Dreadfully Boring

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Blistering performances.

The ultimate thrill-ride of one of the best road psycho action thrillers ever, my personal favorite number 1 thriller ever. The Hitcher (1986) is the ultimate action classic, the best road psycho thriller ever. I love this movie to death I love it. I love road thriller movies like: Joy Ride (2001), Road Games (1981), Duel (1971), Jeepers Creepers (2001), When Strangers Appears (2001) and more. The Hitcher is really my personal number 1 favorite road psycho thriller film from the 80's, I saw it as a teen when I was in high school. I got finally after 14 years the DVD on Region 2 after long search I finally got this film in my DVD collection today. I don't know why this movie is not release on Blu-ray I don't get it, why is the remake on Blu-ray but not the original is beyond me. Directed by Robert Harmon and written by Eric Red and starring: Rutger Hauer C. Thomas Howell and Jennifer Jason Leigh. This movie has everything great acting from everyone, great direction from Robert Harmon, cinematography is awesome, great practical action effects. Lot of good and eerie atmosphere too. Great gory, huge explosions like the gas station that blows up only in First Blood (1982) you will see gas station been blow up and in here. Cop cars flips over and explodes. John Ryder (Rutger Hauer) is the ultimate Michael Myers type who kills everyone on the road except Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) who plays with him a game of cat and mouse. He frames Jim Halsey for the murders in which Jim did not commit. Jim is on the run from the maniac "Hitcher" who try's to kill him and plays a cat and mouse game with him. Only one girl Nash (Jennifer Jason Leigh) believe Jim is innocent and he did do nothing and she try's to help him out. One of the best psycho road action thrillers ever, you have guns, chases everything this cult classic of a film has. C. Thomas Howell is legendary as Jim Halsey who must fight for his life and stop John Ryder.Rutger Hauer's best performance ever why we fans love this film to death and cherish it, it is because of Rutger Hauer. The Hitcher is a cult classic ultimate thriller-ride the best film of all time. 10/10

Movie Review: "The Hitcher" (1986)The directorial debut of Robert Harmon realized under highly effective cinematography by John Seale, who eventually will do his best work on "The English Patient" (1996) and "Mad Max: Fury Road" (2015), comes along with high-voltage suspense driving of the young adult Jim Halsey, giving face in James-Dean-mimicking coolness by actor C. Thomas Howell, who meets an imaginative ultra-violent father figure, performed in menacing-scary manners by Rutger Hauer as John Ryder, on isolated roads of the Mid-west areas of the U.S. leading to California. The screenplay by Eric Red has a deep understanding for tension build-ups and rhythmic pay-offs that I had no time the feeling of being lost or dulled-out within the 90 minutes hypnotic editorial by Frank J. Urioste, who also edited "Die Hard" (1988) and "Basic Instinct" (1992). "The Hitcher" is a lucky punch of a movie thriller, where simply every shot follows the next with curiosities of being further sucked into an imaginative world of young man between dreams and realities, where constant surprises await in upcoming scenes, as the character of Nash, portrayed by 23-year-old actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, who delivers the matching pendant to Jim Halsey, when they come together to fight authorities in form of up-on-their-heels highway patrols for pleading innocent in games of cat-and-mouse with John Ryder, where nothing is what is seems, before this extraordinary 1980s thriller concludes to my satisfaction.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

Driving across Texas, a young man is stalked by a serial killer who briefly hitched a ride with him in this thriller written by Eric Red of 'Near Dark' fame. Rutger Hauer is perfectly cast as the unsettling, unpredictable hitcher and the opening scenes are loaded with atmosphere as lead actor C. Thomas Howell keeps falling asleep at the wheel before picking up Hauer. As the menacing Hauer subsequently plays cat and mouse with Howell, framing him for murders along the way, 'The Hitcher' is initially frustrating to view since his motives for pursuing Howell are vague. As the film progresses though and Hauer keeps telling Howell that he is smart enough to figure it out, the film begins to feel much more allegorical, with Howell suffering the consequences of doing what he (as he says) his mother told him never to do: give a lift to a stranger. Interesting as this may be, 'The Hitcher' is hardly flawless and significant stretch in which Howell is aided and assisted by a young woman who believes him lacks the tension and Kafkaesque paranoia of the rest of the film - though of course what happens to her is most unexpected. Whatever the case, the movie is filmed in a classy manner. There are some great 360 degree shots in the police station, there is a superb shot in which the camera creeps up to Hauer at low camera angle in the middle of the road, and Mark Isham's score is perfectly moody.

There's something about this movie that makes me go back time and time again to relive the thriller that is "The Hitcher." I first saw this movie a few years after its release when I was about 14 yrs old or so and I remember feeling really disturbed and creeped out by the character "John Ryder." This movie is one that left an impression on me and decades later I still warn against picking up hitch-hikers and, when people laugh, I just look at them and say "did you not see The Hitcher?" The performance delivered by Rutger Hauer in this iconic movie is unforgettable and the relationship between he and protagonist, C Thomas Howell, is very convincing. You can feel the utter despair and shock that poor Jim Halsey is going through as he is terrorized along the route by Ryder.Just as Jaws kept me scared of swimming in the ocean, The Hitcher will keep me from ever picking up a hitchhiker. 10/10