The Tripper

source: The Tripper

OK now this movie wasn't completely horrible because the whole idea of a psychopath obsessing himself with Ronald Reagan and then dressing up like him to go kill hippies actually worked and was pretty frightening. But the gore was really fake looking and the characters were just completely dumb because they were really high the whole movie and didn't pay attention to anything that could have saved their lives. I like David Arquette, but I think he needed to rewrite this one a little before he made it and make the gore a little more realistic as well. Overall I give it a 6 out of 10 because it had a good storyline, but it kind of failed as the movie continued on. I would only recommend this to those who like brainless horror films with dumb characters and fake gore.

This is a perfect film for a Saturday night with a bunch of people hanging out looking for something that won't be too hard to follow or enjoy. I think next time I'm gonna triple-feature it with Bad Taste and Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter. It's got a lot of really bad special and makeup effects, overwrought performances, heavy handed social political and philosophical messages right along side inspired meaningless-crap dialog, and a fairly endless stream of celebrities and recognizable up-and-comings in roles you hope won't be held against them. Did this ever have a theatrical release? Or direct to video? Seriously, is this available anywhere but bit torrent? Nice camera work tho.

actually I was interesting to see the the first movie to Thomas Jane my favorite actor after the legend the punisher movie and after two years of that great movie,but i had disappointed and the movie was too bad and it never never compare between the last work Thomas Jane did it and this movie !! the acting is too bad,and that movie cannot consider it as horror movie or fantasy or action or anything !! it may be consider comedy movie not horror movie !! the thing that was may be good in this movie is the story , but the special effects wasn't completely with it !! so you think as you watch comedy movie not horror movie. and i wonder how great actor like Thomas Jane acting in this loser movie ? however i see this movie as the worst horror movie that ever coming out in the history of the horror movies and please not rate to this movie to the cast and the producer think to do second part of this movie.

I can really relate to this movie growing up and living in Humboldt County and going to the concerts that sparked David Arquette's imagination. If you've never been to a hippie festival then this movie really doesn't have the same affect but it is still pretty funny. It has gore and comedy with some satire. Not just anti-republican satire but anti-liberal/hippie satire. My favorite satire involves Courtney Cox as a hippie trying to protect killer dogs only to be attacked by one of the dogs. I've met many people like that which makes it only that much funnier. The anti-republican satire is really good as well, like when the rednecks attack the main characters for no reason. Thomas Jane is great in this film and shows he can be funny with out cracking jokes, him and Paul Rubens work well together. If you like gore and satire with some drug humor check it out.

Plot: A group of hippies attends The American Love Fest. This festival unites the free hippies in a massive display of love, freedom, and drug use. The location of the festival is inside a forest and in the midst of the forest there awaits a man hell bent on wrapping his axe around the head of any person who wonders his forest. One by one, hippies start disappearing, and this strikes the attention of the sheriff, who seems to be the only person concerned with the notion of a maniac lost in the woods. After the deaths of a few, the unenviable happens; the masses of hippies find one of the victims tied feet first to one of the branches of a tree. This instills fear and causes widespread panic. However, it does not last for long; it actually drives the people to dwell deeper into the woods, where they party long and hard in front of a bone fire. The killer, who wears the mask of former President Ronald Reagan, reaches the pinnacle of his efforts when he rampages around the bone fire, rips of limbs, decapitates heads, and chops other body parts on a massive scale. The funny thing is nobody seemed to run away to safety. Instead, they sat and stared as each victim falls prey to Ronald. The climax is the most famous slasher movie cliché involving the drug free, socially withdrawn, troubled person, who, you guest it, is of course female, and the only person who did not have sex, fights with the evil Ronald Reagan. She eventually kills him with a hammer. Although, guess what, Ronald is not dead. The deputy informs the Sheriff that the body of Ronald had no been recovered, and the end scene shows Ronald stabbing the most annoying character in the film - the event manager. Other slasher clichés include, the murder of the informative old man who heeds warnings to the unsuspecting victims, the killer who turns out to be avenging to death of his mother by killing those who represent the same people who in his mind killed his mother. The couple interrupted during sex who happen to die, the corrupt official, the interaction with the town locals on the way to the festival, where they happen to get drawn into a fight, the crazy ex-boyfriend showing up at the very end, the law abiding sheriff who is the only person, apart from the hero, fearful of things to come, and many others I cannot think of right now. Oh, hang on, the killer who mysteriously vanishes into thin air leaving behind nothing other then his mask. View: This is just another cliché filled horror/slasher film that brings nothing new to the screen. The setting, plot, characters, dialogue and everything about the film is substandard. Heck, it bored the hell out of me. Rating: 3/10 - It was terrible, but I've seen worse. I wouldn't recommend it. It's not even worth downloading the sucker for free.

...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.

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")

In "The Tripper," a slasher movie with a political conscience, a serial killer wearing a Ronald Reagan mask stalks a group of anachronistic hippies (so anachronistic they have cell phones along with their tie dye t-shirts and psychedelic van) who have come to the forests of Northern California to celebrate free love and partake in unlimited drug use at a Woodstock-type outdoor event. The Red State/Blue State divide is never far from the filmmakers' minds as a bunch of gun-toting rednecks go up against a group of Flower Power love children who suddenly descend on the area. The saving grace, if indeed there is one, of this gory, but not particularly disturbing, splatter-fest is the tongue-in-cheek humor it manages to display from time to time. Otherwise, this odd little mixture of horror movie clichés and outdated political satire (does anybody really care about the Reagan administration any more?) falls strangely flat.

This is not a review of the artistic or entertainment qualities of the movie. This is an ALERT or warning, for those who care about such things, that the movie is politically motivated. It is an attempt to subconsciously persuade the audience that certain political figures and views are "dangerous." There is a movement in Hollywood to make movies are don't seem "political" but are based on political assumptions. The idea is to make the audience agree with the assumptions in order to go along with the movie which is (in this case) an suspense action flic. When the audience walks out of the movie they now believe the assumptions without actually thinking about it. It is a propaganda tool which was invented in Nazi Germany and is now the M. O. for too many Hollywood productions. It only works if it is done repetitively and without discussion of the actual issue. The viewer is given the idea that "everyone knows that there are crazy conservatives out there who are nuts about Reagan and one of them could become a killer." Since Hollywood is predominately liberal you probably won't see a movie about a Clinton fan who goes nuts and kills church goers. But if such a movie ever comes out I will warn against it also. The movie is entertaining, so go to it if you like this kind of entertainment, but be aware you are being politically manipulated and if you are aware, that will be enough to negate the effects. Hollywood needs to stop trying to manipulate the public. There is nothing wrong with a political film, but it should be boldly political, not a manipulative political film that pretends to be an action/suspense film.