Irish Film Institute -THE TRIPPER

THE TRIPPER

Director: David Arquette

U.S.A.| 2006. COLOUR. 35MM. DOLBY DIGITAL STEREO. 93 MIN.


Actor David Arquette’s debut as director is a low-budget satire that gleefully tosses hippies, rednecks and wild political notions into a woodland bloodbath. In 1967, a disturbed young boy with a bizarre Ronald Regan obsession applies a chainsaw to the neck of an environmental activist during a treehugger’s protest. Fast-forward to the present day, as three couples, all hippies in their twenties, are on their way to a Woodstock-style music festival in that same patch of forest. Naturally, they encounter trouble – first from a trio of hicks one of whom is played by Arquette), then from a maniacal killer with a disturbing resemblance to the Gipper and an alarming array of sharp instruments. This is an exploitation movie that not only thrives on gore but also has political axes to grind with everything from the Iraq war to Regan’s policies on mental illness. There’s even an attack dog named Nancy.

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