CBB Presents The Bear Cave of Terror - Ep. 18 - Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil

Joining us for the first time in the Bear Cave of Terror, we have another host of the Comic Book Bears, Caleb Alexander-Mckinzie! A fan of horror-comedies, he brings with him the 2011 laughs-and-splatter cult hit, Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil! Directed by Eli Craig and starring Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine in the titular roles, this film has been consistently making audiences laugh AND cover their eyes by flipping upside-down the usual trope of co-eds vs psycho hillibillies in similar backwoods slashers, by making the "hillbillies" here just a couple of nice guys and the college kids' very bloody deaths all the result of accidents and misunderstandings. We look at the dynamic created by decades of stereotyping and prejudice, and how it plays out when the slasher roles are reversed, the cast and crew's attention to detail to keep this from descending into spoof, and of course how big, misunderstood Bubba Bear Dale finally gets the girl he deserves, a victory for bearish sidekicks everywhere! We also mention shock-and-gore moments in this film that still elicit reactions in people watching for the first time (check out the hundreds of reaction videos on YouTube for example!), and of course, those great one-liners.

Additional Resources for this episode:

""Tucker and Dale vs Evil: How to make a Hillbilly Howler" by Michael Gingold - Fangoria.com, orig. 11/25/11, updated 3/16/24

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil Excluse: Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk, interview by MovieWeb, 10/8/11 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw73bfyiWTA