The Tripper (2006) — Triskaidekafiles

THE TRIPPER

WRITERS: David Arquette and Joe Harris

DIRECTOR: David Arquette

STARRING: Richmond Arquette as Cooper

Paz de la Huerta as Jade/Summer

Balthazar Getty as Jimmy

Redmond Gleeson as Dylan/Father

Lukas Haas as Ivan

Stephen Heath as Jack

Brad Hunt as Jank

Thomas Jane as Buzz

Jaime King as Samantha

Jason Mewes as Joey

Christopher Nelson as Gus/Reagan

Paul Reubens as Frank Baker

Marsha Thomason as Linda

QUICK CUT: Ronald Reagan explains tax cuts to a group of young kids.

THE MORGUE

Samantha - A young woman who just escaped an abusive relationship, and had some bad experiences with drugs. She’s trying her best to stay clean, while hanging around with a whole group of stoners.

Jimmy - Sam’s ex, a very conservative man, who does not like drug use, and really doesn’t like that Sam is breaking up with him. He’s not handling it great, and kinda stalking her.

Ivan - Sam’s current boyfriend, a nice enough guy, a musician, and trying to do his best to please Sam.

Buzz - A local cop overseeing the festival taking place. Your typical authority figure, just trying to keep the body count to a minimum.

Gus - Our killer, spoiler, who as a young boy revered Ronald Reagan, and grew to hate the hippies that got his mom killed, his dad arrested, and so much more. He is not well.

Smoke me a tripper, I’ll be back for breakfast.

TRISK ANALYSIS: Welcome back, Triskelions! I unintentionally started a new tradition last year with Uncle Sam, and decided I was overdue to go in deep with "The Tripper". I've known about this movie for awhile thanks to a friend of mine, and it's shockingly hard to find online, unless you want to just get a DVD. Which suits me just fine. This is written by and the directorial debut of David Arquette, so let's see how he does. Can’t be as bad as half the movies I've seen…

The movie opens on a real quote from Ronald Reagan, about how hippies look like Tarzan, walk like Jane, and smell like Cheetah. He sure was a peach.

We then get some news footage showing some horrific stuff from wars in days gone by, and hearing how war could possibly be eeeevil.

That sets the stage for us to pull out from a tv into 1960s California, with a young boy watching that tv. His dad, a logger, gets called down to the worksite where they're downing redwood trees, and away from his dying wife.

At least, that's the plan, but there are the expected hippie protestors getting in the way. Oh, the father also says "on my bloody way!" and uh, not sure if a red blooded American would be saying that in the late 60s.

To be fair, it becomes a bit clearer that the father might be an Irish immigrant, and I can JUST about let it slide.

One of the protestors gets in the way, and even the logger's dying wife isn't going to sway him. A fight breaks out, and the cops show up to take the logger away, since he threw the first punch.

The kid chooses that moment and snaps, grabbing a FUCKING CHAINSAW and going to town on the protestor.

He’s not a lumberjack and HE IS NOT OKAY.

We jump to a van full of stoners driving into the woods, and one of them needs to take a pee break. The driver almost hits a dog, and they pull over so everyone can do their business.

One of them gets hit in the head with a beer bottle as some troublemakers target him for some mischief. We spend a bit of time tending to the wound, and then continue on our way to a nearby gas station to gear back up.

We are introduced to a LOT of characters in a short amount of time, and I'm not sure we're spending enough time getting to know the ones that matter.

No no, they're not actually still in the 60s. Somewhere along the way, we jumped ahead to the 'present' of 2006. Took me awhile to pick up on that, though.

We do at least get some backstory on Samantha, as Linda tells another friend about a time she got wicked high, her ex boyfriend who is still bugging her, lost his shit, and she's been trying to stay clean ever since. Well you are hanging out with the wrong crowd.

Sam's ex Jimmy is the spoiled, controlling type, and while he both hates her being on drugs, he hates Sam not being his girlfriend even more. And he is constantly calling her. Spoilers, he's also on his way.

The dudes who threw the bottle show up, and naturally there's a bit of a scuffle. And by that, I mean Sam kicks one of their asses, and they go running away.

We meet even more characters as we reach the campgrounds, and Pee Wee Herman is preparing for the big party this weekend.

They mention a few past incidents at such events, and toss in a sudden flashback to a girl who disappeared, but we see she got her face ripped off. Well that was...random.

Okay kids, today’s secret word is…CAPITALISM!

As our van full of stoners (and Sam) are about to arrive, they get stopped by a giant clump of branches crashing onto the road.

We see the culprit responsible is the slightly more older logger from the prologue, still doing his job, and not really caring how he does it. He still don't like them commie hippies either.

The stoners (And Sam) kinda mill about for a bit, while some nudists wander around elsewhere, and run afoul of the killer in the woods.

Now you stop dropping trees on people, or I'll give out some punishment.

After everyone has a good night sleep, the cops find the dead body hanging with his guts out. Sheriff Frank Castle wants to shut things down, but much like Jaws, the mayor wants the show to go on.

Sam thinks she sees Jimmy's van, and tries to get her friends to believe her, but oop, that's right, she's hanging out with a bunch of potheads who are too high to do much of anything.

Meanwhile, Sheriff Punisher goes to have a chat with the logger, who is a prime suspect for the murders starting to appear. Or at the very least, maybe setting the traps that kids are accidentally running into

That’s not fog, there’s just a LOT of drugs being smoked.

Dylan rambles about the government, how they're protecting the wrong people; corporations and the like...and then about how much he loves Ronald Reagan, and ohhh that hypocrisy is deep. BUT this is not a politics page.

The stoners frolic through the forest, and the other group they keep getting into scuffles with are also out there playing paintball. Oh, the killer is lurking too, but we'll get to him.

It doesn't even take that long, as the killer snaps the director's neck, before moving on to murder the rest of the group and a few stoners too.

Shortly after finding the oft-mentioned and near mythical potfield, Mewes' character gets his hand hacked off. Well, at least he died happy, right?

Linda runs and hides, seeing one of the paintballers get his guts spilled all over the place by a man in a suit. And I ain’t talking Godzilla.

The slasher hears her squeal at the violence, and goes looking for her. He doesn't have to try hard, and stabs her to death pretty quick.

And this is when we get the reveal that the killer is...RONALD REAGAN! Orrrr someone in a mask. Yeah, that last one.

I absolutely love the sheer incongruity of a forest slasher dressed in a nice suit, doing all this violence. Usually we get them in heavy clothes, that blend in, and look ratty, but not Ronald Fakean.

Just as the surviving stoners are getting into the festival, Sam gets bled on from above, and they discover another of the killer's victims. Sheriff Punisher cancels the party, and does his best to get everyone to disperse.

Pee Wee still throws a bit of a festival for those staying at the campground, or something, and we get a few tunes before the final act spins out.

The surviving stoners can't leave, since Jay has the keys and they haven’t found his corpse. So they decide to drop some acid to kill time, and look for their friends in the morning. This upsets Sam, and she storms off elsewhere.

Wherever she goes though, she either runs into more stoners, or her ex's van. Sam makes her way back to their own van, and finds two more of her friends are dead when she gets there.

Her ex shows up to hold her current at gunpoint, and she's pretty sure Jimmy killed them. He's shocked by this, asking why she would think he could kill anyone.

Fortunately, Ronald Slaygan shows up, and takes care of Sam's Jimmy problem for her. I mean, sure, he killed most of her friends, and will finish most of the rest off, but at least there's that.

Oh, I guess killing her current boyfriend doesn't help either. Somewhere in all this, Dylan drops that it's his son, Gus, and then he promptly falls into one of his own traps.

Sam runs off, ends up back at the party, and ends up accidentally getting some acid in her, and has an extended trip. This could not be a worse time.

I know who you really are, Ronald Reagan, you're MOTHERFACE!

Reagan shows up to the party, and slices through a whole bunch of people in a campground free love party massacre.

There's really not TOO much more to the movie. There's a lot of running around as Sam tries to stay alive, and the cops try to find Reagus.

Eventually, Sheriff Punisher does what he does best, and puts a bunch of slugs into the fake President.

But, like all good horror villains, Ronnie is Not Really Dead. Before he can get vengeance on the Punisher, Sam grabs a hammer and goes to town on Zombie Reagan, bashing his skull in until she's sure he's dead.

Everything seems pretty much over, as the sun comes up and everyone starts to clean up, or leave, but somehow, Ronald Reagan has survived.

The movie ends with one last kill, as Reagus takes out Pee Wee Herman, in a much quicker way than if it had been a stake.

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: It looks really good, which it better for something made in 2006.

Audio: It’s got a good mix, there’s some solid effects around the speakers, and the brief musical moments sound great.

Sound Bite: “If you don't leave, you will die!" "YAAAY!"

Body Count: HOO DOGGY this one comes out swinging. I complain that maybe there’s a few too many characters, but the movie sure does make good use of them.

1 - The young killer makes his first murder by slicing up a protester with a chainsaw, five minutes in.

2 - Flashback to a woman who got her face ripped off.

3 - Nudist gets dragged off into the woods.

4 - Old forest dude gets head cut off.

5 - Forest dude gets his head lopped off.

6 - David Arquette gets his neck snapped.

7 - Jason Mewes gets axed.

8 - Another hunter gets gutted.

9 - And then "Reagus" guts Linda

10 and 11 - Two of the stoners get killed off screen

12 - Balthazar Getty gets gutted

13 - Other stoner dude gets axed

14 - Dillon runs into one of his own traps

8 people at the party get axed by Reagus

22 - Some poor schmuck gets chased from a shitter and probably axed.

23 - The mayor gets eaten by dogs

24 - A rando kid gets eaten by the dogs.

25 - Courtney Cox gets eaten by dogs.

26 - Sam pummels Gus's face with a hammer

27 - Reagan chainsaws Pee Wee Herman

Best Corpse: This award goes to the hippy with his guts hanging out.

Blood Type - B: There’s some good effects scattered about here. The movie doesn’t overdue it, and maes good use of its resources.

Sex Appeal: The movie keeps things pretty PG-13.

Drink Up! Whenever jelly beans are seen or mentioned.

Movie Review: This certainly isn’t a BAD movie. I think any problems I have with it, is that it feels a little unfocused. It’s packed with characters, and they’re all kinda scattered all over the place, some surely not even needing to be here. The Reagan stuff feels very tacked on (But I let it slide on this, because the incongruity is the point, and I like the way it jars you out of your comfort zone). Also, it’s just kinda…there. It’s not really a mystery, and doesn’t really NEED to be, but it’s almost thrown away that “Oh yeah, by the way, Gus is the killer!” I feel there’s a better way this could have been written and handled. Maybe even holding the opening prologue for somewhere in the middle of the film. I wish it was a little more satire, instead of just making jokes about politics. This movie feels like a good idea, that just needs a bit more polish. Arquette is a solid director for his first go, and he definitely is able to bring a bit more star power and money a movie like this COULD have had. It’s not bad, just has a few rough edges, three out of four jelly beans.

Entertainment Value: While the plot has its rough spots, the movie is very very fun. Having such a high body count, you’re never bored, there’s always something happening, and since this movie is in large part comedy and Arquette having a good sense of humour, a fair number of the jokes land in the “good chuckle” to “very funny” category. The kills are well executed, with good effects, and it’s fun just watching these actors have a good time. Four out of five thrown bottles.