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Overall Rating : 5/10
Directed By : David Arquette
Jaime King (Fanboys)
Jason Mewes (Clerks II)
Lukas Haas (Brick)
Courteney Cox (Scream)
Supplied By : Fox Home Video
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : October. 29, 2007
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| PLOT As a rural Northern California town prepares for Frank Baker's American Free Love Festival, a serial killer roams the woods inflicting preemptive strikes on the hippies who've come for the sex, drugs and rock and roll. Sporting a Ronald Reagan mask and leaving trademark jellybeans at his gruesome crime scenes, the killer seems unstoppable! That is, unless he meets an unimpeachle flower child... |
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| THE REVIEW In David Arquette's Directorial debut, THE TRIPPER, a group of friends are just looking for a weekend of drug induced fun. In hopes of finding that, they all pack up in their van and head to a yearly music festival put on by Frank Baker. The "American Free Love Festival", every year sees hippies from all over gather for a weekend of "sex, drugs, and Rock 'N Roll". Not long after they get there, the friends already attract trouble from some local rednecks whom seem to have nothing better to do than to pick on them - but soon that is all forgotten, but then again, that wouldn't be the only thing to stand in the way. Just as the festivities are set to commence, random people at the festival or around it, begin to turn up dead at the hands of a deranged killer donning a mask of the likeness of Ronald Reagan. With the Reagan obsessed killer on the prowl, we watch as the characters desperately try to survive the edge of his axe. THE TRIPPER has been a film, that I have wanted to see for a long time. Why before production was over, this film already had word spreading about it. And while THE TRIPPER was only a limited theatrical release, Director/Actor, David Arquette went out of his way to vigorously promote his first film. From going to packed Horror conventions to even signing at a lesser known video store in Austin, to about only a handful of people he promoted it and did so sincerely and with excitement. With all of this hype and hard work by David, I was equally excited to see it. Now that I've seen it, I can tell you that in my opinion, THE TRIPPER is a fun movie, but not what I expected to get from it. With all of it's independent hype, I expected to see something truly unique and new, but in reality, it is just a little better than your average slasher film. Also with a man like David Arquette at the helm, whom is just a naturally funny guy, I expected THE TRIPPER's funnier moments to be more out there and outrageous. Yes the film has intentionally funny moments, but they come off as a bit dry and sometimes even unfunny. It is obviously meant to be a Horror/Comedy, but by initial reaction it isn't blatantly obvious as there isn't nearly enough 'funny' to go around, making the blend of Horror, a little bit uneven in my opinion. On the other hand, the Horror aspect of the film is truly where most of the film's entertainment lies. THE TRIPPER has a slow pacing at the beginning and not much occurs, the dialogue, not even all that great, but as soon as the "Ronnie" clad killer steps on the scene, the fun improves. The story is fun in itself, it's obviously set in present day, but as far as all of the characters go, you'd swear it's based in the early to mid 70s. You're not quite sure what year it is, as they make mention of current events and our current President(the killer's dogs are even named after the Bushs), yet you have a killer obsessed with one Ronald Reagan, whom served as Governor of California in the years 1967-1975, and served as our 40th President beginning in 1982. Accuracy or anything of that nature didn't seem to matter to the filmmakers, they just hoped to make a fun film, and i'm sure film viewers really could care about accuracy anyway. The acting is fairly decent from a talented ensemble cast(which also includes the Director himself, and Wife/Actress Courtney Cox). For me, the stand outs were Jason Mewes, Thomas Jane, and Lukas Haas, and veteran actor/comedian Paul Ruebens(aka Pee-Wee Herman - All of which have different backgrounds and acting styles and abilities, so it was nice to see such diversity in a film. Overall, with THE TRIPPER, i'm kind of mixed as far as my feelings go after my first viewing. I mean, don't get me wrong, I liked it...it gave me the feeling of the 1980s slasher films we rarely see anymore, but there is very little suspense or comedy to make it as memorable as a lot of those slasher films of this kind are. |
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| GORE
METER 4/10 There are various off-screen slashings via an axe, a severed hand, a snapped neck and a body split in half. I did go in expecting it to be gorier. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 5/10 A blend of traditional slasher scoring, and 70's-esque hippie music - I thought it fit the film quite nicely. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM THE TRIPPER is enjoyable, but I felt there just wasn't enough - not enough suspense nor comedy. With this film however, David Arquette proves that he isn't just an actor, he is also a very fluent Director - I am looking forward to more directing work from him. Sometimes when reviewing a film, I am initially not totally pleased with it, yet when I go back and review it more than once, I tend to enjoy it more than I did - THE TRIPPER may very will be one of those. It is at least worth a watch |
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