Tucker and Dale vs. Evil

Eli Craig’s first feature, written with Morgan Jurgenson straight out of film school, keeps the college kids in the woods formula and swaps the sides: the two backwoods friends at the cabin are gentle, and the students panicking supply the menace. The script went unsold for years and the financing only closed in April 2009. Shooting began on 10 June 2009, and the story’s West Virginia is a private ranch outside Cochrane, west of Calgary. The rain barely stopped. Producer Rosanne Milliken said she logged close to twenty five loss and damage claims here, having never had more than three across fifty productions. With no usable sawmill nearby, production designer John Blackie built the climax’s mill inside an old barn. Costume designer Mary Hyde-Kerr had half a dozen identical copies of each outfit made, since the blood soaked scenes needed more than one take. Alan Tudyk and Katrina Bowden were cast three days before the camera rolled. The film played Sundance in January 2010 but did not reach American cinemas until 30 September 2011. A good fit if you want to watch the mechanism run rather than be surprised by it: every death is an accident the students misread. Not for viewers expecting the comedy to soften the gore; the chainsaw and sawmill scenes are staged plainly and in full.