The Tripper is a 2006 American comedy slasher film directed by David Arquette, and starring Jaime King, Thomas Jane and Lukas Haas.

The film, Arquette's directorial debut, is about a group of hippies at a music festival who get stalked by a madman dressed up like Ronald Reagan.

In 1967, a young boy is watching a news report on TV of then-governor of California Ronald Reagan railing against the environmentalist movement.

The boy's father, a local logger named Dylan Riggs, faces resistance from a group of tree-hugging hippies who will not allow him to clear the forest, despite how he needs the money to buy medicine for his ailing wife.

Meanwhile, Frank Baker, the organizer of the event, is preparing for the festival, despite local police officer Buzz Hall reminding him that a girl had died at the one held the previous year.

Since Joey had the keys to their van, Samantha goes off looking for him, only to find a car belonging to her abusive ex-boyfriend Jimmy (whom she thinks has been following her over the past few days).

She then demasks the killer, revealing him to be Gus, the man from the gas station who was also the son of Dylan who was inadvertently freed by the actual president when he defunded mental institutions in 1981.

Said Arquette, "Reagan was president, and governor while I was growing up in California and I remember for the first time I saw homeless people everywhere and that was due to cuts in mental health that he did.

[7] On April 19, 2007, the film premiered at the Del Mar Theater in Santa Cruz, with Arquette and fellow cast members present for an audience Q&A.

[11] In his review for Variety, Justin Chang wrote, "For anyone who's ever wanted to see a bunch of 'shroom-smoking, free-love-espousing flower children get picked off one by one, 'The Tripper' has undeniable appeal.

But the cynical script by Arquette and Joe Harris also has various axes to grind with conservatives, the Iraq War and, most pointedly (and absurdly), Reagan's policies toward mental patients.

[17] David Arquette is credited with the story, alongside Joe Harris, who adapted the concept for the comic medium with artist Nat Jones.