Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Nonureva Really Surprised!

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

helenpurcell2012 This is the strangest film I've probably ever seen in the road horror genre. But interestingly, one of the best if not THE best.Rutger Hauer is deadly, hypnotic, scary, cold, clever, seductive and fearsome as the mysterious John Ryder, the Hitcher of the title, who terrorises young innocent Jim Halsey (C Thomas Howell) through a wild, rugged desert.Jim is driving a drive-away car from Chicago to San Diego, the desert road is bleak, it's nighttime and a storm is brewing..he's tired and trying not to fall asleep, but he's overcome with fatigue and drifts off...he nearly collides with a huge truck, but it wakes him up, and he's a little shook up. He spots a man at the side of the road..a mysterious figure in a trench coat, thumb out, waiting to hitch a ride. Thinking the man will keep him awake, Jim stops to let the man in.."My mother told me never to do this" he says...It's just the start of a horrific nightmare for young Jim...the Hitcher is relentless in his pursuit..This movie had me glued to the screen, it gets right into your soul. Rutger Hauer is one of my favorite actors, and in this movie he stands out and is excellent throughout. No one does unhinged like him. 10/10 from me.

ofpsmith Rating this film was difficult. On one hand it was exciting and intense. On the other hand it has some pretty glaring plot holes. Whilst transporting a car from Chicago to San Diego, Jim Halsey (C Thomas Howell) picks up a hitchhiker named John Ryder (Rutger Hauer) in Texas. Ryder is strange and evasive to most of Jim's attempts to make conversation until Ryder states his intention to murder him. Jim kicks Ryder out of the car and speeds away, thinking he has lost him. That is until Ryder finds him again and frames Jim for the murders. Jim is arrested and eventually escapes into the Texas landscape. Along the way Jim meets a young waitress named Nash (Jennifer Jason Leigh) as the two of them are now essentially on the run from the law. Ryder finds the two of them at seemingly every turn as a game of cat and mouse ensues. A good premise which almost makes a good movie. Key word: Almost. As I already mentioned the biggest problems with the movie are the plot holes. First of all Jim makes some pretty dumb decisions. There's a scene where after he's booked in a holding cell, Ryder (supposedly and off camera) kills all the cops in the station. Somehow Jim sleeps through the shootout and when he finds the carnage he steals a gun and escapes. The problem I have with this scene is just that it would make more sense for Jim to go back to his holding cell so the cops would see that he's not the murderer. And from there he just makes himself look more and more guilty. When two policemen track him down he holds them up at gunpoint. Jim does this a few more times throughout the movie. The other big glaring plot hole is the way that Ryder somehow knows exactly where Jim is going to be. I get that he's tracking him down constantly and that it's supposed to be suspenseful, but it's just kind of distracting. If Ryder is always tracking Jim down then why doesn't he just kill him then and there. He kills a countless number of other people throughout the film so why is he always leaving Jim alive just so he can find him again. I guess it's a way to keep the cops off his back but it still doesn't really hold up. The bottom line is that if you can look past these things than you'll probably like the movie just fine as it is competently made and suspenseful.

Leofwine_draca This unstoppable psycho on the loose film has strong links to two other classic thrillers which came before it: Rutger Hauer, as the indestructible maniac on the loose, has some of Schwarzenegger's menace as THE TERMINATOR; and the chase through the deserts is a lot like DUEL, except with Hauer replacing the mysterious truck. THE HITCHER has a great pace which just doesn't let up until the very end of the film, and all the time you can feel events building towards a showdown as more and more violence erupts on to the screen.Written by Eric Red (BODY PARTS), the plot is both intelligent and intriguing, so you just sit back and marvel at the way Hauer manages to implicate Howell more and more in the various crimes he commits, the most memorable moment being the shooting of the two policemen (just after Howell says he will give himself up), for which of course Howell gets the blame. The feeling of helplessness against this psycho is done well, and Howell is believable as the boy caught up in all the violence. He's no Bruce Willis hero type, but just an everyday person who screams and sweats a lot and barely manages to survive against Hauer's relentless onslaught of knifings, shootings, massacres, and brutality.It is Hauer's performance which sticks in the mind however, and it is a career-best role. Hauer is perfectly cast as the maniac, a sadistic psychopath who coldly kills with no remorse; his is a superb, text-book example of what a true psychopath is like, with the bulging eyes, maniacally grinning face, and heartless jokes. Hauer does his job so well that you almost begin to wish that he does win out against Howell's snivelling, wimpish hero at the end, as he has a lot of charisma in this film.The pair are joined by an accomplished supporting cast, including a young turn from Jennifer Jason Leigh, who brings a touch of warmth to the story. The sheriff from THE BLOB also turns up as, yes, you guessed it, a sheriff, and Armin Shimerman, best known to sci-fi fans for his role in STAR TREK, has a tiny role as an interrogator. There are lots and lots of cool action scenes to move things along, with cars bouncing, rolling and exploding, lots of shooting, and scenes of carnage where the blood does flow quite thickly (the moment where Howell discovers a dog, licking the blood from a corpse, is truly horrific).There are many moments to savour in the film and which stay in the memory long after viewing. The bit where Hauer nonchalantly shoots a helicopter out of the sky to even the odds; when Howell finds a severed finger in his burger and chips; the abandoned car, with blood dripping out of the door (a sudden moment of subtlety here which is far more gut-churning than more visceral images would have been); the bloody carnage in a police station; and the set-piece at the end. These moments of inspired originality are what help to propel THE HITCHER into classic status. And it'll certainly make you think twice the next time to see someone thumbing a lift along the highway...

Shilo October 31, 2015"The Hitcher" is a violent, disgusting, meaningless shocker that forces us to sit for 97 minutes of blood, guts, and non-stop brutality. This film only exists for the truly sick and corrupted and maybe that says something about the people who made it? This is another take on the indestructible mass murderer genre like "Friday the 13th" only, this time, we have a killer who lives to harm and kill people for fun with no motive and were supposed to sit back and watch the mayhem unfold. This film made me feel sick along with its message that hateful violence is okay to commit.It's about a young man, Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) who is driving a car from Chicago to San Diego when he picks up a man hitchhiking on the side of the road. Jim narrowly escapes from death when the Hitcher, John Ryder (Rutger Hauer) becomes invasive and pulls a knife on him. Jim discovers that Ryder is a serial killer who begins framing him for several murders he commits along the highway. With the cops hot on his trail, Jim ends up going on the run with a waitress, Nash (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and the two hit the road while trying to figure out who Ryder is.I'm willing to bet this film was made to cash in on the recent rise of slasher pictures and I'm willing to bet I'm right. As reprehensible as "Friday the 13th" is, I have to give it some credit for explaining why Jason Voorhees slaughters all the dumb teenagers that dare to crash on Crystal Lake. What's sick about this picture is that we are given a killer who has no identity, no motive, and no reason to do what he is doing and we are never made aware of why he is doing it. He travels the countryside murdering people for no reason and that's just sick. Why would someone write a screenplay that hollow? it's disgusting. Even in the faulty end, he somehow has no identity with the police either.It opens with Jim driving in the rain when he sees Ryder on the side of the road. Jim stops and lets him in the car. As they drive along, Jim notices a car in the ditch and Ryder slams his foot down on the gas as they cruise by. Ryder starts toying with Jim and tells him he murdered the driver and he is going to murder him as well. He strokes Jims face with the knife and tells him to say " I want to die." In an act of desperation, he shoves Ryder out of the ajar car door. Jim continues driving and sees Ryder is in the back of a family's station wagon. He tries to warn the driver but ends up in an accident. When he comes across the car, you guessed it, the family has been viciously slaughtered. Ryder is deliberately presented as a character with no motive and killing children for fun is sick.Ryder begins playing with Jims head as he frames him for several murders and as a result, he ends up with a two-bit police force chasing after him. Jennifer Jason Leigh is dragged into this as a waiter turned fugitive when she realizes Ryder is after Jim and she becomes his second target. When the police discover a bloody knife in Jims pocket, they are jailed. Jim awakens to find the police force slaughtered and a dog chewing on his master's face, how nice. Jennifer Jason Leigh is a sweet actress and the film really outdoes itself when Nash is tied between two trucks going in opposite directions and yes, the truck splits her into two pieces. The film plays out just to see Jennifer Jason Leigh split in half, the only likable character in the movie? This is truly awful and a corrupt film and the screenwriters should be ashamed of themselves for not only subjecting us to this garbage but also for subjecting Jennifer Jason Leigh to a role that simply sets her up to be an innocent victim who is ripped in half. I didn't admire anything this picture has to offer and I sensed there was something going on between Ryder and Jim and the climax confirms that. Ryder is finally arrested and the police have the gull to apologize to Jim for not believing him. We can't go home yet because, of course, Ryder breaks free of the transport police and it becomes a final showdown of who is the real killer and we get the sense that once Ryder is shot dead by Jim, something else is going on as well. The fact that Ryder is considered a ghost killing innocent people for his own cruel enjoyment is sick and this film makes no point in attempting to explain anything other than bloodshed and that murder is okay in any way to which this film is an immoral and reprehensible piece of trash.0/10