Review of The Tripper (2006) by Jeff — 08 Aug 2010

David Arquette dabbles his hand at directing his very own Horror/Comedy film; the man of Scream fame where he played Deputy Dewey; it?s interesting to see if he managed to pick up any tips of the genre from working with Horror legend Wes Craven. The Tripper is your typical horror/comedy slasher film; the story revolves around a psycho killer that disguises himself and former U.S. president Ronald Reagan; the film starts in the 80?s and shows a young boy who witnesses his lumberjack father being arrested for striking a hippy protestor trying to save the forest, the young boy grabs hold of a chainsaw and shreds the tree hugging hippy to pieces. Now shooting forward to present day a group of teens travel down to the woods of said incident to attend the American Love Festival; a rock ?n? roll concert in the woods, the local mayor and sheriff try to give a structure and organization to the event but a psychopathic serial killer dressed as Ronald Reagan is on a rampage through the woods targeted the stoned hippies.

The Tripper on a basic level is just your typical teen slasher film, that is pretty much just a combination of Halloween and Friday the 13th merged together, but it?s very much heavily set in the comedy genre as well and certainly not in the same league as those two genre defining films; there is nothing wrong with combining horror and comedy, especially if you?ve got plenty of gore and this film doesn?t exactly skimp on the blood and guts, but it?s the inconsistent levels of comedy that hold this film back; which is a real shame and also quite disappointing coming from Arquette, of course he?s not a proven director or even someone held with high regard within the horror community but you would have thought that someone with his experience and his time working with such horror legends like Wes Craven you?d expect to see him produce something with a little more quality. But the film goes from quite funny and some good horror to having flat spots, and surprisingly it?s Jason Mewes that is the one responsible for breaking the flow of the film; now I?ve always been a big fan of Kevin Smith and Mewes has always been a good focal point of many laughs, but it?s the fact that you can?t escape the fact you?re watching Jason Mewes in the film and it really removes you from the film; the rest of the cast do a pretty good job in all fairness; very much the same quality that you?d expect from this type of film; though it has to be said that Thomas Jane as Buzz Hall is a real stand out performance and the film is always at it?s peak when he?s on screen.

David Arquette does an okay job with the direction of the film, though its nothing special and there?s nothing to separate this from any other numerous slasher films. The idea of having a serial killer dressed up as Ronald Reagan running through the woods killing off dope smoking tree hugging hippies is pretty cool and it plays very well; though the character is just another clone of Jason from Friday the 13th; you can kind of give it a little more leeway because it?s not just another undefined masked killer and also keeping the father of the mentally deranged killer in the story of the film also gives The Tripper something else and he does supply us with some funny scenes and again he?s not original he pretty much is a male version of Mrs. Voorhees from Friday the 13th but he isn?t a killer because his son has survived but he is hell bent on protecting his son no matter what the cost.

Overall The Tripper has its moments, but its uneven comedy and it?s generic look and style stop it from being different from any other number of films within the genre that we?ve all seen before, it?s a below par film that under the surface probably could have played out really well if not for some minor issues; it?s not so bad that you?d rule out David Arquette going on to produce better, but it?s still a disappointing entry into the genre, but hopefully it will be better luck next time. If you?re a genre fan then this might be worth watching just because of the Ronald Reagan killer running around taking a axe to hippies, but others may want to give this a miss.

4/10.