The Gipper rises from the grave to hack some hippies in the Californian Redwoods.
The hippies are going to the America Free Love Festival for sex, drugs, and rock and roll, but what they find is a chief executive with an axe to grind.
Joey (Jason Mewes) is driving a VW van full of fellow adventurers to a Free Love Festival for a good time. They include his girlfriend Linda (Marsha Thomason), stoner Jack (Stephen Heath) and his girlfriend Jade (Paz De La Huerta), Ivan (Lucas Haas), and Samantha (Jaime King). Samantha is coming out of an abusive relationship with Jimmy (Balthazar Getty) and Ivan is looking to hook up with Samantha.
Frank Baker (Paul Reubens) is the abrasive sponsor of the festival and has paid the Mayor (Rick Overton) dearly for allowing him to set up shop in the Redwood forest. The Mayor has brought in Sheriff Buzz Hall (Thomas Jane) and Deputy Cooper (Richmond Arquette) to make sure that things don’t get out of hand. Soon a guy bearing a resemblance to former President Reagan is hacking his way through the hippies.
The Tripper is the directorial debut of actor David Arquette and he obviously has a predilection to druggie and slasher movies. Not to mention a dislike for a certain former president to make him into an axe-wielding maniac. The Tripper has its moments of comedy and does have some homage’s back to both the 1960s drug as well as some 1970s slasher films.
The film definitely has one of those lost in the woods with the killer flicks like Friday the Thirteenth to it, but it also goes back to films like the Tripp. However, this is not a period piece and our hippy pals are posers (well dopeheads to be sure) and only emulating the 60s. The cast is game and has a good time playing their parts.
The problem lies in that the fellow playing our serial really doesn’t look very much like Reagan. He has some raspy quips that sound like Rich Little doing Reagan (well, actually Little does better). The Reagan idea was one that seemed ripe for possibilities, but one that seems not done to its full potential.
Arquette seems to be doing both sides of the coin, slasher and drug exploitation film homage’s, but they seem to lose something in the middle. However, the right frame of mind might make you forgive some of the faults.
The Tripper is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary by director/writer/producer/actor/head bottle washer David Arquette, Richmond Arquette, Paul Reubens, and Thomas Jane.
The 10-minute “Behind the Spleens” featurette interviews co-writer Joe Harris, David Arquette, Stephen Heath, Jason Mewes, Marsha Thomason, Jaime King, Lukas Haas, and Paz De La Huerta. The 1-minute “The Making of Ronald Reagan” is a rather abbreviated look at Christopher Allen Nelson getting turned into Reagan.
The 2-minute “The Missing Finger Incident” is about a crewmember finding a severed human finger in the Redwood forest. The 2-minute “A Shitty Situation” shows Paul Reubens getting all shat up for his big scene after his character hides out in a port-a-potty.
The 6-minute “Tripper Presidential Campaign Tour” has Arquette going around the country to sell the film and there’s also a photo gallery of the tour. Next is 5 minutes of deleted scenes, a 7-minute blooper reel, the 2-minute trailer, and trailers for other Fox DVDs.
The Tripper can be either a fun little slasher film or a fun little drug exploitation homage. What it can’t seem to be is both. I thought it was a good effort from Arquette, but seemed to lose something between the two. However, it might give you some laughs this Halloween.
The Tripper is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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