X
- 1986
- R
- TriStar Pictures
- 1 h 37 m
- 1986
- R
- TriStar Pictures
- 1 h 37 m
Summary A young man who escapes the clutches of a murderous hitch-hiker is subsequently stalked by the hitcher and framed for his crimes.
Directed By: Robert Harmon
Written By: Eric Red
- 1986
- R
- TriStar Pictures
- 1 h 37 m
- 1986
- R
- TriStar Pictures
- 1 h 37 m
The Hitcher
32
7.3
Summary A young man who escapes the clutches of a murderous hitch-hiker is subsequently stalked by the hitcher and framed for his crimes.
Directed By: Robert Harmon
Written By: Eric Red
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 13 Critic Reviews
32
46% Positive
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
8% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
46% Negative
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 13 Critic Reviews
32
46% Positive
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
8% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
46% Negative
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
An odyssey of horror and suspense that's as tightly wound as a garrote and as beautifully designed as a guillotine. [24 Feb 1986, p.81]
Feature debuts don't come much better than director Robert Harmon and screenwriter Eric Red's sleek, dream-like thriller about a naïve college boy who crosses paths with devil in the flesh after taking a wrong turn on some lost highway.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 21 User Ratings
7.3
71% Positive
15 Ratings
15 Ratings
14% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
14% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 21 User Ratings
7.3
71% Positive
15 Ratings
15 Ratings
14% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
14% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
I Love this movie. From the Cinematography to the characters and settings. This is a underrated masterpiece.
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The Hitcher is one of the best road movie ever. A top notch horror thriller with a mesmerizing claustrophobic climax and an one-of-a-kind cold and dark original score by Mark Isham. Haunting performance by veteran Rutger Hauer in what is one of his finest work to date. Do not take any considerations at the reviews of "critics" who claim that this is a mediocre movie, only their opinions are awful here. I only can agree on C Thomas Howell is probably not the best choice as the lead, but definitely feet to the character anyway. All these criminally awful critics are really beyond me, I was expecting a good overall rating from professionals and finally the correct ratings came from the metacritics users. What a joke.
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There's a little toying with the old doppelgänger idea of the hero and villain coming to resemble one another, and the ending is rather straightforward; but it's a highly competent sick-fright version of the evergreen chase formula.
Much of the problem lies with Howell, a dilute, rabbity actor in the Tim Hutton mold. Everyone acts Howell off the screen, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, who displays an easeful gruffness as the girl who joins Jim. With Howell's weightlessness, the deeper elements of the story -- the byplay between guilt and innocence, for example -- never accumulate.
The Hitcher is a highly unimaginative slasher that keeps the tension going with a massacre about every 15 minutes.
It's a cheap, easy rehash of Spielberg's "Duel" and "The Hitchhiker" (which Red may not have seen)--along with grabs from "Halloween" (the unstoppable fiend), "Jackson County Jail" (the innocent motorist driven outside the law) and "Straw Dogs" (manhood through blood rites). Nothing is original.
On its own terms, this movie is diseased and corrupt. I would have admired it more if it had found the courage to acknowledge the real relationship it was portraying between Howell and Rutger, but no: It prefers to disguise itself as a violent thriller, and on that level it is reprehensible.
This easily qualifies for my all-time most frightening movies list. Rutger Hauer is incredible as the evil character who can't be reasoned with and will stop at nothing to commit mayhem, etc. C. Thomas Howell seemed exactly right in the role. An absolute recommendation for late-night streaming (in a group... with "finger" food)
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Awards
Cognac Festival du Film Policier
• 3 Wins & 3 Nominations
Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA
• 1 Nomination
