THE TRIPPER
(2007)
The Tripper (2007)
Actors:
Jaime King, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Lukas Haas
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: English
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
Number of discs: 1
Run Time: 97 minutes
Movie:
 
Disc:
In this satiric (we think) horror movie, a serial killer
wearing a Ronald Reagan mask is killing off hippies at what must be the
most under-attended music festival ever.
From the start the group of
hippies encounter hostility from the redneck locals, but the problem is
that this is 2005 and not 1967. Is America still this intolerant to folks
with long hair and creative facial hair? Wouldn’t The Tripper have worked
better if it was, let’s say, set in 1969 and had a guy in a Nixon mask
killing off the hippies one by one?
We don’t know, but the satire in The Tripper
seems scattershot as the movie seems to hate Republicans and the
counterculture equally
—
all the hippie victims are portrayed as unpleasant and stupid. The only
vaguely sympathetic figures are a law enforcement figure, namely the local
sheriff (played by The Punisher’s Thomas Jane), and a hippie girl
who just says “no to drugs.” Make of that what you will.
Not particularly scary or
funny, The Tripper at least moves along at a decent clip and throws in
some ‘Sixties-style psychedelia and nudity (both male and female) along
with the traditional slasher movie gore. The end credits boast some nice
political poster art work and some songs are provided by the band
Fishbone.
There is also some
belated Reagan bashing in the movie. Shortly following “the Gipper’s” recent death
America suffered a collective amnesia when it came to Reagan’s time in
office, but The Tripper reminds one again of this former
Californian governor’s record when it comes to the environment ("A tree is
a tree. How many more do you have to look at?"), health care budget
cutbacks and of course the counterculture (“A hippie is someone who looks
like Tarzan, walks like Jane, and smells like Cheetah.”).
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