Interview with Director Eli Craig from Tucker and Dale vs. Evil

what I’m looking to do is open up the
the realm of comedy so it includes maybe
a little bit of a higher body count but
ultimately it’s a very sweet romantic
comedy and unfortunately just a lot of
kids die along the way the horror comedy
Tucker and Dale versus evil is the
perfect twist to the Texas Chainsaw
Massacre type film hi I’m Veronica
watchmojo.com and today we’re speaking
with the writer and director Eli Craig
can you tell us about your film Tucker
and Dale versus evil Tucker and Dale
versus evil is a twist on the sort of
the classic slasher backwoods hillbilly
film where the college kids go into the
woods the car breaks down and then they
go searching for help make bang on
somebody’s door and some evil hillbilly
answers it and then you know one thing
leads to another and then there’s a high
body count in my film the hillbilly
killers in the backwoods are actually
not killers they’re just a couple of
really good guys that want to drink beer
and have a good time but they’re
misperceived by the college kids as
being killers and then the college kids
try to kill them time to die freak where
it comes from I don’t know I guess I had
some bad experiences with frat kids pass
yeah this is your first feature film was
it a lot harder than the short films
that you’re used to making in some ways
get more support you know you’re doing a
short film you you have no money to pay
crew or anybody so everybody nobody
knows what they’re doing and they’re
trying to set up light stands and the
lights are falling over all the time to
me one of the hard part’s was letting go
of things I didn’t need to worry about
we had a great support team so I get to
sort of focus on like making the film
you’re very comfortable in outdoors why
do you think people are so scared when
it comes to going into the woods
actually that’s part of the reason why I
wanted to make this film when I guided I
used to guide mountaineering trips but
before that I worked as a outward bound
guide so I took kids into the woods and
and always they would be afraid that
somebody was following them or there’d
be some I think I saw somebody in the
woods i’m telling you the guy would be
too tired he wouldn’t hike this far that
guy is in the sea
somewhere because he’s a lazy to get
this far but they wouldn’t believe it
because of all these films that have
convinced people that the woods are a
terrifying place and to me the woods
Roy’s the safest place now you want at
the goriest parts to actually be the
funniest how are you able to do this
hopefully it works that way I tried to
convince the studios of that and they
were like no kid flying into a wood
chipper not so funny like this is not
funny and I was like I beg to differ I
don’t know maybe I have a dimension
sense of humor every time somebody kills
themselves you get this joyous burst of
laughter in the audience so go figure
you said this is a make-or-break film
for you because you are not going to
direct if this film doesn’t do well so
are we gonna see anything else from you
soon I’m excited to do another film I
really love the work I’ve never had so
much fun doing anything in my life
except for maybe climbing a few
mountains but this is just this is such
fun work if you’re allowed to do it and
the fact that we’ve been blessed enough
to have some success with it hopefully
means we get to do another one he girls
out don’t happen thanks is great having
you oh thank you for having me it’s
really fun