The Hitcher (1986) Review

 

The Hitcher (1986)

DUDE!! Rutger Hauer is THE MAN! After watching Nighthawks last night, I began looking into more of Rutger Hauer’s catalog of movies and low and behold, I found The Hitcher.

The Hitcher is about Jim Halsey, who en route to San Diego from Texas, picks up a hitchhiker, who not so subtly reveals he’s a serial killer. After escaping, it doesn’t take long for Hauer’s John Ryder, to catch up to him and start an endless game of cat and mouse.

Once again, Rutger Hauer is phenomenal, probably more in this than in the last one. He plays Ryder to such perfection. He’s ruthless, chilling, and downright vicious as times, and he does so with a cold heart. He’s like Michael Myers if Michael was even remotely human. He’s always watching and his ability to genuinely frighten me for the second straight night is astonishing. And it goes without saying he is also the perfect foil to Jim, played by Red Dawn’s C. Thomas Howell. I have to mention how great he is in this as well. Jim Halsey goes through the ringer, watching everyone around him on this desolate strip of road die at the hands of Ryder and just barely escaping at every turn of the film. Their two performances drive this film to it’s very limits.

The way Ryder toys with Jim is unlike any movie I’ve ever seen. He has, literally, every chance to kill him throughout this whole film but something drives him to just keep the chase going, driving Jim completely insane by the end and hellbent on revenge. Their dynamic is so connected, like they’ve known each other for years, whereas they really only formally met at the beginning. Everything after that is an attempt on Ryder’s part to draw Jim in, even ripping Jim’s friend Nash in half right in front of him.

This is a cat and mouse game for the ages and is a deep look at a psychopath who has no semblance of morality or feeling as he kills violently and mercilessly, so, so much in this film.
Another bit that really moves this movie along, is how Howell is the #1 suspect for almost the entire movie. Ryder frames him and every time the cops start to believe him, Ryder makes a mess that sets Jim up as the killer.

A gripping & surreal masterpiece in cinema.

9.1/10