. I love the movie. I I enjoyed watching it the 2nd time around just as much. I don’t think it’s without its flaws, but it is it is cute and it is funny.
Craig: Yeah. It’s not a perfect movie, and I would say, you know, it’s for the first half at least, it’s just hilariously funny. And that as the stakes kinda get higher in the second half, the laughs kinda dwindle little dwindle a little bit, and I found myself kinda missing, laughing as much as we had been through the first half. But it’s not boring. It’s entertaining. And like you said, the the premise is just it’s so clever because we’ve seen so many of those hillbilly movies where it’s, you know, crazy, sometimes deformed hillbillies, laying siege on, you know, families or groups of kids or whatever. And so to take that really, really familiar framework and then do something clever with it, I think, is clever and and and cool.
Todd: Yeah. Because you can really only go so far. Hillbillies are another one of those genres. Like, we’re talking about cannibals. Mhmm. You can only go so far with it before it becomes boring, and you’ve seen everything you can see
Craig: with it. So Exactly. I mean, you can only watch those wrong turn sequels so many times. I mean, what what more can they do? And and really, they those in you know, those are kind of the, yeah, what would you call it, like, the touchstone of those films, these days, and they have just gotten progressively worse as time has gone on.
Todd: Had did you ever see Jughead?
Craig: Yeah.
Todd: Now that that again took that hillbilly trope, but really put an odd spin on it. But that’s what you have to do is put some crazy Todd spin on it for it to be interesting.
Craig: That was the one with some, like, entity they had to sacrifice from the pit, yeah,
Todd: in the woods.
Craig: Yeah. That was a different one. Yeah. Well, this one, you know okay. So we got Tucker and Dale. You know? There’s these 2 good old boys. You know, they’re they refer to themselves, and everybody else refers to them as hillbillies throughout, but they’re just good old guys.
Todd: They’re not really hillbillies, not in the sense that we think of hillbill. And then and, you know, we’re in the Midwest, so we we’re we’re in a position to to see what the Ozarks are not far from us. We we kind of understand the spectrum, and these these kids, I don’t know, you’d almost more call them rednecks than
Craig: Yeah. Ones, wouldn’t you? Fair enough. Fair enough. But they call themselves hillbillies. Right. Right. And and that that’s you know, they’re playing on the stereotypes, obviously. It’s funny the first time that we see them. Well, I guess we should talk about the opening first because it’s kind of a book end kinda deal when it comes back to the end. We open it was very reminiscent of, like, Texas chainsaw massacre, right, which opens kinda like with this investigative thing.
Todd: Thing I thought of. Yeah.
Craig: Yeah. And, it’s this news reporter, and it’s going through this kind of rundown looking place. You don’t get to see much. I think it was in black and white.
Todd: And it was it was, like, filmed through a camera, like a found footage type thing. Right.
Craig: Exactly. And they’re walking through this weird place, and then all of a sudden, this scary guy jumps out with, like, a club or a hatchet or something and takes out it appears that it takes out the, news crew. And that’s, you know, just kind of a cold open. And then we cut directly to this road scene where there’s this group of college kids. Yeah. Generic college kids. Right? Of the car. Right. I think there’s about 9 of them. You know, we’ve seen this opening in a 1000000 different movies. They’re, you know, they’re driving through the woods of Appalachia, and it’s all just you know, there’s, I think, 9 of them, which is kind of ridiculous, really.
Todd: It’s really funny because if you’re counting, I think they’re, like, 8. And then toward the end of the scene, 1 pops up in the very back. Yeah. It’s almost like they’re playing with that too. Clown car. Right?
Craig: And, of course, it’s just, you know, the typical thing. They’re you know, it’s pretty girls, pretty boys, jocks. You know? They’re, like, smoking doobies in the car and whatnot.
Todd: We are in Hillbill Country now, boys. We are. Yeah.
Craig: Wait. Chad, just because you’re not in your fizzy doesn’t mean they’re freaks.
Todd: Well, actually, it does, Allison. You see, you’re either a omega beta or you’re a freak. Omega beta. Omega beta.
Craig: I’m in a car full of morons.
Todd: They’re landing on pretty thick.
Craig: Very thick. Very thick. And, come driving by them is this pickup truck, in which are Tucker and Dale, who we haven’t really met yet. And as they drive by, it’s just these 2 kind of redneck looking guys in a truck, but they’re staring at them as they pass. And it’s that typical, you know, sinister, scary, locals type of thing.
Todd: Slack jawed as they stare out the window.
Craig: Oh, yeah. They look they look dumb. It’s and so then then, you know, they go past, and then we cut to, I think, them in the car, Tucker and Dale. That’s right.
Todd: And
Craig: they’re just they’re just chatting. You know? I they they were staring because there were hot girls in the car. Uh-huh. And, you know, they are friendly, likable guys. You know, it’s really funny. We, we were about halfway through it, and I realized these guys kinda look like us, like like you and me. You got, Tucker, who would, you know, be the Todd type. He’s kinda like this dopey looking blonde guy. And then Oh, no. I get to be the dopey? Yeah. Yeah. And then you’ve got, like
Todd: Be a more intellectual, tail?
Craig: No. No. He likes the ruggedly handsome teddy bear tie Of course. Yeah. With the beard and everything. And, you you know, you get the sense right away. You know? These guys are buddies. They’re good friends. And and we find out that what’s what’s going on is they are going to a cabin in the woods, that they, Tucker has bought with all his life savings, and they’re just gonna go hang out and fish and drink beer and have a good time. Yeah. And then we get right next to the next classic scene from these movies where we get the preppy kids out of their element in this rural place where everything appears super creepy.
Todd: It’s the last chance gas station. Yeah. Like, literally titled that. As as they’re driving in, there’s a
Craig: kid see that.
Todd: There’s a kid pumping water.
Craig: Yeah.
Todd: He’s got, like, a straw hat on and overalls that he’s pumping water in the front. Again, totally laying it on super thick. Yeah. And they go into this gas station, and the guy behind the counter is completely,
Craig: well, I’m glad.
Todd: He couldn’t have a thicker accent, and there is, Tucker’s the skinny one.
Craig: Yeah. Tucker’s the skinny one. Tucker’s
Todd: the me.
Craig: Yeah. The you.
Todd: Right? Okay. So Tucker, I mean, is standing, there, and he just turns around and stares at them as they go in Todd, and they’re looking for some drinks or some bug spray or whatever. In the meantime, the
Craig: guy at
Todd: the counter is rattling off this list of items for for Tucker. And if you’re listening, because it does slip into the background as the focus goes on the kids through the store. But if you listen, it’s pretty funny the stuff that he’s rattling off for him that they’re apparently collecting to take in their cabin. One of them that I caught was lubricid condoms. Yeah. And, and these kids, of course, are are pretty freaked out there in the gas station as well, go outside to basically finish pumping their gas and pack up all their goods into their cooler. And in the meantime, you have Tucker and Dale standing there by the back of their truck, and we get the introduction of what is to be a thread through the whole thing, and that is Dale has a problem with his, self image. Yeah. He’s insecure guy. Yeah. And he’s like, oh, I don’t know if a a girl like pretty girl like that wouldn’t want anything to do with me, and Tucker’s like, you gotta go for it. You gotta talk to her. He’s like, oh, I don’t know. I don’t know if I would. He’s, no. You gotta go. Go up and talk to her. You know, you only live once, and don’t forget to smile and laugh a lot. So, inexplicably, he pulls he pulls us a big sickle
Craig: off the truck. It looks like the grim reather’s reaper’s side or something.
Todd: That’s the part I didn’t understand at all. That he was just I think
Craig: that he was just nervously grasping for something to have in his hand because because first, he had grabbed, like, a, like, a a pipe or something, and, Tucker had, like, taken it from him.
Todd: And so
Craig: then he just kinda reaches around behind him for something, and that’s what he grabbed.
Todd: He didn’t notice that it was a
Craig: sickle because it’s a wristband. Feet tall. Yeah.
Todd: Or a scythe, I guess. Whatever you thought. And he walks towards him. And, of course, he looks freaky, and he he’s, oh, you
Craig: guys, going camping?
Todd: Hey. Hey. Now look. We don’t want any trouble. Alright? So just help me out.
Craig: Oh, okay. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. I’m sorry.
Todd: Then they all run into the car, and Chad, is the guy in the group who’s a little more assertive than the rest of
Craig: them. They’re leader, kinda. And he looks at
Todd: him and says, stay away. Stay away, buddy. Stay away, and and lets the girls get in the car, and then he goes in. And, of course, he turns back and goes, see. What did I tell you?
Craig: Right. And then the whole thing I mean, that’s it’s already started, but from there on, it’s just a it’s a comedy of errors. It’s all about misunderstandings. It’s all about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. These guys, you know, they just wanna have a a good time. You know, they’re they’re headed off to this cabin. There’s little gags. We’re there’s no way we’re gonna be able to talk about all the gags because there’s so many, but there’s a funny gag when they’re on the way to the cabin, and they get pulled over by a cop, and they’re drinking beers. And, Tucker drops his beer in his lap, and so Dale bends down over his lap to try to, like, I guess, get the beer can or dry him off or whatever. And then somehow he gets stuck down there. And so then when the cop comes up, they’re in a compromising position. And
Todd: And Dale’s shirt was caught, so when he jumps up, he doesn’t have a shirt on. Right. But that’s an interesting scene because the cop says to them, as they say, what what are you doing? He says, oh, we’re going up to my cabin. I have a I’m very excited. I have, the summer home that we wanna get out to. The cop says, ain’t nothing up there but pain and suffering you can’t imagine.
Craig: Yeah. That was that was kinda weird. It was the only thing that didn’t seem circumstantial. Now my thoughts on that is when they get to the cabin and they do get to the cabin right after that, and it looks almost identical to the cabin from Evil Dead
Todd: Yes.
Craig: It’s rundown, but, of course, they think it’s fantastic. They can’t believe, you know, their luck at at finding this treasure of a home. And they go in and, everything’s you know, it’s dusty. It’s a mess. It’s obviously been abandoned for a long time, they’re kinda looking around at some of the things, like, hanging from the ceiling and stuff. And, there’s, like, bone, like, like, wind chimes and, like, yeah. Ribs. And they say, you know, this this whoever lived here before must have been some sort of archaeologist or something. And and I think, Dale says, so they must have really been news hounds too, and they find this board, you know, the classic board with all the clippings of, like, murders and stuff.
Todd: But but Tucker hones in as they’re staring at it. He hones in on
Craig: Chubby’s chili dog depot. Buy 3, get 2 free, no expiration date. Alright. Score. Right. So they don’t even like, they’re oblivious. So my my guess with the cop is that whoever had lived there before was maybe some sort of psycho killer or maybe even the psycho killer that’s referenced later on in the movie.
Todd: Yeah. I kinda got that sense, and a lot of the comedy comes from, their obliviousness to this. But also, it was an interesting turn where instead of the kids being warned away from the cabin, these guys were warned away from the cabin. Right. And they, almost like the kids in those old horror movies, go Todd the old cabin and are oblivious to the, craziness around it, and it doesn’t seem creepy to them.
Craig: Right. Yeah. It’s funny. It’s played for gags, and it’s funny. What really sets the into motion is, Tucker and Dale go fishing. The kids are camping, somewhere nearby. First of all, they’re sitting around a campfire, and Chad says that he has this scary story, and it’s a true story. And it goes into this kind of flashback slash campfire tale kind of thing. It’s, you know, it’s a a scene separate. You know, it’s it’s kind of in sepia tones, like a flashback or whatever. And he tells this story about how 20 years ago in this very spot, a group of kids had come out to party for Memorial Day weekend, and, they had been slaughtered by, local hillbillies. And it’s a good scene. You know, you’ve got some good gore. It’s it’s fairly typical of the type of scene that you would find in these hillbilly movies.
Todd: It really is.
Craig: He says there was only 1 survivor. That’s kinda it. You know? But we get the feeling that that’s probably gonna be relevant later. Yeah. But then, anyway so tuck it’s nighttime, and Tucker and Dale are fishing. The rest of the kids, they decide they’re gonna go skinny dipping. Chad tries to make a pass at Ali. Ali is the really, really beautiful blonde. I mean, you can tell just the way that she’s juxtaposed against the other girls. The other girls are supposed to kind of fill cliched roles and kind of fade into the background. Yeah. She’s clearly your girl. You know? She’s the one. She’s the she’s the pretty one. Right? Chad, very sleazily tries to come on to her, and she rejects his advances, and then she goes to follow the other kids who have gone. She climbs up onto a rock and starts to disrobe, and, Dale is a gentleman and covers his eyes. And, when he says something to, Tucker that he should cover his eyes, the girl sees them, thinks they’re peeping or whatever, still has that perception of them. She screams. She slips. She falls. Tucker and Dale kind of have a little, you know, funny moment there together before they realize that she hasn’t come back up, from under the water. So they go, and they they fish her out. And one of the other girls, the super ditzy big big boobed girl, of the group, Khloe, I think was her name, is totally irrelevant.
Todd: Yeah. None of these other names are really important.
Craig: No. I I don’t even think they all got names. Like, I I don’t I kept One
Todd: of them was Todd.
Craig: I There there’s 2 there’s 2 black characters. Didn’t catch their names. I I don’t know. Not before they died. Not before they died. Right? But, anyway, the other the kids see Tucker and Dale pulling the girl into the boat. They think that they’ve killed her or taking her to kill her or whatever.
Todd: And Dale stands up and goes, we got your friend.
Craig: Yep. Hey, college kids. We got your friend.
Todd: Oh, no. They’ve got Ali.
Craig: Yeah. And it’s that sort of misunderstanding that then fuels the rest of the action for the next 40 minutes or whatever.
Todd: Yeah. And it’s really just that. It is the them thinking that Tucker and Dale are bad people and that they’re torturing her, forcing her to dig her own grave, all these misunderstandings from afar. They go in to try to save it, but through other mishaps, they themselves end up essentially killing themselves. One of them run is running away. Actually, I thought that scene was really hilarious where Dale is, Tucker is cutting into a piece of wood with a chainsaw Mhmm. As the other group is approaching the cabin, and he accidentally cuts into a Beehive. Beehive. Thank you. And, he’s running around now again like an idiot Yeah. With his chainsaw still running, running forward with this running chainsaw, wildly swinging it. But the other kid thinks he’s chasing him, and so he’s running away Todd. And they’re both running through the forest together, and, Tucker kinda gets ahead while this kid at isn’t watching where he’s going and basically impales himself on the tree. It’s so funny because then then Tucker comes back in. He goes, well, I saw that kid. He must have been afraid of he must be afraid of bees too or allergic to bees too. Doesn’t know that he’s been killed Right.
Craig: Until later. It’s just funny. Yeah. It’s really clever. And, like, I I don’t even know if I noticed this before, but that kid, as as they’re running, it the speed kinda slows down a little bit. It kinda goes a little bit slow mo as Tucker starts to pass, and he looks over and is confused. Like, I this guy was chasing me. What’s going on? Mhmm. And the fact that he’s not paying attention is the reason that he gets killed, and then he’s impaled. And he he sees this bee buzzing around, and it lands on his nose. And you just see the realization in his eyes, oh, he was just running away from the bee at right before he dies. Yeah.
Todd: That was a really cool moment. Yeah. I enjoyed that moment. Clever.
Craig: And there are lots of little clever moments like that.
Todd: There are there are also, I think, some really forced situations in here. I think part of what sometimes this movie’s a little too clever, I think. Yeah. There are times when, you know, they’re dodging and they have plenty of time to sit down and suddenly have this conversation. For example, I think the kids are shooting at them from outside into the cabin, and they’re laying down on the floor, trying to get away, and they start blaming each other. Oh, this is your fault. This is your fault. This is my fault. This is my fault. And I don’t even like fishing. And he’s like, you don’t like fishing? And suddenly the mood changes where Yeah. You know, they have these moments. And I guess in a screwball comedy, that sort of thing happens all the time, but there’s also a part of me that’s going, yeah, but you guys should be worried that these kids aren’t breaking down the door by now.
Craig: You gotta take the safety off. You’re something new. I don’t know. None of this woulda happened if it wasn’t for you. What? That’s right. For being such a goddamn good Samaritan. Oh my god. She’s drowning, Tucker. Oh, let’s save her. Oh, let’s save her. Well, at least she’s still alive. Oh, hallelujah. Don’t you dare blame us on her. I’m not blaming this whole thing on her. I’m blaming this whole
Todd: thing on you. Well, you know what, Tucker? None of this woulda happened if we hadn’t gone fishing.
Craig: That isn’t even an option. I don’t even like fishing. You don’t like what do you mean you don’t like fishing? I mean, I like
Todd: it I like it okay. You know? I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Tucker. Did I hurt your feelings? I’m sorry.
Craig: Yeah. You kinda did.
Todd: There are enough of these moments that I know they’re lighthearted, and I know they’re funny, but it would be neat if they could have been incorporated a little more realistically into the film. I don’t know. Does that make sense?
Craig: It makes sense. I don’t disagree with you, but I just didn’t feel the same way. I mean, it’s it’s so circumstance everything is so circumstantial. I mean, obviously, none of this would really ever happen.
Todd: Oh, it’s a big farce.
Craig: Right. And so that it didn’t bother me. I mean, yes, it obviously, it was a weird time when they’re being shot at for them to stop and have a little chitchat together. But it’s also you know, that’s kind of the nature of their relationship. You know? Like, they bounce things off one another. They’re cute. They’re almost like a little married couple.
Todd: Wow.
Craig: And so, yeah, totally unrealistic, but funny. I mean, after you know, they don’t even know what’s going on. They have no idea what’s going on. They just wanna help this girl, and they were hoping that she’d come you know, her friends would come and pick her up in the morning. And they’ve got these misperceptions of what’s going on. And so, eventually, Ali wakes up. She’s been unconscious, but she wakes up. And, Dale comes out carrying a tray, and she kind of freaks out and starts crying. He says, oh, no. No. Don’t cry. I’m sorry. You don’t like pancakes? Oh, I’ll make something else.
Todd: And
Craig: he goes back in the kitchen and closes the door, and she kinda starts to you know, the look on her face is what’s what’s going on here. And when he comes back Craig with a different meal that he’s cooked her, then he explains what happened, and she realizes that she misjudged. And Dale and Ali kind of it’s it’s cute. You know? They have this little it starts out just very friendly because he’s how how would you describe him? Simple isn’t the
Todd: right word. He’s just He’s not simple inside, but he comes across as simple on the very excited that this girl is, he’s a gentleman. He’s very much a gentleman with her. And then you find out he’s a bit of an intellectual too in his own way. He’s he says I’m about as dumb as what does he say? I’m about as dumb as you can get, but they’re just a lot of things that I know, like, when I hear something, I remember it. And so he sits down and plays trivial like, a trivial pursuit kinda game with her, and he’s beating her. You know? It’s You’re
Craig: right. It’s Which which leads to a great joke because then after the kid impales himself, Tucker and Dale come back and and she says and and Tucker’s all, it’s it’s gross. He’s all got welts all over his face from the bees. He looks terrible. And, she says, I’ll go I’ll go find my friends if they’re out there. And and I think Dale trying to be chivalrous says, no. No. No. We’ll go find them, won’t we, Tucker? And Tucker kind of reluctantly says, yeah. Yeah. We’ll go. And we know what the reaction from these kids is gonna be. These guys look, you know, they look like something out of a horror movie kind of. Yeah.
Todd: Especially with the bee stings all over.
Craig: Yeah. And, then when the kids, they they hear Tucker and Dale coming, they kinda scatter and are hiding nearby, and so they overhear the conversation. And, Dale is saying, you should’ve seen me, a a smart college girl like her, and I was beating her ass or something like that. I was beating the crap out of her. And, he’s talking about playing Trivial Pursuit. And Tucker says, you beat the crap out of everybody. There there there’s something wrong with your brain. And so they just get these mixed messages. They’re calling out for the college kids. College kids. College kids. We got your friend. And, eventually, they the kids don’t come out because they’re hiding, and, Dale says, let’s leave him a note. And so the kids have left a hatchet behind there. He takes the hatchet, and he carves into a a log what we have here we got your friend.
Todd: We got your friend again,
Craig: which I mean, why wouldn’t
Todd: he have carved we have Allison. You know? Right. Well I know. I know. It’s for the movie. It’s for that. It’s fine. I’m not gonna pick it apart too much because it’s a because it is a comedy and it’s supposed to be. 1 guy plunges himself head first in a wood chipper while he’s charging after them.
Craig: Yeah. Like, they’re gonna go rescue her. They’re gonna go rescue Allison, and that means they have to take them out. So That was one
Todd: of the funniest scenes of what he told me.
Craig: Hilarious.
Todd: It’s such dark comedy because poor poor Tucker is standing here trying to pull his legs out. And when he’s done, he turns off the chipper. He goes,
Craig: are you okay?
Todd: Half of this kid has completely been ripped up. They have a hard time pulling it out. In the meantime, he’s saying, well, I hope they don’t charge me extra. Right. Credit place for this.
Craig: Yeah. And during the same kind of ambush, the guy who was going after, Dale with a spear trips, and both, Dale and Ali fall into this hole. They’ve been digging an out holes outhouse hole, which, of course, the friends misinterpreted as them making her dig her own grave. But they fall backwards, into it, and this kid trips and just impales himself on this spear That he was carrying. Yeah. And just slides slowly down the ground on top of Dale. Dale’s, like, freaking out. Oh, it’s a hilarious scene. So then they don’t know what’s going on. They get Ally back inside, but they have no idea what’s going on. The only thing that they can figure is that this is some sort of suicide cult because these kids are just killing themselves.
Todd: But they also recognize that if they went to the police, the police wouldn’t believe them.
Craig: Exactly.
Todd: So they are in a pickle, you know, and and the reason the kids don’t go to the cops is Chad. Chad is really getting off on all
Craig: this.
Todd: It’s clear that when Chad came out into the woods, he was just hoping something like this would happen. He’s been playing around with his hatchet, throwing it at a tree. He he’s rather disturbing. And this is another part where I thought it was maybe a little too much, where I felt like if you’re any of Chad’s friends, by this time, Chad, you’d be tying this guy up because he’s Craig. You know? Yeah. You wouldn’t be going along with what he says.
Craig: Oh, yeah. There’s no subtlety.
Todd: No. He’s pretty nuts. He’s getting off on this, and it’s Chad’s idea then that that they well, they they all wanna go to the police, and so they go back and get this cop. This cop drives back in and Chad’s like, you idiots.
Craig: Mhmm.
Todd: And he comes out and confronts them. And then you have that scene you know was going to come anyway where they are mumbling over themselves trying to explain what happened. Meanwhile, they’re dragging the Half of this body behind them and implicating themselves in every innocent thing that they say, including telling him that there’s a girl in his bedroom Yeah. Back at the cabin. And the cop goes and investigates and looks at her and says, you guys are in trouble. You know? You think I’m stupid. But as we
Craig: told you.
Todd: As we were set up from the very beginning, there was this loose board in the in the, this is loose beam that was being held up by another beam in the cabin, and the policeman leans against it, which swings down this beam, which has a whole bunch of rusty nails in the end of it, gets it right in the face, and he dies.
Craig: Mhmm. It’s this complete Not before he stumbles back outside.
Todd: Stumbles to the kids who were there freaking out in the car, tries to pull out the Craig. He falls down. These poor kids are being brutalized too by all this. It’s it’s it’s pretty funny.
Craig: Yeah. 1 of the 1 of the kids jumps out and gets the cop’s gun. And, he’s he’s pointing it at Tucker and Dale trying to pull the trigger, and Dale goes Oh, you gotta take the safety off on the side there. And so the kids, stupid kid, takes the gun and turns around, points to his self, releases the safety, and shoots himself in the head, blows his head off. The the other kids are freaking out, which obviously, I guess you would be. I felt this carnage going on.
Todd: It’s really pretty clever. You know, a lot of horror films, it’s always the challenge. Part of what makes a slasher film, what it is, and what makes it unique, and what makes you be able to watch the same essentially the same movie over and over again is the creativity behind the kills. Right? What’s the killer gonna do? And you just have to one up yourself with every sequel. This movie has it doubly difficult because not only does it have to have these creative kills, but it’s gotta have them in such a way that they’re all accidents. Right. It’s self inflicted.
Craig: You know? Right. And it is and that’s the thing. Like, if you are if you are a slasher fan, you’re gonna get the gore and and stuff out of I mean, I I really think that their main goal was the comedy, but they don’t neglect Not at all. Those violent, bloody deaths either. So if you you know, there’s a good we said it was kinda ridiculous for it to be 9 kids. I mean, that’s kind of excessive. Usually, it’s, like, 3 or 4, but they kill every single one of them off. You know? Like, I was numbering going down the list, and I guess not technically every single one. But
Todd: Almost. Yeah.
Craig: At that point, you know, Ali’s awake. She Chad is he’s got the cop’s gun now. He’s he’s shooting at them. Eventually, he Todd shooting, and they look out, and he’s got Dale’s dog.
Todd: Yeah. Jangers. Jangers. Cute dog. Ugly. Ugly dog. Ugly. But, like, they tried to find the ugliest big
Craig: He’s like a dog in the back. Guy. That’s funny. But, you know, of course, they’re worried about the Dale’s real worried about the dog, so, Tucker is gonna sneak around the back and try to release the dog. That kind of back fires and that he gets caught and chased through the woods. They catch him and they string him up. And when he wakes up, he tries to reason with them. You know? He doesn’t have any idea. He doesn’t know what they’ve what he and Dale have done to deserve this. He says something like Okay. Don’t. Don’t. Look. I know you kids are having fun, but I am not a thrill seeker. But, but Chad is talking to him like, I’ve never been this close to pure evil before. I’ve never smelled Yeah. Like, it steak.
Todd: In the meantime, Tucker’s like, I got some beers in the cooler. We got all I got probably 20 or 30. We can all they’re on ice right now.
Craig: Yeah. And he says this is for, I don’t know, one of the people who died, and he takes his hatchet and he chops off, a couple of, of, Tucker’s fingers. And then they they wrap them up in a piece of Tucker shirt and put them on the porch with a note that says, now we’ve got your friend. Come and get him. And Ali, who has woken up and who has been talking to Dale, can’t believe any of this is going on. She’s like, my friends aren’t crazy. What’s going on? But then she Goes outside. And sees all the carnage around and finds that note and finds the fingers.
Todd: And she pretty much seems to know that Chad’s behind it Todd some degree. You know, this is the part where the movie really gets I shouldn’t say it it isn’t disturbing up until this point, but the Chad’s going pretty ballistic on poor Tucker, who we know is innocent, and that scene bothered me.
Craig: Yeah. It’s pretty brutal.
Todd: When he cuts his fingers off, at first, you almost think he’s cut off his whole arm or his hand. I think that’s probably about the time when the laughs get a little lower. Mhmm. And maybe necessarily so because we’re we’re starting to wrap it up.
Craig: We’re starting
Todd: to see Chads becomes the antagonist suddenly.
Craig: He’s the bad guy. Mhmm. He’s definitely if there is a bad guy in this film, it’s definitely him. He has clearly lost it.
Todd: And you do wonder what the chip is on his shoulder. You know? Right. Right.
Craig: Right? So Dale goes out to find Tucker, and they’ve set a trap, and the trap’s kinda funny or whatever. But, meanwhile, that was just so, that it was a, I guess, a distraction so that Chad and black girl, doesn’t have a name, come in to the cabin and are, like, crawling around and whispering. And she’s like, why are you whispering? There’s nobody else here. It’s fine. And she tries you. Allison. Excuse me. Yeah. She tries to explain what’s been going on, but they’re just kinda not hearing it. And then Tucker and Dale get back, and they’re, you know, they’re kind of quipping back and forth. And Ali, who is a psychology major That’s right. Sits them down for some Earl Grey tea because Chad can’t have chamomile tea because it messes up with his asthma.
Todd: Yeah. One of the running gags is that Chad’s been sucking on an asthma thing this whole
Craig: time, and he’s smoking cigarettes. Yeah. Yeah. He’ll take a a drag off the cigarette, then take a hit off the inhaler and exhale them both at the same time. Smart kid. So she tries to sit them down and get them to talk about their feelings. And in a what’s really kind of a funny piece of dialogue, she says, Chad, you go first, and he says, where do you want me to start? She says, wherever you’d like, and he says, a long time ago before I was born and she was like, maybe that’s a little too far back. But he he says, no. It’s relevant. And he basically tells the same story that he told before except for that now we find out that 2 of the people involved in that massacre that he described before were his parents, and only his mother who was pregnant with him at the time escaped. And she, from the time he had been born, had been in a mental institution. He was raised by his grandmother, which gives us, you know, a little bit of insight into his state of mind. Mhmm. Dale tries to kind of explain his perspective too. They think they’ve got it all worked out, but, really, the truth is Chad just doesn’t care.
Todd: Yeah.
Craig: And when the remaining 2, the other 2, the black guy, I think, and another the big boobie girl, they jump in before any of the rational sane people can explain what’s going on. Chad flips out and, like, throws a lantern into some gasoline that he had already splashed on the wall. The house goes up in flames.
Todd: Burns up the guy.
Craig: People are getting dis you know? Again, it’s just a series of mishaps. The the black guy comes in with, like, a weed whacker or something or some kinda like
Todd: Yeah. Saw on a long pole
Craig: or something, and he he goes at Tucker with it. The Tucker ducks and and the the black girl is behind, so she gets that right in the face. The blonde who has been lighting cigarettes throughout lights up a cigarette in this big blaze with gasoline, and the the house explodes. And the only ones to get out to make it out are Tucker and Dale and Ali. Yeah. And so it it seems like that’s kind of it, but then we get into even more classic slasher type stuff, and, you always gotta double check to make sure the bad guy’s dead after the 1st after the 1st round.
Todd: That’s right. He comes after them. They’d file in the truck and, drive off. But because, Dale is not paying attention as he drives, he drives right into an uprooted tree. And when he wakes up, Ali is gone, and, Tucker is against a tree saying she’s gone. She took off. I tried to stop them, but I couldn’t. He’s obviously injured in some way. Mhmm. You know, it’s weird that Chad didn’t just hack him to bits, but I guess he didn’t. Right. And so they have their moment. Again, another one of these scenes, it’s cute, but in the heat of the moment, it is awfully unrealistic that they’re pausing to have this, basically a therapy session. That’s what it is. Right.
Craig: What I’m trying to tell you is that you’re better than you think you are. Listen to me. That girl sees it. I’ve seen the way that the 2 of you look at each other. You know, I think that she really sees you for who you are. Who knows? Maybe after this is all done, you 2 can, date. So I doubt it. Damn it. That’s what I’m talking about. I don’t want any more negativity. K. Stop it. Okay? You are a good man. You’re smart, and you’re strong, and you’re not as ugly as you think you are. Yeah. You know, actually really liked this scene.
Todd: It was a good scene.
Craig: As far as because, you know, it’s it like I said, it’s a cute relationship between these 2 guys. They’ve been friends since they were kids, and it’s it’s obviously the wrong time. But, you know, Tucker is is trying to build his confidence. You know? You can do this. You know? You gotta go after the things you want in life. Go get her. Maybe after this, you could, like, date or something. He’s trying to, give him confidence, and it’s it’s it’s silly, but the actors play it sincere.
Todd: That’s true. And, Their friendship really comes through.
Craig: Yeah. And, you know, they even get emotional, and, you know, it it it was cute. I you know, it’s kind of a nice little buddy scene Yeah. And I I liked it.
Todd: Then they go and sure enough, like, he Jengers is able to show him where Chad has taken Ali. And, of course, he’s taken her to the big sawmill up the hill. I hate you. How many more of these things can you throw in here? And sure enough, Chad has also tied Ali to a board,
Craig: like, classic villain style.
Todd: Snidely whiplash style to this board right in front of a, big, saw
Craig: Table saw.
Todd: Table saw.
Craig: A a ridiculously large table saw.
Todd: That’s so goofy, man. Because I’m not sure I just felt like I was watching, Rocky and Bullwinkle.
Craig: Yeah. Something like that.
Todd: Yes. So he goes in and arms himself to the teeth with some stuff that he found in there, some boot spikes and
Craig: Chainsaw.
Todd: Chainsaw and whatnot. And there’s a big battle between him and Chad, and he manages to cut the rope off of Ali so that she can escape in the nick of time before she goes into the saw. He and Ali are able to retreat upstairs, in this place, and they come across a newspaper article.
Craig: Yeah. As luck would have it
Todd: This is just I mean, again, I this I just have Todd fault the movie here that there’s too much of this in it. You could write it so many other ways, but they chose to do it this way, and that’s fine. But this is where they finally piece 2 and 2 together is that, Ali finds this newspaper, and on the front cover of this newspaper, lo and behold, it’s about the massacre that happened. And she sees the hillbilly that they caught and sees that he has a strange resemblance to Chad. And when she reads the details, she finds out that actually this guy was Chad’s father.
Craig: Mhmm.
Todd: And, his mother was raped, and so Chad is half hillbilly. Yeah. They confront him with this as
Craig: he breaks in, and luckily Also very luckily.
Todd: Yeah, there’s some chamomile tea.
Craig: Yeah. Also
Todd: up in there that Tucker, Dale throws in the face of Chad, and he starts sneezing and backs his way out a door. Of course, they’re up, like, 3 stories
Craig: Yeah.
Todd: Then falls to his death.
Craig: Yeah. Very, very, Friday 13th part 3.
Todd: Yes. That’s right. The the really bad one. Todd much coincidence there.
Craig: Too much Alright. Now I’m gonna call you on that a little bit because just a few weeks ago, you had me watch a galo,
Todd: galo film. Oh, you’re right.
Craig: And that There’s no Every single time they the trail went cold, something magically would pop up.
Todd: And it made no sense. No. You’re absolutely right. You know, at least this did make sense. At least these things were, they were foreshadowed earlier in the film. Right.
Craig: Oh, it it is absolutely ridiculous. Yeah. There’s no way there’s they find
Todd: they very much deus ex machina right there at the very end when they’re cornered.
Craig: They find 1 newspaper. It’s not like like it’s not even like she’s looking through a box of papers or anything. They find 1 newspaper, and it happens to be that 1. There happens to be a box of chamomile tea when he has said earlier, oh, yeah. I it messes with my asthma. It’s ridiculous. Yeah. But I think, to me, that’s funny. Like, it it’s so ridiculous that that’s funny.
Todd: That’s true. Again, it’s very cartoony. Yeah.
Craig: You could
Todd: make the argument the whole movie’s really been a big cartoon
Craig: anyway. Absolutely.
Todd: I’m not gonna hang on it too much. This is not the movie to go supercritical.
Craig: Oh, no. No. That I mean, then that’s pretty much it. We get a a couple little tag scenes where Dale goes and visits Tucker in the hospital, so we find out that he’s made it. It kinda had looked like he wasn’t going to make it, but he did. And there’s a a gag where he says, look. They found my fingers, and he holds up his hands. It’s clearly not his fingers. They found fingers from the girls. One of the fingernails is painted. And and Dale’s like, oh, yeah. It looks real good, buddy. But Tucker says, tell me you asked her out. Tell me you asked her out. And, I think if I remember correctly, Dale says something like, no. I couldn’t, I couldn’t do it or something like that. And Tucker goes, oh, man. And he goes, but she did say she really likes to bowl, so we’re going bowling. And then it cuts to a cute scene at the end with, him and Ali bowling, at the bowling alley. And he gives her a present. And it’s a pink helmet because she’s been getting herself knocked out over and over again throughout the course of the movie, and it’s just a cute little tag. And then we return to that bookend. We’re no longer in in, like, seeing through the camera lens, but we see that it’s the same scene from the beginning with the reporter going in. And now we see that it’s that sawmill that she’s going into, after all this has happened. And we hear on the television that,
Todd: or we
Craig: had heard on Tucker’s television in his hotel room or his, hospital room that the the body of the killer was never found.
Todd: Mhmm.
Craig: And so as this reporter’s going through, Chad and his gross burned up state pops up, and that’s it. That’s that’s the end of the movie. I don’t you know, I really don’t even think that they were setting it up for a sequel so much as they were just doing that because that’s how these movies end. Right. You gotta leave a little bit of room for a sequel. I would bet that if they do a sequel, they won’t go there. I don’t I don’t think it’ll Chad won’t be, you know A part of it? No.
Todd: No. You’re probably right. Well, you’ve gotta keep the killer mystery in a sense. Right. You know, it won’t be, you know, we’re dealing with Chad again. Did you feel like the relationship between Dale and Ali was convincing?
Craig: Absolutely. Yeah. You know, the I I looked at their names, and I’m terrible with names. I have to write down the character names, so remembering actor names is virtually impossible. But this guy who who plays Dale is really endearing. He seems like somebody that you would really wanna be friends with, and he is the kind of guy that I think sometimes these gorgeous, gorgeous girls, if they give him a chance, they find out, you know, what a good guy they are, and you may have kind of an odd mismatch as far as looks go. And he’s not an ugly guy.
Todd: No. He’s not.
Craig: He’s not. I mean
Todd: He’s a real teddy bear.
Craig: Yeah.
Todd: But and and she’s also the kind of girl who wouldn’t she’s not the ditzy blonde. She’s the smart intelligent one who’s probably looking for a smart intelligent guy, and, she’s finding what she likes in him, and they do hit it off. They get along pretty well.
Craig: And he’s like you said before, he’s such a gentleman with her. I mean, it would be hard not to at least appreciate that. Yeah. I thought it was played really well. You know, the the the random college kids played it very stereotypically, but I think that that was intentional. And Chad played very over the top disturbed, but I think it was intentional. I I think that, they were going for that kind of melodramatic thing. But with but the acting was still good. I mean, if that’s what they were going for, they they did it well. Yeah. And those moments that we talked about between Tucker and Dale, some of them funny, some of them cute, some of them kinda sentimental, and the sweet moments between Dale and, Ali, I think they all read really well. Yeah. I I I really enjoyed this film.
Todd: I agree with you too. I think when you talk about choices, part of the spoof of this film is that these other characters, the college kids were over the top cardboard cutouts, almost like the bad actors in an eighties horror film, and they played that well.
Craig: I wonder if this movie was a little bit ahead of its time because I’m really pleased to see a lot more of these horror comedies coming out. They’re kind of flying under the radar. Mhmm. You know, they’re getting big theatrical releases, but I’ve watched several recently that have have really been good. I watched a movie recently, Cooties, about, school kids, infestation of school kids zombies, and it’s got Rainn Wilson and Elijah Wood and some other really funny people. I watched, the scouts guide to the zombie apocalypse, which was really funny. Just recently oh gosh. What’s freaks of nature, I just watched, which, is about this town where humans, vampires, and zombies coexist peacefully until there’s an alien invasion, and then they it’s it’s it’s funny. And then, my favorite one that I hope that we watch together soon, The Final Girls with, Malon Ackerman, and Tasia Farmiga. There’s all these movies coming out, and they’ve got this you know, they poke fun at themselves, but they do it well. Mhmm. And I’m really digging these movies. I hope that they keep coming out, and I hope that they kinda get, a little bit more widespread attention.
Todd: There’s shades of Cabin in the Woods too Oh, yeah.
Craig: To it.
Todd: Yeah. Very much so. In this film, maybe more than anything else, you almost get the sense that perhaps cabin in the woods was inspired by this film a little bit.
Craig: Maybe.
Todd: Oh, Eli Craig, the director, this is about all he’s done. He hasn’t done much since. He may be involved in the sequel that
Craig: you were talking about. He is. I think that it’s he and the 2 lead actors who have have confirmed that they but like I said, I mean, it’s just in development. You know? So many things linger in development hell forever, so who knows if we’ll ever see it?
Todd: It would be interesting to see. I’m a little disappointed he doesn’t seem to be doing much more, but, again, the film only grossed, not even a quarter of $1,000,000, domestically. Mhmm. It’s still under the radar for so many people. Thankfully, it’s on Netflix now.
Craig: Yeah.
Todd: If you have a Netflix account, you can totally watch this movie.
Craig: Oh, and I so recommend it. You know, it’s just fun. You know? We wanted to do we’ve done some kinda heady movies recently, and those are great too. They’re a lot of fun to talk about. But, you know, we just wanted to to have some kind of mindless fun, and that’s what this is. You know, we we sit here and drink our cheap beer and laugh and, if that’s what you’re going for, I definitely recommend this
Todd: film. Thank you again for listening. If you enjoyed our podcast, please check us out on Facebook. You can subscribe to us on Itunes and also on Stitcher. Share this podcast with a friend. Leave a comment on our website or on our Facebook page, and let us know what you think, and as well as recommend some new movies. Until next week, I’m Todd, and I’m Craig with 2 Guys and a Chainsaw.