Modern hippies (Lukas Haas, Jaime King, Marsha Thomason, and Jason Mewes) attending a concert are targeted by a nutjob in a Ronald Reagan costume, who has a deep-rooted hatred of hippies. Thomas Jane is the supposedly heroic police chief on the case, Paul Reubens is the sleazy concert promoter.
A vanity project for director/co-writer/co-star David Arquette with a little help from his friends, this horror-comedy certainly has the goofy, laidback (if not stoned) persona/stamp of its creator all over it. And it’s also likely the only horror/comedy with a killer Ronald Reagan, directed by a one-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion (sorry to remind you, my fellow wrestling fans. Thank God I was AWOL around that time in Wrestling history!) you’ll ever see.
It also features one of the better obscured severed head scenes I’ve witnessed, usually I’m not a fan of hiding the gore, but done in the dark here, it looked somewhat cool. The gore is far more convincing than in many bigger-budgeted films, with a nice massacre scene to rival the one in “Freddy vs. Jason”. Best of all, the cinematographer is the only one here totally on his A-game, it’s a really well-shot film.
Those are its strengths. It’s flaws are numerous, but the lazy screenplay is the chief one. Why are there hippies in a film set in modern times? Why are they such underdeveloped, uninteresting clichés spouting horrible dialogue? And just what is your political point here, Mr. Arquette? You seem to be sitting on the fence, giving the crazy old Reagan-esque killer a sympathetic back-story, yet having the hippies as our chief protagonists.
The idea of a Reagan mask-wearing killer is a fun one (though this dude looks more like James Brolin, IMHO), with the impersonation/one-liners being quite amusing (if unconvincing), but by then, it’s too late.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Not without interest, but I’d have sent the script back for a re-write to correct its flaws. Dopey in every (negative) sense of the word.
