It’s rare that a film languishes unreleased after you hear nothing but raves when it premieres at one of the biggest film fests in the world, but that’s exactly what happened with Tucker & Dale Vs Evil last year at Sundance. Garnering almost universal praise from critics (including none other than our long-lost Mr. Faraci), it looked like we would soon be in for a funny, splattery horror flick.
But it took this long for Magnet Releasing to come to its senses, as they’ve just announced that they’ve picked it up and plan to release Tucker & Dale Vs Evil in its “Ultra VOD program” on all VOD platforms nationwide on August 26th, prior to a theatrical release on September 30th.
TUCKER & DALE VS EVIL is a hilariously gory, good-spirited horror comedy, doing for killer rednecks what Shaun of the Dead did for zombies. Tucker and Dale are two best friends on vacation at their dilapidated mountain house, who are mistaken for murderous backwoods hillbillies by a group of obnoxious, preppy college kids. When one of the students gets separated from her friends, the boys try to lend a hand, but as the misunderstanding grows, so does the body count. TUCKER AND DALE VS EVIL has been a hit on the festival circuit, debuting at Sundance, and winning the Midnight Audience Award at SXSW, the Jury Prize for First Feature at Fantasia, the Best Director award at Fantaspoa, and the Best Motion Picture Award at Sitges.
Director Eli Craig seems happy in a press release, and alludes to a possible sequel- “Tucker & Dale’s epic battle against evil has finally come to an end, and though they are exhausted and covered in blood, they have emerged victorious!” said Craig. “I couldn’t be more proud than to be invited into the Magnet family of crazy-awesome films and I look forward to someday breathing life into these wonderful characters again.”
Can I just reiterate how great Magnet has been for genre fans? I know a lot of people aren’t fans of their limited theatrical releases but they’re getting some of these films into theaters at all is astonishing. I’m hoping they keep a keen eye on this year’s NYAFF…
For more on the film check out their official site.