Review of The Hitcher (1986) by Jennifer L — 20 Mar 2010

C. Thomas Howell plays Jim Halsey, a young bad-boy wannabe, almost from the wrong side of the tracks. You know the type - he's probably from a pretty nice home, but he smokes, he wears a leather jacket, he acts tough. And he does what his mommy told him not to do - he picks up a hitchhiker. Well, all right? let's give him some credit. He's driving a car from Chicago to California for someone, and late one night, in the middle of the desert, he's falling asleep at the wheel. Then it starts to rain, and Jimmy sees a poor bloke standing on the side of the road with his thumb out, getting drenched. So he figures he'll help the guy out, and have someone to talk to help keep him awake. Harmless, right?

Wrong! The hitchhiker turns out to be one John Ryder (played by Rutger Hauer), about as sick and twisted a bastard as you've ever seen on film. Okay, not as sick and twisted as Hannibal Lecter, but close. John holds a knife to Jim's throat, calmly reveals that he cut his last victim's legs off, and dares Jim to stop him. Jim manages to escape, pushing John from his moving car. But John was serious when he asked Jim to stop him, and when he finally rolls to a stop out on the highway, John decides to raise the stakes significantly. Not only does the maniac keep on killing, but he makes good old Jimmy's life a living hell in the process. What ensues is one of the most fascinating little life-or-death cat and mouse games you'll ever see on film.

The plot of this flick holds a number of surprising little twists and turns, and it's deftly directed by filmsmith Robert Harmon (who later steered Nowhere to Run and Gotti), to make the make the most of every little thrill and chill. There are some moments of really delicious suspense in The Hitcher, and the film has an almost noirish quality about it, that I find really interesting. If you dig the psycho-thriller genre, you're gonna love this film, trust me. Rutger Hauer is terrific here, giving one of the best performances of his career. This is the culmination of the dark characters Hauer helped create in his earlier appearances in Blade Runner and Nighthawks. Just great stuff. C. Thomas Howell is also very good, and gives a solid, believable performance. And Jennifer Jason Leigh is equally good as a truck stop waitress, who is the only person that believes Jim's story.