THE HITCHER. Directed by Robert Harmon; written by Eric Red; produced by Kip Ohman and David Bombyk for Tri-Star. Starring C. Thomas Howell and Rutger Hauer. Rated R (violence).
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As a thriller, The Hitcher is no Hitchcock. But as a horror movie, it s a cut above (no pun intended of course) the Friday the 13th crowd.
Actually, this is one case in which I'm glad for a movie's faults. If The Hitcher were really a first-rate movie, it would be too terrifying. Not only would you never pick up a hitchhiker again, but you'd probably never even take another trip on the open road.
As it is, the movie is exciting and scary enough, with an appealing hero and an extremely creepy villain. But it's a little too long, too repetitive and ultimately just too outlandish.
Jim (Howell) is taking a "driveaway" car from Chicago to San Diego and having trouble staying awake at the wheel. A little conversation would be just the thing, right? So he goes against mother's advice and picks up Ryder (Hauer).
It doesn't take long for him to wake up and regret the decision. His passenger doesn't just have a wild and crazy gleam in his eye. He turns out to be a raving homicidal maniac. And escaping with his life actually just marks the beginning of Jim's nightmare, not the end.
The Hitcher has a true nightmare quality to it. No matter how safe Jim seems to be, Ryder keeps on reappearing, dogging him, first as he tries to alert the law, and later as he just tries to get away. No one seems to be able to stop this killer, or even slow him down.
This unreal quality of Ryder's invincibility, along with an excessive repetition of similar scenes, is eventually The Hitcher' s downfall. The movie contains too many unrealistic scenes where you know Ryder shouldn't have been able to get away with his mayhem. Once or twice, maybe, okay. But after a while the nightmare loses its scary edge.
Hauer is a world-class villain, and should never try to do anything else. After masquerading as a knight-hero (which he did fairly well) in Ladyhawke, he returns here to the kind of crazy character he played in Blade Runner. Although he's much nastier in The Hitcher. He brings to life all the cliches about prickles up the spine and blood running cold. He's terrific.
Howell always plays nice kids well and does so here again. By the end of the movie, though, after being physically and psychologically pummelled for what seems like three or four hours (it's really only one and a half) Jim acquires an unpleasant hard edge. And Howell does a good job with the changed character, too.
There isn't as much actual violence in The Hitcher as a bare body count could indicate. The worst of Ryder's murders aren't witnessed by the camera. And bloody corpses aren't always on view, either.
But words and reactions (Jim seems to spend the first half of the movie throwing up) can paint some pretty grisly pictures in your mind to supplement those on the screen. So The Hitcher is definitely not for moviegoers with weak stomachs, even if they also have nerves of steel.
January 29, 1986