Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageThe Hitcher (1986)
Director: Robert Harmon
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
There's a killer on the road (everyone's favourite Dutch psycho, Hauer) with a Nietzschean gleam in his eye and an ugly knife in his pocket. When Howell picks him up at dawn on a deserted Texan highway, he immediately makes his intentions plain by scaring the boy witless. When the boy fights back, however, then the hitcher has found what he needs - a decent adversary - and the game begins. By an apparent near-magical ability to be in several places at once, Hauer embarks on his round of gory slaughters, while sucking Howell into appearing at the scene, only to be nabbed by the cops. If you can swallow the unlikely nature of the killer's powers (like dismembering an entire police station while the boy is asleep in a cell), then you are in for a good rough ride down a murky road. 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. And you'll never eat french fries again without looking at them closely. CPea.Author: CPea
Cast & crew
Director: Robert Harmon
Producer: David Bombyk, Kip Ohman
Cast: Rutger Hauer, C Thomas Howell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jeffrey DeMunn, John Jackson, Billy Green Bush, Armin Shimerman, Henry Darrow full cast
Genre(s): Horror
Duration: 97 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
The 10 worst date movies
Just in time for Valentine's Day, we present ten of the least romantic films ever made
Where to watch this year's Oscar-nominated films
Find out where to watch 2012's Oscar-nominated films in London cinemas
10 unlikely badboy biopics
Featuring Phil Collins, Jeremy Clarkson, Nick Clegg, David Starkey and a host of other unlikely subjects
Interview: Sean Durkin on 'Martha Marcy May Marlene'
The first-time director of the brilliant new thriller discusses religious cults and robot boxing
Has David Cronenberg turned tame?
Has director David Cronenberg veered too far from his radical and bloody roots with new film 'A Dangerous Method'?
Pop-up cinema for Valentine's Day
Side-step romantic clichés with some alternative Valentine’s viewing
What do you think?
Post your review now