Exclusive Interview with TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL Director Eli Craig

TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL won’t be out in theaters until the end of the month, and not even that many at that, but it’s already building buzz with fans and critics. The horror comedy turns the horror tropes of films like DELIVERENCE and TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and turns them on their heads. You can read my full review (INSERT LINK) to find out if Eli Craig was able succesfully balance and mash up the genres.

This is Eli Craig’s first feature directoral effort. Read the full interview below to find out how he got his passion project off the ground, attached two hilarious actors to the film, and where some of his inspiration came from.

So this is your first directing job in the industry, how did you get started in the field and on this project?
I started doing some acting work a while back, and worked with an acting coach named Larry Moss who was this really inspirational figure. He just talked a lot about how if you’re going to be an actor, you’re really a creator. You have to be able to create your own work and so I started writing a lot in his class and doing all these shorts and skits. Then all of a sudden I found myself going “I don’t really want to act in this.” I found myself not being able to direct if acting in it too, so I started to just direct. I remember the first scene I directed in his class, I just had so much fun, so much more fun than when I was acting.

I had a little bit of work as an actor but basically I always wanted to hang out with the director and see what he was doing. I wanted to read scripts and learn more and then eventually I just thought “how do I get to the next step? There’s a lot of people in LA interested in directing so how do I do it?” I wasn’t really sure that acting would get me there, because that’s one way to do it - become a successful actor.  I realized that all I really wanted to do was make movies and direct, so I made the decision to go film school. I went to USC, and I’m still paying that off, but it’s so intense. It’s four years of being totally immersed in making films and editing them and shooting them and helping friends, whether you’re holding a boom or a light or whatever. It simplified the whole process for me. It brought it down to a level of “hey, let’s just go make a movie with your buddies.”

And then I found out it costs money to make a movie. I wish it didn’t...but it’s getting to be a lot cheaper since technology is catching up a bit. After graduating I made a short film [THE TAO OF PONG] and it brought me to a bunch of festivals and did well enough to get me to a level of being able to get an agent. I wrote a couple scripts for that agent and then co-wrote TUCKER & DALE and tried to sell the script. It didn’t sell to any of the studios, so then I just decided to make this movie. I took ownership over it, my writing partner Morgan attached himself as a producer, and we went out and hit the street to look for money. It took us a couple of years to get the financing together. Even though it’s a really low budget film, we had to have enough to pay the actors, pay for locations, and it needed more than a couple hundred grand. I almost was willing to make the movie for that, but I wanted it to have a little more of a cinematic feel and I just wasn’t sure I could do that with this movie for less than a million dollars.

How did you get Alan Tudyck and Tyler Labine attached? These are not unknown actors, people recognize them from their TV roles.
It’s easier to get someone in the lead roles that’s always been cast in the sidekick or smaller roles. And I found Alan and Tyler are both guys that would be in a scene, for instance Tyler would be on Reaper, and he would steal the show. And it’s like, “Why don’t they make the show about him? He’s the guy I want to see!” So in a way, I was really fortunate to be able to cast the movie - a lot of times you’re forced to cast really big names by the studio but I was lucky to cast the movie with people that I just wanted to see in the roles.

I went out to the them, talked to them, and the agencies were behind it enough to let us. And that’s part of why we had to raise so much money, because the agencies won’t pay attention to you at all if you don’t. We were able to raise just enough to say that we could pay their actor. We got Alan to come up a few days before shooting and he just brought it. They were both just amazing and they riff off each other so well and brought life to these characters.

The film seems to play off the stereotypical murderous hillbilly, mountain men. Were you a big fan of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSCRE, THE HILLS HAVE EYES, etc? Did they influence your writing?
It definitely influenced it! I’m not necessarily a fan because I got tired of seeing the hillbilly in that role. I’m like half-hillbilly myself and I’m tired of seeing them getting beat up in cinema. I think this was me setting the record straight, saying that not all hillbillies are evil - a good portion of them might be, maybe even most of them, but not all. We were riffing off those films like TEXAS CHAINSAW, THE HILLS HAVE EYES, and including DELIVERANCE. I’ve seen all those films, and liked some of them more than others, but it was time to go another way.

Do you have any advice for aspiring young filmmakers out there?
I just think you have to take the “aspirational” out of the “filmmaker”, and just be a filmmaker. Just shoot. The benefit is that right now you can buy a really nice HD camera for $5,000 or less. You can make a movie. I would say to just start small - 5 minute shorts, then 10 minute shorts, and work you’re way up. Then once you have enough material under your belt, write your grand dream. Write the screen play you want to write more than anything else in your whole life. Write the one movie you can’t die without making and then commit your life to making that movie. Literally, it takes that kind of dedication where you will go to the grave with this script clutched in your hand! And you have to fight a battle, a bigger battle than you ever believed, but eventually if you believe in it and you keep on fighting and have some work under your belt, you’ll find a way to make it.

How long was the process for TUCKER & DALE, from when you wrote the script to its release?
I think I wrote the script back in 1968...it feels like it! God, it feels so long. But seriously, it’s taken from the moment I wrote the script to today, about 5 years. Which is not unusual for an independent film. I feel fortunate that we were just able to get the movie made and out there. There were a lot of difficulties with it, but it’s amazing because now we’ve done Comic Con! Being through so many ups and downs, we had the hardest time just getting distribution on this project and finding somebody willing to back it and put it out there - and now to have so many fans raving about the movie...it’s a dream come true.

TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL is currently available on Video on Demand and will be have a limited release in theaters starting on September 30.