The Tripper (2006)

Plot Summary
"The Tripper" is a 2006 American slasher movie directed by David Arquette in his directorial debut. The movie revolves around a group of pals who go on a trip to participate in a Redwoods music festival. The music festival is a pot party filled with hippies that's being organized in a remote area of redwood forest. It ends up being a terrible headache when a psychopath impersonated Ronald Reagan starts to slay the revelers.

Characters and Setting
The main characters consist of Samantha (played by Jaime King), her new sweetheart Ivan (Lukas Haas), her ex-boyfriend Derrick (Jason Mewes), plus vaarious buddies and festival-goers. The setting, a thick redwood forest, is the website of the music festival, and becomes the stalking ground for the masked killer.

Main Events
As the group of buddies gets here for the music celebration, they satisfy a group of 'tree huggers' (ecological activists) opposing against the celebration being kept in a forest. This sets an ominous background for the strange activities that follow.

Unbeknown to the friends, a crazed killer with a fixation for Ronald Reagan has an animosity against hippies and has been stalking and slaucing them. On their first night at the celebration, 2 in their group are killed, however the others believe they just wandered off. On the other hand, local polices, one of whom's child was killed by the killer years earlier, start to sense something amiss.

Climax and Resolution
As the killer continues to dispatch the festival-goers and the buddies in gruesome ways, the celebration organiser overlooks the warnings until it's too late. Just when Samantha and Ivan find their buddies' bodies do they realize in fear what's occurring. Eventually, Samantha is captured by the killer who exposes his past as a kid impacted by his daddy's logging income being ruined by hippies, as a result establishing a hatred versus them and tying this to his obsession with Ronald Reagan.

Ivan, regional cops, and the 'tree huggers' shot to rescue Samantha. In the turmoil, a fire sparks and chaos takes place. At the last moment, among the polices confronts the killer, only to be slain, however handles to injure the killer. The interruption allows for Ivan and Samantha to counterattack, causing the killer's death.

Aftermath and Conclusion
As a last twist, Samantha is revealed in the closing scenes as having soaked up a few of the killer's insanity. The film ends implying that she could perhaps continue the cycle of violence, leaving room for a follow up.

General Outlook
"The Tripper" presents a quirky mix of slasher-type tribute and political satire, with a heavy influence of 1980s scary gore. While some critics discovered it to be a fascinating foray for novice director David Arquette, others discovered its oddball humor and excessive gore horrible, making it a divisive movie, however a notable entry into the horror-comedy subgenre nevertheless.

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