The Hitcher

Horrorphile

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The Hitcher

August 13th 2010 00:57

It’s Friday the 13th. It’s Horrorphile’s birthday tomorrow. Time to review one of my favourite movies, up in my top twenty of all time, and one that’s been there since I first saw it at the cinemas. The Hitcher (1986) is a ferocious beast unto itself. Written directly for the screen by Eric Red and directed by Robert Harmon. This was Harmon’s feature debut, having worked as a still photographer on Fade to Black (1980) and Hell Night (1981). It was Eric Red’s first feature script, and he’d write one other top-notch screenplay, made the following year, Near Dark (1987). Red claims inspiration for The Hitcher came from The Doors’ Riders on the Storm.

C. Thomas Howell as Jim Halsey

Teenager Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) is doing a driveaway; a car relocation from Chicago to San Diego. It’s dark and he’s tired, nodding off at the wheel, dangerous stuff. It’s raining heavily which doesn’t help. Then out of the shadows, thumb extended, drenched, is a man, a hitchhiker. Halsey recognises this as a golden opportunity to prevent him from falling asleep, without having to pull over and lose time. He picks up the stranger, immediately announcing that his mother told him never to do this, and then introduces himself. The suspicious-looking character turns and smiles, “John … Ryder”.

Rutger Hauer as John Ryder

Ryder (Rutger Hauer) is soft-spoken, brooding, calculated. Halsey asks where Ryder’s going, but the man avoids answering. Ryder can sense Halsey’s trepidation, but he’s in the car now, Halsey will just have to deal with it. They drive on into the long, cold, dark, slippery night, passing a car with its lights on, but seemingly abandoned on the side of the road. Halsey slows down, but Ryder clamps his hand on Halsey’s thigh forcing him to accelerate past. Now Halsey is on edge and wants Ryder out. But Ryder plays the out-of-gas card and Halsey swallows the bait.

Jennifer Jason Leigh as Nash

Then Ryder makes his first serious move, threatening to puncture Halsey’s eye with his switchblade knife. He wants Halsey to stop him, but the boy is petrified. The tip of the blade pushes against the soft flesh below Halsey’s eye, and suddenly in a flash of movement Halsey manages to kick Ryder out of the car door which hadn’t been properly closed, and Ryder never put on a seatbelt. Ryder slams onto the road and Halsey speeds away, laughing with hysterical relief. But Ryder is only bruised and scraped.

There's a killer on the roam, his brain is squirming like a toad

The game (of death) is on.

Ahead of its time in terms of atmosphere, tone and mood for an American movie, The Hitcher actually exudes more of a European sensibility; minimalist dialogue, a deadly, drifting menace that verges on the supernatural, an evocative and haunting score from Mark Isham, a central tour-de-force performance that still towers above most other on-screen psychopaths, and a mythological, surreal framework that encompasses the narrative. The Hitcher is like John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978); presenting the audience with a villain that defies logic and reason, has no background, essentially no real motive, and lives primarily to terrorise and murder those all around a central figure whom provides the killer their “infatuation”.

Coins for the souls of the dead

There's the tenuous tug of a homoerotic undercurrent in The Hitcher, that John Ryder is taunting Jim Halsey in an unconsciously sexual way. There’s the touching and the looks, the teasing and the play on male virility. But more interesting is the concept that maybe John Ryder doesn’t even exist, that he's actually a split personality of Halsey’s, or a figment of his twisted imagination, created to rationalise Halsey’s serial murder spree. I like to entertain this idea, but it’s tenuous. Sure, the entire movie is far-fetched, but, like Halloween, you embrace this internal nightmare logic in order to allow this dream-beast to breathe.

The noise of a revving engine has never sounded so ominous

Later, after Halsey is framed for several murders and Ryder is definitely guilty of one, and both he and Ryder have been arrested Ryder is then interrogated by State Troopers. They discover that he has no driver’s licence, no social security number, probably no birth certificate. It’s as if he never existed. So when they ask him where he’s from, Ryder smiles and says, “Disneyland.” This is one of the movie’s many moments of brilliance; the irony of the pure evil nestled within the sanctuary of entertainment. The law is confounded by Ryder, and decide the only thing to do is have the dangerous lunatic carted off to a holding cell at the local State prison. If only it were that simple.

Between a rock and a hard place

I’ve not seen anything else director Robert Harmon has made, but I can safely assume he started at the top; The Hitcher is a masterstroke of paranoia and dread, of tension and suspense, and some excellent action sequences and ultra-violence. C. Thomas Howell was never going to win any awards for his wooden performance, but thankfully the rest of the picture is so damn impressive that his dodgy acting chops are made buoyant by his fellow co-stars, Rutger Hauer (delivering his second career-defining piece of controlled wrath, after Blade Runner four years earlier), and in a pivotal support role, Jennifer Jason Leigh as Nash, the waitress whom Halsey befriends in desperation.

At one with the road

It is at the diner where Nash works when Ryder re-confronts Halsey and hands him the gun, giving him the opportunity. He’s also planted a severed finger in Halsey’s fries. Halsey begs to know why Ryder’s doing what he’s doing, and Ryder quietly explains he’s smart, he’ll work it out, then places coins on Halsey’s eyes as payment to Charon, the Ferryman who carried the souls of the dead across the river Acheron to the underworld. Another nod to mythology, just as Ryder may very well have sprung from Hades himself.

Jim Halsey is pushed close to the abyss

The Hitcher is a lean, mean, killing machine, cut from the uncompromising fabric of cult material. There may be a moral denouement, but the odyssey has been decidedly amoral, transgressive even. There are holes of inconsistency, but I can’t be assed quibbling, there’s too much else to enjoy. If you’ve never seen The Hitcher, do yourself a favour. Embrace the lunacy, let the madness take hold, and do what your mother told you never to do: go for a ride with the original John Ryder. He’ll kick your ass into the middle of next week, and give you nightmares for another.

NB: I didn’t anticipate a sequel, but one was made: The Hitcher II: I’ve Been Waiting (2003), which I’ve not seen (and have no intention of watching), where C. Thomas Howell reprised his character, but as a cop. Jake Busey (I can’t stand Jake Busey) played a psycho-killer called Jack, who, for all effective purposes, was John Ryder reincarnate. Charles Meeker, executive producer on The Hitcher, produced and co-wrote the sequel, and then went on to produce the very ordinary remake (which I did anticipate), released in 2007, with the protagonist changed from male to female, and Sean Bean trying his utmost to capture that elusive, oh so, extraordinary uber-antagonist air of evil that Rutger Hauer exuded so effortlessly, like the unctuous sweat of a rabid dog.

Here’s the trailer:

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

12 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by ShaunK

August 13th 2010 03:32

Screen Adventure

Cool review Bryn, thanks you for shedding light on this film as I have only ever been aware of the remake which I always thought looked thoroughly tacky!

The cast here looks sensational, really is a pity that C.Thomas Howl isnt ever seen in films these these days. loved him in the Outsiders.

Will have to cue this one up soon. Happy Birthday Horrophile, you mean old bastard! Keep them nightmare coming

Comment by Bryn

August 13th 2010 04:34

Horrorphile

Hey Shaun, so you've never seen this? Wow. You've got a rough diamond awaiting you gleaming in the Darkness.

Comment by Deni

August 13th 2010 06:16

Abstract Magick
Cinema Herald

Great film...I've always been suspicious of french-fries (or chips) after seeing this movie.

Comment by David O'Connell

August 13th 2010 07:13

Screen Fanatic

How amazing does it look? That's what really struck me seeing it a couple of years ago and for the first time in many years.

Harmon's later film Highwaymen has a real Hitcher feel to it though not a tenth as good.
Surprised you haven't seen They, Bryn. Not a bad little horror film from what I remember. Though Laura Regan............damn, I liked her. (Probably negates my view of the film)

Comment by Bryn

August 13th 2010 07:39

Horrorphile

Deni, I had a bad experience hitchhiking once, and that was after seeing this movie. Never again, never again.

David, I know of They, but didn't know it was directed by Harmon. I'll hunt it down. I'm not familiar with Laura Regan, but I guess I soon will be. And yes, The Hitcher looks great. John Seale shot it.

Comment by Deni

August 13th 2010 08:14

Abstract Magick
Cinema Herald

Bryn, you have definitely peaked my curiosity. Glad you made it out of your experience in tact.

Comment by Always Eighteen

August 13th 2010 14:16

Always Eighteen

The part about how you mentioned that it's slightly surreal has me interested.

Another great tip Bryn. By the way, if you're ever into horror video games, I saw one at a friend's place called Siren Blood Curse, for the Playstation 3. It's terrifically frightening.

Comment by JohnDoe

August 13th 2010 16:12

Film & TV on DVD

Love the review mate,

You know that my affection for this film is through the roof. A life changer when i saw it as a kid in cinemas.

Funnily this was one of the reviews I did way back when that got us bonding over our love of cinema.

From that review -
"Dripping in menace, the cinematography and score engulf you with eerie atmosphere, cold violence and spectacular visuals.

Deliberately paced, the economic script moulds the characters, moving along at maximum velocity, in the process delivering some unforgettable action stunt work, carnage and suspense."

Comment by Bryn

August 13th 2010 17:27

Horrorphile

JD ... It's taken me four years to get round to this review. Whew. Cheers mate. And love your excerpt. Cold Violence.

Comment by Mountain Fog

August 15th 2010 14:53

Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!

Yes,
this was one cold and menacing movie, one of the greats for suspense, and Rutger.... so chillingly groovy.

"..extraordinary uber-antagonist air of evil that Rutger Hauer exuded so effortlessly, like the unctuous sweat of a rabid dog."

Almost poetic, your prose reeks of the danger and threat... well done indeed Bryn!

cheers

fog

Comment by James Rickard

August 16th 2010 21:12

unlucky_ fishermen.com
Angling Fish
Check this out...

Nice review of one of my favorite movies. It's been too long since I've seen this one. I'll never forget Jennifer Jason Lee meeting her end. Rutger Hauer never gets his due but I've never seen him walk through a role!!!!