Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
David Arquette | ... | Muff | |
Richmond Arquette | ... | Cooper | |
Courteney Cox | ... | Dog Lover Hippie (as Courteney Cox Arquette) | |
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China Crawford | ... | Paramedic (as China Raven Crawford) |
Paz de la Huerta | ... | Jade / Summer (as Paz De La Huerta) | |
Alan Draven | ... | Kid #1 | |
Norwood Fisher | ... | Band (as John Norwood Fisher) | |
Ben Gardiner | ... | Wilson | |
Rocky George | ... | Band | |
Balthazar Getty | ... | Jimmy | |
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DeAndre Gipson | ... | Band |
Redmond Gleeson | ... | Dylan / Father | |
Richard Gross | ... | Cop | |
Lukas Haas | ... | Ivan | |
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Josh Hammond | ... | Tyler |
In the 80's, after seeing his father and lumberjack foreman being hit by a protestor against the deforesting and arrested by the police, the boy Gus kills the protestor with a chainsaw. In the present days, Samantha, who is traumatized after being abused by her former boyfriend Jimmy, 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 and Deputy Buzz Hall 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. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
...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.