Movie Review: The Hitcher
“The terror starts the moment he stops.”
Intro
Rutger Hauer is one scary mother-fucker!
Story
Thomas Howell plays Jim Halsey, a young student driving a rental car cross country through the American desert. One rainy night he stops to pick up a mysterious hitch-hiker named John Ryder (Rutger Hauer), who soon makes Halsey’s life a living nightmare as he reveals his homocidal tendencies. Halsey only just manages to escape with his life, tearing off into the night, but the game has just begun and it looks like the Hitcher will stop at nothing to hunt Halsey down, no matter who or what gets in his way.
Framed for murder by the Hitcher, Halsey joins forces with a local girl named Nash (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who helps him escape from both the Hitcher and now the entire County Police Department.
The whole thing goes from scary, to ridiculous back to downright scary over the course of the film as the Hitcher kills again and again and again and again.Overall though, the Hitcher is a fairly simple cat and mouse thriller which does little to bring anything new to the table of an already crowded sub-genre of horror movies.6/10
Action
As far as horror movies go, the Hitcher has a surprisingly high body count as anyone who gets in the Hitcher”s way is mown down or blown away both painfully and violently. Most of the deaths are either gunshot or automobile related, but it never gets old watching Rutger Hauer shoot down a police helicopter from inside a moving pick-up using only a police-issue revolver! There’s carnage galore and even a couple of novelty deaths, including a scene where Jim”s short lived love interest, Nash, is tied to the back of a truck and then ripped in half by the crazed Hitcher as he toys with a terrified Jim.
7.5/10
Acting
“The Hitcher” really sits on the fence between mainstream and B-movie material and although none of the supporting characters are notable in their performances, Howell does as he is required, going through the acting range of horrified, terrified and mortified with certain conviction. The real star of the show is Rutger Hauer however, who pretty much excels at the psycho-killer role and really seems to take pleasure in blowing away innocent civilians and running down police-officers.
8/10
Overall
An enjoyable horror-action picture with a predictable but entertaining storyline and a high number of mundane but enjoyable killings.
John Ryder: That guy back there, the one we just passed. The guy who picked me up before you did.
Jim Halsey: That was him in there?
John Ryder: Sure it was. He couldn’t have walked very far.
Jim Halsey: Why’s that?
John Ryder: Because I cut off his legs… and his arms… and his Head. And I’m going to do the same to you.
7.1/10