The Hitcher - La lunga strada della paura

Rutger Hauer owns The Hitcher. He hitches a ride with C Thomas Howell and he soon regrets his goodwill. People are killed along the way and the good Samaritan finds himself in deep doo doo. JJ Leigh appears as a waitress who gets tied up with the events. Howell spirals into Dante's Inferno with cops on the chase. Although farfetched I was entertained by the movie.

Murder Spree Road Flick. Contains many fairly stupid moments ("plot holes") and yet remains gripping throughout its length. Graphic, stunning violence; be warned.

Howell is slightly vapid yet pretty and his relations with Rutger Hauer verge on the homo-erotic. Hauer is a near-perfect villain, demonstrating the steely resolve and psychological impenetrability that have made him a favorite "bad guy" in other films.

A great movie for the paranoid who wish to feed their fantasies. Owes something to Spielberg's "Duel" but remains its own film. Relatively spare visual style well-suited to the theme. Recommended, but not for the faint of heart.

A normal ordinary guy picks up a stranger in the middle of nowhere so that he could drive awake. Little does he know that he's going into a road trip from hell...

Rutger Hauer give what I think is his best performance. Sure, there was that menacing Replicant in Blade Runner, but this one overshoots it by a long shot. He delivers a performance so good, that you'll find it difficult to question whether his character is believable or unbelievable.

C. Thomas Howell, one one of the kids in Steven Spielberg's ET, plays the protagonist. Here, he faces every driver's worst nightmare imaginable, and he delivers it with realism. Howell also demonstrates how an ordinary teenager can change into a helpless being who is caught between a psychopathic game of cat-and-mouse set by a brutal man hell-bent on killing him.

The nice New Mexico cinematography of which the film was filmed and set gives tranquility to the picture and makes the film looks good while delivering the thrills. Strongly supporting this topic is composer Mark Isham's gritty yet beautiful score. It;s just perfect for this kind of movie.

The action sequences are handled very nicely here. We got a petrol station blowing up, an intense police car chase, and one of the greatest endings in cinematic history. Period.

The Hitcher (1986) is one of the first films I have ever watched, and I still cherish it to this day. The 2007 remake, or rather, reDO, is a shallow and uninspiring music-videoish piece of crud that will only be liked by the MTV generation, but never the fans of the original. Why was it remade, we will never know.

Overall, it is an excellent movie and one of the best thrillers ever made. Pick this one up, guys, it's worth it.

8/10

I saw this back in the 80's when home video was the done thing and thought it great. I remember others spoke highly of it too so I don't know why Wikipedia only mentions the bad reviews it got back in the day. Anyhow, I saw for a second time recently and I think it stands up pretty well over the past 35 years. Very good performances, especially by C Thomas Howell who was only young back then. The atmosphere is creepy from start to finish and although some events seem unbelievable, well hell so what? That's why we watch movies - to see things that seem unbelievable.

The Hitcher is a marvelous thriller and Rutger Hauer is truly scary as hell. He is undoubtedly one of the best villains in cinematic history. The game that Hauer and C. Thomas Howell play out makes for a great way to spend an hour and a half of your life. You can't help but feel sorry for Howell as he can never escape the madman. Hauer has zero motive and that makes him all the more evil. And how he always finds Howell is something that is unnerving and unexplainable. It's like their paths were meant to cross somewhere out in in the desert. Eric Red's script leaves nothing to be desired. The scene where Howell is eating french fries is one of the most unforgettable in horror history. And so is the event that leads to the capture of Hauer. The end is fantastic and it's something that you want to do through the entire movie. It will definitely make you think twice before picking up hitchhikers. If you enjoyed The Hitcher, Check out Hitch-Hike (with David Hess) and Duel.