Four out of Five stars
Running time: 89 mins

Smartly directed, brilliantly written and featuring a pair of terrific comic performances from its two leads, this is a thoroughly enjoyable comedy-horror that's laugh-out-loud funny from start to finish.

What's it all about?
Co-written and directed by Eli Craig, Tucker and Dale vs Evil stars Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine as Tucker and Dale, two happy-go-lucky hillbillies intent on fixing up their run-down holiday cabin in the woods, unaware that a group of college kids are camping nearby. When one of the girls (Katrina Bowden as Allison) accidentally falls into the water and doesn't come up, Tucker and Dale rescue her and bring her back to their cabin to recover, only for Allison's fired-up-by-ghost-stories college friends to get the wrong end of the stick and think that Tucker and Dale are a pair of murderous psychopaths.

When Allison's friends try to rescue her, Tucker and Dale can't understand why they're being attacked and the situation quickly goes from bad to worse, with predictably gory results.

The Good
Tudyk and Labine both deliver terrific comic performances as the hapless duo and the emotional depth of their friendship is just one of the film's many surprises. There's also strong support from Jesse Moss (as Chad, the borderline unbalanced ringleader of Allison's friends) and Bowden, who has convincing chemistry with Labine.

The witty, cleverly written script is packed with quotable lines and delivers a steady stream of brilliantly inventive, laugh-out-loud sight gags. Crucially, Craig gets the tone exactly right, striking the perfect balance between humour and gore.

The Great
The central idea of the film is brilliantly simple, to the point where you wonder why no-one's thought of it before, and Craig milks the conceit to maximum effect, cleverly showing both sides of each misunderstanding. In fact, the whole idea is done so well that it'll make you reassess classic horror scenes (you'll feel the urge to check one horror classic in particular for evidence of bees).

On top of that, Craig demonstrates impeccable comic timing: in one notable sequence, you see the gag coming a good thirty seconds beforehand but that just makes it funnier.

Worth seeing?
Tucker and Dale vs Evil is a genuinely hilarious horror comedy that marks director Eli Craig out as a talent to watch. It's also one of the funniest films of the year. Highly recommended.