THE HITCHER

		Review by Mike Oliveri
THE HITCHER - 1986 USA Release: Feb. 21, 1986 HBO Pictures, Silver Screen Partners, TriStar Pictures Rated: Australia: R / Finland: K-18 / France:-12 / Norway:18 / Sweden:15 / UK:18 / USA: R

I thought Rutger Hauer (BLADE RUNNER, NIGHTHAWKS, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, HEMOGLOBIN [aka BLEEDERS]) was damn cool in BLADE RUNNER, but he really shows off his darker acting skills as the psychopathic title character in THE HITCHER. He's got the look, he's got style, and he's scary as Hell.

Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell: "KINDRED: The Embraced" [TV], TREACHEROUS) is driving a car from Chicago to San Diego for its owner. It's pouring rain and he's dangerously close to falling asleep at the wheel. He then sees a man thumbing for a ride in the rain. Looking for some companionship and someone to keep him awake, he decides to pick the guy up. Unfortunately, he'll never make the delivery now that he's picked up John Ryder (Hauer).

After a few genuinely creepy moments with this taciturn stranger, Halsey realizes something is wrong. Ryder reveals he has murdered the driver of the car they have just passed,
"I cut off his legs . . . I cut off his arms . . . and I cut off his head," he says calmly, and he tells Halsey he's next. However, Halsey manages to ditch the hitcher and survives the experience.

But that's when the real fun begins.

Ryder catches a ride with a couple and their two young kids. Halsey tries to warn them, but botches it and soon discovers the family's stopped car. He pursues Ryder to a small town, where Ryder mysteriously confronts him, then lets him live and catches a ride with another driver. Halsy gives chase, and is nearly killed in another confrontation at a locked up gas station.

"You wanna know what happens to an eyeball when it gets punctured?"

The film continues in this vein, with Ryder continually setting Halsey up for more and more trouble. Framed for murder and desperate, Halsey even resorts to hijacking a police car to try and get somebody to believe he is not the killer. Along the way he picks up Nash (Jennifer Jason Leigh: SINGLE WHITE FEMALE, SPAWN [HBO animated series], eXistenZ), a young girl working at her cousin's diner, with dreams of moving to California.

For Ryder, however, his target's new partner only makes things all the more interesting ...

There is a big showdown in the end, of course, and it's somewhat of a letdown. In fact, after the first half of the flick, the plot becomes less and less believable. Still, I have to give screenwriter Eric Red (NEAR DARK, BODY PARTS) credit for coming up with a nasty character and an interesting situation. The psycho-toying-with-a-victim bit has seldom been cooler, despite the somewhat awkward execution in this flick.

But is it Thrilling? HELL YEAH! Stunts include this amazingly intricate
Double Roll as performed by the late Eddy Donno and Kenny Endoso.

Hauer is no doubt what makes the film. Without him, it would hardly be worth watching. Leigh does a fair job as the small town girl, but Howell is just plain awful. It's not hard to see why he's hardly picked up more than B movies since his appearance in THE OUTSIDERS. The rest of the actors are mostly unknown, though Jeffrey DeMunn (THE GREEN MILE, STORM OF THE CENTURY [TV]) has a small part as a Captain of the sheriff's police, and STAR TREK: DS9's Armin Shimerman (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER [TV series], SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS) plays an interrogator.

While it's not usual policy, I'm going to split the final rating. What makes the flick a classic is Hauer's outstanding portrayal of the hitcher, so I'm going to give him four Shriek Girls. However, the film itself lacks pizazz, and again, it has that disappointing ending, so I give it two Shriek Girls.

This review copyright 2000 E.C.McMullen Jr.

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For those who scroll...

In 1984 David Bombyk just launched his movie career with Co-Producer credit on WITNESS, but that wouldn't be released until 1985. He was slated to get his Producer credit on THE EXPLORERS, but again, that was a year away and, because he was a no-name and it was a big studio Paramount Picture, it would be promoted as a Joe Dante film.

In 1984 Producer Kip Ohlman had worked for years to bring her vision of a THE FLY remake to the screens. But in the world of showbiz, she needed to prove herself low budget to earn the big budget.

After years of working in relative obscurity in the film industry, Producer David Bombyk had just launched his career and Kip Ohman was ready to launch hers.

They were both fiercely driven. They had AIDS. There was no time left to waste.

After year of THE HITCHER'S release, David was made President of Geffen Pictures. A job he kept for the rest of his life.

Kip's vision for THE FLY, about a scientist experimenting with his physical transition machine that doesn't work right until, in a moment of drunken jealousy, he experiments on himself with unforseen consequences, hit the screens in 1986. Kip Ohman, born Christopher Hudson Ohman, died the following year at the age of 41.

Bombyk would go on to personally produce one more movie, 1991's DEFENSELESS, but he never saw it. He died having succumbed to complications of AIDS in 1989 at the age of 36.

As for the other first timers who worked on THE HITCHER, Writer Eric Red would go on to write NEAR DARK, BLUE STEEL, BODY PARTS*, BAD MOON*, and 100 FEET*.

Director Robert Harmon would go on to direct the JESSE STONE Mystery movies starring Tom Selleck.

*Also directed.