Review of The Hitcher (1986) by Allan C — 16 Jul 2011

A hybrid of "The Duel" and hitchhiker urban legends, with 80s slasher film sensibilities, this film works far better than you would expect simply reading the synopsis. I'd of course seen this one back when it originally came out, but the film still holds up today.

Rutger Hauer gets a lot of the credit for making the film as effective as it was. The part of John Ryder could easily have been a throwaway villain, but Hauer manages to make the mysterious character utterly compelling whenever he's onscreen.

Jennifer Jason Leigh also does a superb job in a thankless role. C. Thomas Howell on the other hand merely does a serviceable job. The screenplay by Eric Red (Near Dark, Body Parts) moves at a fast pace and Howell's character makes mostly logical choices and his illogical ones can be explained by him being a dumb kid.

The one good thing about his casting was that he's not a confident, cocky Tom Cruise/Matt Dillon type who the audience would not worry about as much as a dumb kid. Mark Isham does another one of his excellent scores and director Robert Harmon (who seems to have never directed anything else of note) does a fine job building suspense and shooting of the action sequences, although at times his style seem to be a hambone version of Tony Scott.

Definitely a classic of the 80s.