The Tripper

This hippie slasher movie from director David Arquette is a mildly amusing satire on other slasher movies that does nothing new with the genre but is entirely watchable. You can watch it, even enjoy it, but there's nothing different from the last satire of slasher movies you saw.

Production values are high, this isn't some cheaply done indie movie, there are actual actors/actresses pretending to be stoned hippies, and the camera work is up to par. It's not particularly funny, though, and the only amusement worth mentioning comes from Jason Mewes, busily playing his Jay character without the benefit of Silent Bob. He could have used the backup in this one.

There is some brief nudity and a lot of swearing and drug usage, but it's not shocking or even particularly interesting. It fits into the story line, so it's not gratuitous. There are some gratuitous gross out moments involving gore and fecal matter, but they are the kind you would expect in this genre.

Every character is a stereotype of one kind or another, from the fascist small town sheriff to the greedy concert promoter. No one steps out of their stereotype, the dialog is competent but not terribly exciting, and the villain himself is only distinct from other slashers because he wears a Reagan mask.

This isn't one to go out and look for, but if it's all that's left at the movie rental place on the tail end of a Saturday night, with a bunch of friends in your living room - you can watch it without being sorry. You probably should break into your stash first, just to be on the safe side.

Not having to face the facts, this movie is beyond weird. The tripper wears a Ronald Reagan mask while he butchers unsuspecting hippies. David Arquette took this movie and ran away with it, ax in hand. The plot seems kind of violent, i mean c'mon, Hippies? Who is going after hippies, but hey? This movie will trip out even the most hardened horror movie trippers. David Arquette's did a good job at directing, writing and acting in it. The Ronald Reagan mask is real 1980's cahuenga pass. It reminds me of the Max Headroom days when all we saw was cold war, berlin war and Ronald Reagan on t.v. This will probably get some hippies scared of a walking Ronald Reagan.

The Blood and Gore was a bit comical, but overall it was an enjoyable movie. Some of the death scenes were done with some creativity and I think they hit the nail right in the head as far as depicting how Hippies behave and live their lives for nothing, but smoking pot or getting high with mushrooms, acid and whatever else drug they can get their hands on. This concert the Hips were attending reminded me of that event in the desert called (The Burning Man). David Arquette used a different approach to directing this and it was an effective approach for the most part. The acting was decent with some actors being better than others. So overall I give this a 6 out of 10. Not bad for Arquette's directorial debut.

In the 80's, after seeing his father and lumberjack foreman being hit by a protester against the deforesting and arrested by the police, the boy Gus kills the protester with a chainsaw. In the present days, Samantha (Jamie King), who is traumatized after being abused by her former boyfriend Jimmy (Balthazar Getty), travels with her pothead friends in a van to the American Free Love Festival, a rock-and-roll concert in the woods. Near the location, they are assaulted by three local hillbillies, but they succeed to arrive in the festival. Meanwhile, Mayor Hal Burton (Rick Overton) and Deputy Buzz Hall (Thomas Jane) try to give a minimum of organization to the event. However, a deranged psychopath serial-killer wearing a mask of Ronald Reagan uses an ax to kill the pacific stoned hippies.

The slasher "The Tripper" is a great disappointment. David Arquette certainly had the intention of making a cult-movie and was supported by a good cast (probably his friends) including a cameo appearance of his wife and a great cinematography and lightening, but unfortunately the story never works. Jason Mewes is comfortable performing his traditional role of pothead; the sexy Jaime King has a good performance in the role of Samantha but the good actor Thomas Jane is displaced in his silly role. Further, the political anti-war jokes and speeches of the Republicans and Ronald Reagan are boring. In a cheap manipulation, the Brazilian DVD highlights the name of Courtney Cox-Arquette in the movie, misleading her fans. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Perseguição Assassina" ("Assassin Pursue")

...because based on the evidence of "The Tripper" he's an average-at-best director and a distinctly second- or even third-string screenwriter, though no doubt hamstrung by the scripting contributions of Joe "Darkness Falls" Harris. I'm sorry, I admire good intentions as well as the next guy, but only when they rise above mundane infernal construction projects, if you catch my drift. "The Tripper" is essentially a vanity project, and suffers accordingly.

The production values are alright for a relatively low-budget affair, especially the at-times lovely DP work from Bobby "Arlington Road" Bukowski, and the acting varies from earnestly professional (particularly leads Lukas "Mars Attacks" Haas and Jaime "Sin City" King) to egregiously self-conscious (most notably the ever-moronic-but-somehow-likable Jason "I owe Kevin Smith everything" Mewes and Paul "I AM Pee-Wee!" Reubens), with various shades in-between, including a slumming Thomas "The Mist" Jane as a local sheriff doing his best to keep a straight face. No one, though, collectively or individually, is able to redeem the sophomoric script.

I won't bore my gentle reader with yet another synopsis; you can find that in profusion elsewhere. "The Tripper" is, at best, a slasher film pseudo-parody that plays things too seriously to be genuinely funny, and too tongue-in-cheek to be remotely scary. Arquette should have gone for one or the other, not both. It's a watch-once film that I'm quite relieved I found at the library instead of wasting money buying or renting it.