Hitch Hike to Hell

Wow, talk about a pleasant surprise! I was expecting to see a terrible, bottom-of-the-barrel exploitation fodder from the seventies, but I ended up seeing a spirited cult gem that really makes the most of its minimal budget. The story introduces Howard Martin; an introvert and rather nerdy young man who lives alone with his mother since his sister ran away from home. This event somewhat messed up Howard's brain, since he now picks up hitch-hikers in his laundry van and savagely strangles them if it turns out they're runaways from their moms. The subject matter certainly isn't original, since it's an ordinary serial killer on the road premise and the culprit is once again an oppressed mommy's boy ("Psycho", anyone?). Still, the screenplay of "Hitch Hike to Hell" is well thought out and features some really clever ideas that immediately gained my respect. The setting, for example, is a middle-sized town that serves as a junction for the state's most important highways, which makes it extra difficult for the police to keep an eye on all the hitch-hikers. The drama-element of the story surprisingly isn't an obstacle and actually rather captivating. This is all very nice so far, but what REALLY sold me to this movie is the dared ending that you can't possibly see coming! The image of what might happen will briefly cross your mind, probably, but there's no way you expect the film to actually execute it! Watch and see! There are some some dull moments and odd padding scenes to struggle yourself through, but the acting performances are quite good and the music is adorably kitschy. I really don't understand why some people write such harsh things about "Hitch Hike to Hell"...Definitely recommended if you're into rare cult stuff.

Well, no doubt about it that the fans of '70's exploitation will still really enjoy this movie. I know I did but I of course still can't call this a very good movie really.

Everyhing about this movie is making it obvious that it had a very low budget. It's one of those movies that seemed to be shoot with only one camera, who every now and then switched positions to capture the other character's responses. The movie also being filled with some needlessly overlong sequences which just drag on. It also has some simple editing, simple directing and some simple acting. It's fair to say that this movie is not really very surprising in any way. Of course besides the movie has a pretty simple story in it, that relies purely on it's principal concept.

It's a movie about a killer who picks up hitchhiking runaways and then goes completely berserk once he discovers that they had run away from home and do not love their mother. This is something that happened as well to the movie it's poor main characters. His sister had run away from home and his poor old mother, which he loves very much, has never got over this. As a sort of revenge for his mother this man kills these runaways.

The concept itself isn't too bad really and I guess this is the only reason why the movie still works out within its genre. The movie is being pretty silly and lame at times, which also gets really due to its dialog and the actors performing. Most actors had very little experience before appearing in this movie and most actors had not appeared in very much ever since.

Really for the genre fans only.

4/10

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A warped and demented mother's boy, Howard (Robert Gribbin) makes a habit of raping & killing various women hitchhikers. When the bodies mount up it's up to Captian Shaw of the Crescent P.D. (played by Russell Johnson, better known as the Proffesor from Gilligan's Island) to try to catch this deviant. The film is a tad on the tedious side (Howard picks up hitchhiker, rapes, kills, back to momma's for dinner, has flask backs to the murders, rinse & repeat) Of course interspersed with the Professor hamming it up.Their IS however one scene that deviates from the standard path that the movie sets up, it has a stereotypical flamboyant gay guy (aptly listed in the credits as 'gay boy') whom Howard picks up and is obviously used for misplaced comedic effect. Oh and a pregnancy sub-plot that comes out of nowhere and feels like it should be in a different movie completely, in this one it just felt like painful melodramatic filler. Given the subject matter and the fact that this is a low-budget exploitation movie, it's pretty tame going. For all it's faults (and there are a great many of them) the film isn't as bad as it is made out to be and i've seen worse. Russell Johnson himself makes the film watchable. If you lack a pretty high tolerance for these kind of low-budget films though I'd recommend that you steer clear.

My Grade: C-

Something Weird DVD Extras: 3 shorts: "the Hitch-Hiker", "Dangerous Strangers" & "the Cautious Twins"; A 27 minute tour of Box office International with Harry Novak circa 1992; Gallery of exploitation art with accompanying soundtrack (5 minutes, 19 seconds); Theatrical trailer; and 2 trailers for the other film on the DVD "Kidnapped Coeds" (one under it's alternative title of "Kidnapped Lover")

Eye Candy: Jacqueline Poseley gets topless; Jane Ratliff shows brief nipple

Surprisingly , this film was pretty good. The acting was fine and the facial expressions of the lead character- Howard , was outstanding. The story of a social misfit at around 30 yrs. old, still tugging to Moms apron strings. A sister that ran away from home , causes torment to Howard , trying to protect his mother in perhaps the most sinister ways, involving Crescent City Ca. runaways. There were some fine, creative twists in this film , that entertained from start to finish. There was one particular scene with a not so ordinary runaway, that had me laughing hysterically. I do not want to give away the scene; I will keep quiet. The film , though not gory was still very watchable. There are some loose ends about Howards family that took away from the film, but it took away not much. The movie did allow for the expansion of some of the other character bios , but did not overdo it.The scenes where folks were supposed to have violence inflicted, were not done well;Reminding me somewhat of the 'Batman' show of the mid 60's. I think the film wanted those scenes to be a little spoofy on purpose. Russell Johnson of Gilligan fame was the only actor of note. The rest of the cast was more than acceptable . This film passes with high marks, in my opinion.

Anyone out there looking for some honest-to-God quality B-horror that not only holds your attention but is just inept enough to be funny? Well, look no further, because Something Weird Video and Harry Novak have brought us yet another unknown, Drive-in obscurity from the 70's. About a mama's boy named Howard, who, of course, lives with his clingy, over-protective mother. Mama hasn't always been this bad, you understand, but since Howard's sister ran away (moved out) , Howie is all she has, so it's understandable why she would treat a 20-something year old man like a total infant. Howard has mama, he has Root Beer, he has his hobbie, hell, he even has a job, one would assume Howard is doing OK, considering he's a man-child and all. Unfortunately, Howard has so much repressed rage against his sister for abandoning the family, that every time he picks up a hitchhiker, he ends up blacking out, and killing them. Unfortunately, Howard likes to pick up hitchhikers every single day, probably more than once. What I find odd is that every single time, the hitchhiker turns out to be a girl who's running away from home, which would kinda clear up as to why Howard always kills them, although, it's still odd.

One of the most entertaining and all-around best movies Something Weird Video has to offer. Some may think that that's not saying much, but it totally is, that is, if you dig vintage exploitation, if not, then you're definitely wasting your time here. Hitch-Hike To Hell isn't necessarily a frightening horror movie, but rather a quality movie with a good story that happens to be horror, hence the killing, and if you can't get enough grainy, unintentionally funny 70's B-charm, then Hitch-hike To Hell should make you extremely happy. If the antics of Howard the mama's boy seriously doesn't do it for you, then I would recommend checking out the other half of the double-feature, Kidnapped Coed, just to see how inept B-horror can really be, although, I kinda liked that one too, God help me. Unless we're talking about a Herschell Gordon Lewis gore-epic, or something else awesome like The Psychedelic Priest, then I can't think of anything more worthwhile from Something Weird Video than Hitch-Hike To Hell. Check it out. 9/10