Sometimes I worry that my own experience with a movie is different from the way others viewed it, but sometimes it feels as if I have recently been able to talk with film fans who all have some kind of collected memory that keeps us all connected. The Hitcher is one of those collected memories. It's a film that many seemed to find on video, having come and gone from cinemas with no real fanfare, and no record-breaking box office. It's also a film that people have gone back to, or they've often recommended to others, which just helped to grow the reputation of it. A long-overdue bit of TLC has now given fans a fantastic Blu-ray/4K UHD set that should only lead to it getting even more love. I'm all for that.
The premise is quite simple. C. Thomas Howell plays Jim Halsey, a young man who is driving a car from Chicago to the new owner in San Diego. Struggling to stay awake behind the wheel, and maybe even a bit thrilled by the idea of doing something that he was always warned against, Jim picks up a hitchhiker, John Ryder (Rutger Hauer). That's when his problems begin, because Ryder claims to be a killer. It soon becomes clear that Ryder isn't lying, and Jim ends up in a game of cat and mouse with someone who claims that his main objective is to encounter someone who can stop him.
Written by Eric Red, a man who has written about half a dozen movies that I would consider well worth your time, and the three features he wrote in the 1980s are all either classics or close enough, The Hitcher is a tight and tense screenplay helped by the committed performances from the leads and the way that director Robert Harmon (hitting the high point of his directorial career with this, only his second feature) makes the most out of what is a relatively low budget. It could have been very different, especially when you consider how much more Red packed into the screenplay that he originally sent out to producers when he was putting all of his energy into getting someone to greenlight it.
Aside from the not-insignificant contributions from both Red and Harmon, I am not sure about where to start with my praise. I want to also mention the wonderful score by Mark Isham, and the new restoration really showcases the gorgeous cinematography from John Seale, whether our lead is travelling through a dark and stormy night or a hot and sweaty day. There's also some excellent work by a stunt team who are required to step up for one or two impressive set-pieces, including a finale that impressively elevates things above what you would expect to see in this kind of fairly small-scale work.
Hauer is the heart of the film though, a devil with his thumb in the air and a glint in his eye. The man has delivered a couple of iconic performances, and this easily sits alongside anything else that he's done onscreen. Yes, I said it . . . anything (and that includes a certain android who ponders the fleeting joys of life as his own death approaches). Howell has a tougher job, having to sell his fear, his confusion, and his trauma in ways that sometimes wrack his entire body with painful emotional overload. One other main character, a young woman named Nash, is played by a young Jennifer Jason Leigh (who had enjoyed working with Hauer on Flesh + Blood the previous year), and she does well to make herself into someone that you care about and believe in. Other familiar faces to look out for are Billy Greenbush, Gene Davis, Henry Darrow, and Jeffrey DeMunn, all playing various law enforcement officers who end up initially believing that our young hero is actually the villain of the piece, making his situation even more desperate and dangerous.
A perfect blend of strange surrealism and straightforward thrills, The Hitcher remains a fantastic fever-dream that, whether you end up loving or hating it, is very hard to forget. In fact, this recent rewatch has reminded me of how much it feels like a touchstone for some of the more successful mainstream thrillers that came along many years later (Se7en being the one that came to mind as I tried to remember how long was left once a major set-piece started to play out). Maybe it won't ever become popular enough to break away from that "cult favourite" label, but that's okay. And I suspect many of those other film fans who share fond memories of this will agree with me.
9/10
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