Le voyageur de la peur

I'm a big fan of Umberto Lenzi; he is the king of Italian 'Polizi' flicks and also made a handful of brilliant Giallo's, not to mention some decent stuff in other genres; but the man obviously didn't know when to quit as almost everything he made post-Cannibal ferox (Nightmare Beach excluded) is terrible, and Hitcher in the Dark is no exception...though it has to be said that it's better than the likes of Ghosthouse, Black Demons and House of Witchcraft. As the title suggests, the film is based around the common thriller of theme of hitchhikers, and the plot reminded me a lot of the solid seventies exploitation flick 'Hitch Hike to Hell'...mostly because they're essentially the same film (although the fact that this came out just a couple years after The Hitcher should be noted). We follow Mark: a disturbed young man who drives around in a camper van picking up young girls and killing them. It's not long before he comes across Daniela; a pretty young girl who Mark decides not to torture and kill immediately because of her resemblance to his mother...

Yes, if Alfred Hitchcock taught us anything, it's that there's no such thing as a young psychopath who isn't obsessed with his mother, and clearly Umberto Lenzi subscribes to that view as well...which isn't much of a surprise. The fact that the film greatly lacks suspense doesn't do it much of a favour at all. The way that the plot is portrayed actually isn't that bad; but we're never made to care for the characters and it's always obvious where it's going (or at least it is to anyone who has seen more than a couple of films like this one) and the film never really manages to shock or surprise; two key elements of a thriller! The characters are all incredibly clichéd and positively wafer thin, which helps to make the film less interesting. Content with torturing his audience, Lenzi ensures that the film does not feature a great deal of blood or gore either, which often made me wonder why I was watching. Still, I can't completely condemn this film. Hitcher in the Dark is better than I was lead to believe it would be before seeing it; and at least I didn't fall asleep before the finish.

One of Umberto Lenzi's finest films. This underrated movie goes deep inside the mind of a deranged serial killer/rapist. Excellent acting From Josie Bissett. I highly recommend this film. If you may happen to know where i can get this movie please Email me. Excellent Directing. Needs a little better Setting.

Firstly, you can't be paying movies like this your fullest attention. This is the kind of movie you watch when getting through a stack of ironing or playing a monkey bloons game. Secondly, these midday horrors have to be watched accelerated somehow.

Ok, so the story is straight out of 80's slasher heaven. It's a jump in my ride of death movie. Acting is pure B gold. So rich guy uses camper van to catch female hitchhikers is kill them. The movie is full of one liners, thats about the depth of the dialog. Don't bother unless you are seriously into B thrillers.

Deranged mama's boy Joe Balogh prowls the Virginia Beach area in his Winnebago,picking up women whom he thinks might take the place of his dead mother,then killing them when they come up short.He kidnaps a slim blonde(Josie Bissette),because of her resemblance to his dead mother."Hitcher in the Dark" is a cheesy and predictable Umberto Lenzi's thriller that manages to be slightly entertaining.There are some total lapses in logic and there is absolutely no suspense.The climax is incredibly awful and the script is weak.The movie is poorly done in typical Lenzi fashion with lots of false suspense and a total lack of believability in both the performances.However if you are a rabid fan of Italian horror films you can give it a look.4 out of 10.

This movie has some things going for it. It features some really beautiful scenery of the American South. It features some really beautiful scenery of a young, lovely Josie Bisset. And it is not quite Umberto Lenzi's worst movie ever. It has a lot of problems though. First, the dialogue is terrible. (Maybe these ridiculous conversations would sound better if they were badly dubbed and delivered with Italian accents). Second, the acting is wretched. The aforementioned Bisset is even worse than she was on "Melrose Place". The only time her acting is halfway tolerable is the scene where she is being photographed naked and sexually assaulted, and that is only because she has been mercifully drugged unconscious. The killer is played by a Christopher Atkins look-alike who is not only just as bad as Bisset but woefully miscast to boot. A five-foot-tall, effeminate pretty boy wearing Vaurnet sun-glasses and driving around in a RV camper is just NOT scary.

The amazing thing though is director Umberto Lenzi who started out as a great director with classic Italian giallo like "Paranoia" in the late 60's, but seemed to get worse with each film. His infamous cannibal and zombie movies in the early 80's were awful but at least they elicited some reaction. This movie and its Florida-lensed follow-up "Nightmare Beach" don't even do that. At the rate he was going here, if Lenzi's still working at all he's probably making amateur porn videos and forgetting to take off the lens cap. I can certainly understand why Lenzi started using a cinematic pseudonym about this time, but why did he choose the name "Humbert Humphrey" recalling classic literature's most infamous pedophile?(Would that make Josie Bisset "Lolita")? What a strange, strange guy.