The Tripper

An axe murderer in a Ronald Reagan costume running around the California woods killing hippies. Obviously, not a serious flick. Although you'll find it filed under horror, this one's a comedy thru and thru.
Let me start with the fact that while the tabloids and celeb gossip rags harp on the couples that fight like rabid wolverines, David Arquette, who makes his directorial debut with The Tripper, and the lovely Courtney Cox have been happily married for a decade. The Tripper is evidence of why anyone would find a goofball like Arquette appealing when they could marry or bed any number of successive supermodels.
The film is clever, laugh-out-loud funny, and while it's not one I feel the need to add to my collection, the time spent watching it isn't wasted.
Arquette pulls strings to assemble the type of cast that ensure this film's cult status: Thomas Jane (The Punisher), Jason Mewes (Jay, a la Jay & Silent Bob), Lucas Haas (The Wittness), and Paul Ruebens (Pee Wee himself) come together and give their best, all to Arquette's credit.
The central plot is menial; a vanfull of hippies go to a free love festival in the CA redwood forest and are picked off by the axe of an ex-prez impersonator. Arquette and co-writer Joe Harris throw in enough red herrings to make the plot passable, but it's the tongue in cheek politicizing that gives the film substance. At one point, an angry conservative finds himself at Ronnie's mercy and just before getting the axe, utters, "...But I'm a Republican." It was delivered so effectively that I had to rewind to catch the actual killing because I was laughing so hard. Set in Bush-administration America, the movie takes its shots at GW aplenty and uses its over the top aproach to mirror the GOP's ridiculous vision.
Blood and gore abound but not to the extnent I was expecting. Instead, Arquette puts faith in his script, his cast, and his vision and it pays off for him.
When Ronald Reagan bursts into a firelit hippie drum circle and wreaks havoc with wild swings of his axe, I felt an authentic moment of conservative Republican glory. "Go Ronnie, kill them damn, dirty hippies!" I yelled. It almost inspired me to go eat a slab of raw meat and crack a can of PBR, but the subsequent bloodletting brought me back to my senses.