THE HITCHER (Harmon, 1986)
This is another one of my favorites. THE HITCHER is an exercise in restraint and nuance, rarities indeed in the context of the horror genre, which usually strives to show more More MORE of the gore and sex and everything else, too, really. Relationships and motives are not fully explained, nor do they need to be. Truth be told, it's much scarier to consider that the horrible things that happen in the film were done for no reason at all, that there was no prime motivator or psychiatric illness at work.
The story is pretty simple. A young guy, Jim, driving a car cross country to California for a car transporting service picks up a hitchhiker who turns out to be a serial killer. The Hitcher, who says his name is John Ryder, then proceeds to keep popping up, even though Jim kicks him out of the car and thinks he ditches him. The Hitcher proceeds to make life for Jim miserable in some pretty inventive ways. Along the way, basically an entire police force gets murdered, a helicoptor wrecks in the desert, Jim nearly eats a human finger, a woman is quartered via 18 wheeler, a gas station explodes, Jim gets framed for Ryder's crimes, a day-trippin family gets butchered, and Ryder says stuff like "I cut off his legs. And his arms. And his head."
It's a true drive-in classic, and Rutger Hauer is simply amazing as the cooly psychotic Ryder. The story is sort of a mash-up between that other masterpiece of drive-in sleaze, DUEL, and Americonic urban legends about hitchhikers and the long, wide open road. It's a good mash-up, though, more Girl Talk than Jay-Zeezer, and most of it's thanks to Hauer, who is icy and extremely crazy at the same time and makes it all work due to some type of unspoken bond between Jim and Ryder. "Why are you doing this?" asks Jim, and Ryder replies, "Because I want you to stop me." What's that mean?
Further, what's it mean when Hauer places coins in Jim's eyes when they're seated together at a diner? What's it mean when Jim takes Ryder's hand and holds him for a few seconds? What's Ryder mean when he says, "You're smart kid. Figure it out." Jim never does, and neither does the audience, but that's what makes it all so damned good. You don't know what to make of the seeming father-son relationship that seems to exist between Driver and Hitcher. Is it a psychic bond? Does Ryder want Jim to take over for him (doubtful, in light of the fact that THE HITCHER 2 starred Jake Busey; ugh)? Is it a homoerotic relationship? THE HITCHER doesn't want us to know, not for sure, and this nagging insistence on providing no closure is ultimately so very satisfying.
THE HITCHER is a restrained exploration into growth from innocence to maturity, with Ryder guiding Jim through a nasty little baptism by fire, until he reaches the point when he can "stop" Ryder. The climax is blood-on-the-windsheild good, with Ryder carrying out righteous vengence against Ryder. All very Biblical cool. When it's all said and done, we know just as little as we did when Jim said, "My mother told me never to do this" and picked up a hitchhiker against his better judgement. But isn't that how it always ends.
The story is pretty simple. A young guy, Jim, driving a car cross country to California for a car transporting service picks up a hitchhiker who turns out to be a serial killer. The Hitcher, who says his name is John Ryder, then proceeds to keep popping up, even though Jim kicks him out of the car and thinks he ditches him. The Hitcher proceeds to make life for Jim miserable in some pretty inventive ways. Along the way, basically an entire police force gets murdered, a helicoptor wrecks in the desert, Jim nearly eats a human finger, a woman is quartered via 18 wheeler, a gas station explodes, Jim gets framed for Ryder's crimes, a day-trippin family gets butchered, and Ryder says stuff like "I cut off his legs. And his arms. And his head."
It's a true drive-in classic, and Rutger Hauer is simply amazing as the cooly psychotic Ryder. The story is sort of a mash-up between that other masterpiece of drive-in sleaze, DUEL, and Americonic urban legends about hitchhikers and the long, wide open road. It's a good mash-up, though, more Girl Talk than Jay-Zeezer, and most of it's thanks to Hauer, who is icy and extremely crazy at the same time and makes it all work due to some type of unspoken bond between Jim and Ryder. "Why are you doing this?" asks Jim, and Ryder replies, "Because I want you to stop me." What's that mean?
Further, what's it mean when Hauer places coins in Jim's eyes when they're seated together at a diner? What's it mean when Jim takes Ryder's hand and holds him for a few seconds? What's Ryder mean when he says, "You're smart kid. Figure it out." Jim never does, and neither does the audience, but that's what makes it all so damned good. You don't know what to make of the seeming father-son relationship that seems to exist between Driver and Hitcher. Is it a psychic bond? Does Ryder want Jim to take over for him (doubtful, in light of the fact that THE HITCHER 2 starred Jake Busey; ugh)? Is it a homoerotic relationship? THE HITCHER doesn't want us to know, not for sure, and this nagging insistence on providing no closure is ultimately so very satisfying.
THE HITCHER is a restrained exploration into growth from innocence to maturity, with Ryder guiding Jim through a nasty little baptism by fire, until he reaches the point when he can "stop" Ryder. The climax is blood-on-the-windsheild good, with Ryder carrying out righteous vengence against Ryder. All very Biblical cool. When it's all said and done, we know just as little as we did when Jim said, "My mother told me never to do this" and picked up a hitchhiker against his better judgement. But isn't that how it always ends.
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posted by travis at 8:22 AM
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