31 Days, 31 Screams: Day 29 (Tucker And Dale Vs. Evil)

You've got red on you.

Stop me if you've heard this one before. A bunch of sexy college kids drive up into the isolated woods for a weekend retreat, to drink and do drugs and flirt with each other and do sexy college kid stuff. Unfortunately, things take a darker turn while they're up there. One by one, they die horrible deaths, until only one girl is left standing at the end, victorious over the wild-eyed monster trying to kill her. It all sounds pretty standard, and it usually is... but you forget our waltz. The Mistress of Meta is here, and it's only now that we can understand what's happening here. This is a deliberate trilogy of meta horror movies that has been chosen. Scream flipped things around and passed judgement on the slashers themselves. This movie flips an entire premise around, in order to pass judgement on the typical horror movie victims. This is Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil, and it's actually pretty brilliant. I'm about to spoil it so go see it or something. I know I haven't given that disclaimer before, but before we had standard horror movies. With meta, the way the twisted premises work are important. So. Go see Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil, please. Now let's talk about how it's brilliant.

Well, like I said, it turns the whole premise around. From the college kids' point of view, they're being picked off one by one by a pair of psychotic redneck serial killers. What is actually happening is a comedy of errors and misunderstandings. Tucker and Dale are harmless country boys who just want to fix up their vacation home, drink beer, and go fishing. Their act of helping the girl who falls into the water and hits her head convinces the other kids that their friend has been KIDNAPPED BY THE HILLBILLIES and sets this whole nonsense off. These idiots aren't getting picked off. They're just the most accident-prone group of slasher fodder to ever exist, and they're too blinded to realize that this is what is happening. Everything they see and hear is filtered through their own prejudices, none more so than their de facto leader. This guy. This fucking guy. He's the standard slasher movie jock character, a total dudebro Chad whose actual fucking name is Chad. Utterly determined to make THE HILLBILLIES pay for the murder of his friends, this guy. He even captures one and cuts off two of his fingers, demanding their lady friend back. Threatened to shoot an innocent dog, too! Why is he so blinded by all this? He's got some tragic backstory about his mother barely surviving a bog-standard HILLBILLY MURDER SPREE or some shit, so that is why he DISTRUSTS ALL COUNTRY FOLK ON SIGHT. This line of thinking spreads, of course. Even characters who don't hold that particular prejudice are utterly blinded to the reasonable truth being presented right in fucking front of them. Their friend is saying that these country boys aren't violent murderers and that she's perfectly fine? IT'S VERY OBVIOUSLY STOCKHOLM SYNDROME SHE'S JOINED FORCES WITH THE DEVIL HILLBILLIES! Look through the cabin window and see Chad and Dale sitting at the table having tea? Reasonable chat? THEY MUST BE HELD HOSTAGE BY THOSE HILLBILLIES IT IS THE ONLY EXPLANATION! Oh, and in that latter case, those fools charge in and cause the deaths of not only themselves but the other girl in the cabin with them.

Well, then the final act has Chad rushing off with Allison, the lady friend who's been with Tucker and Dale all this time. Does he go for help from his severe injuries? I mean, he survived an exploding cabin and looks like fucking Two-Face at this point. Nope. He, and I swear to Jesus this is true, takes her to a lumber mill and ties her up like a mustache-twirling villain, ready to saw her in half. What in the everloving fuck? Here's the real evil. A well-adjusted college kid who presumably wanted to get laid in the woods encountered some ordinary country folk and became a murderous psycho himself. The revelation that his father was a murderous psycho country boy who forced himself upon his mother is only icing on the cake. The real evil in the title was prejudice, and Chad is not only full of it but he literally has become the embodiment of the thing he was so determined to kill with a hand axe for this entire movie; a petty murderous "half-hillbilly" who wants to saw an innocent girl in half for DARING to not hate those country bastards as much as he does. Go back to that cold open, though. That little found footage snippet where two people die. That's him! He survived and he's the killer now! He has been revealed as every bit the monster as the people he hates, and in doing so the meta has condemned the victims for being blinded to the real truth. What's the movie call that again? Ah yes. "Lack of communication.". An infuriating trope, usually, but applied well in this movie because of the dark comedy of it all. A man trips and falls into a wood chipper because he was determined to stab a man from behind, for god's sakes! Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil was very enjoyable, however, and a great little reversal of everything we thought we knew about Slashing. Hold up, though. Today we saw the standard horror victim be judged. Yesterday it was the standard horror killer. Who's left? You should know. The fourth wall's gone now, washed away by the dance. Everyone on stage has faced their judgement, so there's only one group left to be judged.

Us. Tomorrow we face our accusations in another cabin in the woods...