It’s Gonna Be an Interesting Weekend
Main Cast: Thomas Jane, Jason Mewes
Director: David Arquette
Each year there are movies produced that are never seen by the public. Their content is considered too graphic, too disturbing, too shocking for general audiences. This is one of those films.
Okay, it’s only kind of one of those films. David Arquette’s THE TRIPPER (he wrote, produced, directed, and appeared in it) was originally slated as one of the first 8 Films to Die For, but Arquette and Co. wanted to make the film’s official release date 4/20 (to go alone with “weed day”) but the After Dark Horrorfest takes place much earlier in the year, so they amicably parted ways and the movie was shown as a bonus at the festival. This is what I’ve read, anyway. As for the movie itself:
Ivan, Sam, Jade, Jack, Joey, and Linda (Lukas Haas, Jaime King, Paz de la Huerta, Stephen Heath, Jason Mewes, and Marsha Thomason respectively), are headed into the forest for a weekend Free-Love festival full of hippies, drugs, and music. But the festival is soon turned into a bloodbath when a masked killer dressed as Ronald Reagan shows up and starts axing everyone in sight.
The title, THE TRIPPER, plays on Reagan’s “the Gipper”, and the film is full of political references from beginning to end, opening with a quote from Reagan himself. “A hippie is someone who looks like Tarzan, walks like Jane, and smells like Cheetah.”
References are sprinkled throughout the movie to both the political and drug cultures of our country, some references very subtle, some definitely not so much, and it’s fun watching the movie and trying to pick out the Delorean here (cocaine reference), the jellybeans there (Reagan reference) and not only how much thought and planning must have gone into the making of this movie, but also how much fun it had to have been planting these visual cues everywhere.
The plot unfolds like any of the slasher movies I grew up watching and loving: a group of horny teens arrive, everyone dies except the one person on the trip who wasn’t having sex or getting high. Arquette cleverly planted a red herring in there, but it was handled in a way I didn’t feel cheated or lied to when the reveal was made. As one of those kids who went to see almost every Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street movie in the theater when I was growing up, I really dug THE TRIPPER and what it set out to do. It was a fun movie.
The performances were up to par, although with names like Thomas Jane, Paul Reubens, and Balthazar Getty THE TRIPPER has slightly more star power than your average slasher flick.
Arquette’s script is smart and funny, and his direction was a lot better than I’d expected. I mean, come on, he’s DEWEY, for God’s sake, he’s not supposed to be able to direct a movie this well. But he makes some excellent choices, and the overall production is very watchable. In fact, I’ve watched it twice and could easily see it a third time.
The unrated version features more gore than the theatrical release. Unfortunately, I think Arquette was relying too much on the gore to represent the “horror” factor, because there were no scares in the entire movie. A few shocks, although–thank God–no jump scares with a cat leaping into frame or anything so foolish. As fun as it is to watch, THE TRIPPER also showcases one of the biggest things that was wrong with horror movies in the 80s. Slasher movies are NOT scary. Sure, the situation is intense, and paranoia abounds within the plot, but have you ever left a slasher flick and felt uncomfortable for a few days afterward? No. Because they’re not scary. Blood and guts does not equal an awesome horror movie.
So while it is a good movie, THE TRIPPER also plays, unfortunately, to the lowest common denominator of the horror genre.
The DVD, if you can find it, is a good deal. The movie comes with commentary from Arquette, his brother Richmond (who plays Deputy Cooper to Thomas Jane’s Sheriff Buzz Hall), Paul Reubens, and Jane (although Jane contributes almost nothing to the commentary and really didn’t seem too thrilled with being there), as well as a slew of other goodies: a making of featurette, a look at Arquette’s national campaign promoting the movie, gag reel, deleted scenes, and more.
THE TRIPPER is not as good as some of the other After Dark movies, but it’s better than one or two. And if you’re intent on owning the entire collection, even though it’s not officially one of the 8 Films to Die for, it IS listed on the Wikipedia page so, you know, it counts. And anyway, lowest common denominator or not, it’s still a really fun movie to watch.
More 8 Films to Die For
C. Dennis Moore is the author of over 60 published short stories and novellas in the speculative fiction genre. Most recent appearances are in the Dark Highlands 2, What Fears Become, Dead Bait 3 and Dark Highways anthologies. His novels are Revelations, and the Angel Hill stories, The Man in the Window, The Third Floor, and The Flip.
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