I missed out on ‘Tucker and Dale vs. Evil’ when it was at SIFF last year. I do not know how it got by me – it had a lot of buzz and even starred a central player in the Whedonverse. I can happily report that I have rectified the situation. You can, too, if you missed its tiny run in art house theaters, thanks to the magic of Netflix Streaming.

The basic story is given away in the trailer. The required handful of supple, callow youths are heading into the woods for a weekend’s sport, as one does. Our protags meet some local characters and make condescending and citified assumptions about them. This will, of course, return to haunt them in ways they cannot predict. To say more might imperil your fun, so I shan’t.

‘Tucker and Dale’ is surprisingly sweet-natured for a slasher flick, and I really enjoyed it. The leads act considerably more than the genre requires, and the movie ends up being a lot more than the sum of its parts. Think ‘Deliverance’ with a dash of ’Shawn of the Dead’. Genuinely funny without losing the sneer that makes slasher films work.

Watch it.