BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Russ Hog A lot of things! But modern movies just don't have good scripts. The casts all look fake. The soundtracks aren't very good. It's like movies are too easy to make and anyone who is from an elite background can Skype with the studio heads and make some awful stuff. This movie The Hitcher is awesome. It's scary. Well written. And Rutger Hauer just owns the whole movie as a crazy guy who seemingly wants to test this kid in a battle of good v evil. Tons of symbolism and good storytelling.

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

NateWatchesCoolMovies I feel like Robert Harmon's The Hitcher is a misunderstood, under appreciated film. A lot of folks see it as either a crass piece of exploitation, or a run of the mill slasher film, a by the numbers product of its decade without distinction or class. They couldn't be more wrong. Yes it's a horror film. Yes it is brutal, sadistic and unflinching with its jarring violence. But it's crafted with such an ambient, graceful beauty and paced aesthetic that makes it truly stand out. It preys on our ancestral, archetypal fears of the unknown, the unnameable, and the desolate grey undefined ares in our world where sparse life thrives, the perfect breeding ground for an evil force to stalk people. In this case the evil takes the former of a mysterious, murderous hitchhiker played magnificently by Rutger Hauer. This is one of two towering, biblically epic performances that made his career (the other being Blade Runner), and he is a seething diabolical wonder in the role. He plays him initially as an endearing, quiet gentleman who quickly morphs into a deranged, blue eyed angel of death, stalking a terrified young man (C. Thomas Howell) across the dusty back roads of the southwest. The film walks a perfect line between chaotic blood and metal vehicular violence, tense, intimately frightening conversations and moody, dreamy interludes of eerie Vistas set to a haunting score by Mark Isham. Jennifer Jason Leigh has an a adorable extended cameo as a poor waitress inadvertently caught up in the mayhem. Written by Eric Red (Near Dark) who has a flair for brutal scenes, the film flies wild with a gut punch gritty bunch of kills and shocking stuff, which run parallel to the ponderous and atmospheric ambiance which is counter intuitive to the way most horror films of this type operate, but works just amazingly here, creating a dread soaked, lonely, inexorably doom laden horror masterpiece that stays in your dreams long after you see it, especially popping up in your mind on random road trips to desolate areas;)

nintendofan1545 This movie has to be one of the most entertaining road movies I've ever seen. It follows the story of a young man sent across the country to deliver a car to California from Chicago. He ends up picking up a hitchhiker and chaos ensues.When I first saw this movie, I thought the beginning would be the best part. But I was thoroughly surprised when I found the rest of the movie is just as good. The interaction with the hitchhiker and the man at the diner I found to be one of the most tense scenes in the movie.Even though the film has cheesy moments, those are saved by Rutger Hauer's spot on acting as the hitchhiker. He really puts his all into the part and makes it clear his one goal is to make his escapee suffer slowly before he can die. The climax of the movie puts a nice cap on the movie and leaves you at the edge of your seat. This slasher/thriller movie is sure to please, just make sure you don't pick up any hitchhikers along the way.