The Hitcher (2007)

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Horrorphile - September 2007

The Hitcher (2007)

September 9th 2007 23:34

I realise I’m breaking my own horrorphile rule by reviewing a remake before I provide my review of the original, but looking into the Pleasure of Nightmare archives I see I’ve already broken that rule (The Omen remake), so I’m a serial offender. Such is life.

Robert Harmon’s The Hitcher (1986) is a bona fide cult classic, and is one of my all-time favourite horror movies, up there somewhere in the top twenty-five or so. The screenplay by Eric Red was intense, uncompromising, and enigmatic. Harmon’s superbly stylish direction lifted the movie’s game many few action-thrillers aspire to, but seldom reach.

Rule No.1 - Never stop for strangers

The Hitcher took a plausible premise: never pick up a dodgy looking stranger at night in the rain, and ran with it, hard. However - and here lies the main difference between the original and the remake directed by Dave Meyers - it created an almost supernatural edge, a pseudo-dreamlike vibration which echoed and reverberated and coursed through the movie. The remake tries too hard. It pushes urgently, insistently, and in doing so the intention backfires. The new Hitcher ends up pedestrian, and then during the last few minutes becomes laughable.

Sean Bean as John Ryder

Jim Halsey (Zachary Knighton) and his girlfriend Grace Andrews (Sophia Bush) are on holiday, driving to visit some of Grace’s old friends. On a dark desert highway in the middle of a thundering rain storm Jim serves to avoid a stranger standing in the middle of the road. The situation looks dodgy, Grace is nervous, so Jim puts pedal to the metal and they opt not to pick the hitcher up.

The Hitcher (2007) Sean Bean, Sophia Bush, Zach Knighton

Rule No.2 - Never pick up strangers

Further down the track at a petrol station Jim and Grace found themselves confronted by the stranger who asks politely for a lift. Jim says yes, much to Grace’s concern. Like inadvertently inviting a vampire into your home, this is the mistake that will cost Jim and Grace dearly. The hitcher, John Ryder, is a homicidal psychopath hellbent on destroying the lives of this young couple and framing them for various murders he’s already committed and several more he is going to commit.

Zachary Knighton as Jim and Sophia Bush as Grace

The Hitcher doesn’t start to promisingly when an obviously CGI-ed rabbit bounds across the road and is promptly turned into roadkill. Tacky, to say the least.

Neal McDonaugh as Captain Estridge

Watching Sean Bean as John Ryder only made me think of how good Rutger Hauer was in the original. Hauer instilled a palpable sense of lunacy into the character, but a controlled malevolence kept him in check. In the original Ryder was a kind of boogeyman, or perhaps an allegorical ferryman taunting Jim Halsey as he carried him across the river Styx toward Hell. Perhaps Jim Halsey was already dead and The Hitcher was a kind of journey through purgatory.

In the remake Sean Bean’s John Ryder is less “supernatural”. “Where are you from?” asks Jim, and later police Captain Estridge (Neal McDonaugh). “All over,” replies Ryder. In the original Ryder replies “Disneyland.” There was something intrinsically creepy about Hauer’s delivery of that line. But in the remake Ryder is less the diabolical freak and more the compulsive serial killer, and Sean Bean isn’t as physically imposing or commanding as Rutger Hauer.

The Hitcher (2007) Sophia Bush and Zach Knighton

Grace and Jim in a tight spot

In the original Jim is befriended by a truck-stop waitress named Nash who becomes caught up in his hellish ride. In the remake acquaintance Nash has been transformed into girlfriend Grace. But then the remake goes one step further (too far) and changes a pivotal scene; in the remake Ryder has his foot on the truck’s clutch and Jim (instead of the girl) is chained between the cab and the rig his body being pulled taut like a medieval-styled execution. The consequences are implausible. But I won’t go into that here.

Grace steels herself for her role as Final Girl

Grace becomes hardened by her experiences, enough for her to coldly execute the same kind of brutal, emotionless violence which had been perpetrated by Ryder on her and her boyfriend. She’s become an uber-killer. “It feels good, doesn’t it?” Ryder grins between blood-smeared teeth, “I don’t feel a thing,” she replies matter of factly and squeezes the trigger.

Grace has a bone to pick with John Ryder

The Hitcher remake has some okay camerawork, but there’s none of the haunting atmosphere of the original. The movie’s inherently powerful imagery and dark tone dissipates straight after it has finished. Very forgettable to say the least.

Another one bites the dust

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

8 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by James Rickard

September 10th 2007 00:25

unlucky_ fishermen.com
Angling Fish

If this is HALF as good as the original people will see what scary movies really are!

Comment by Damo

September 10th 2007 00:56

For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics

Rutger Hauer is the demon of disturbance. He stole the show in Bladerunner but he aged too fast and peeked too soon. He should never have played in Buffy.

Just to look at the way he grins is enough give anyone the shivvers.

I cannot think of anyone else these days who has the same stature to play a likeable but frightening kind of guy.

Shame ojn Hollowood. Shame,shame, shame.

Comment by KylieW

September 10th 2007 03:00

Celebrity Obsession

I have to see the original. I love Rutger Hauer. I'll wait for DVD for this one!

Comment by Nickoftime's Sanity Corner

September 10th 2007 14:59

Bryn,

Rutger Hauer was so good in the original that he creeped me the hell out!

LOL

But I'll give this one a go, cause Sean Bean can be pretty damned creepy at times too...

Hope this one follows the original plot closely, cause the first one was really very well done...

Great review!

Take care,

Nick

Comment by Michaelie

September 10th 2007 18:09

Flick Wit

I have never picked up a hitch-hiker and never will. Thanks to this movie, the very thought scares the bejesus out of me!

I'll have to see the remake, even though I usually hate remakes, if only for Sean Bean.

A very fine post indeed, Bryn!

Michaelie

Comment by Miswanderlust

September 11th 2007 03:05

Killer Beats
Ramble On
Hipnotherapy

Great post. This movie scared the hell out of me. I actually had to hitchhike once in my early twenties due to car trouble in a very remote area of Texas. Very scary experience..... Was picked up by a hypervigilant talking women. By the end of the ride I wanted to to put myself out of my misery. Appreciated the ride not the gab. In retrospect I guess she was worried that maybe I was going to chop her up into little pieces.
Mis

Comment by Bryn

September 11th 2007 09:30

Horrorphile

Cheers for the comments everyone ...
The remake doesn't have a bar on the original ...

Damo, yes I totally agree Rutger aged and peeked too soon ... I so wish Julia Philips (late Hollywood producer) had managed to get The Vampire Lestat the green light back in the early 80s, cos Anne Rice, who had made friends with Philips, wanted Rutger as Lestat (and Eric Roberts as Louis).

Comment by charles

September 12th 2007 09:47

FanFootball
ZCars
Ponderous

I think this one's worth a look - but only on DVD!

Cheers for the review, Bryn.

Charles.

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