The Best Movie You Never Saw: The Hitcher

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Welcome to The Best Movie You NEVER Saw, a column dedicated to examining films that have flown under the radar or gained traction throughout the years, earning them a place as a cult classic or underrated gem that was either before it’s time and/or has aged like a fine wine.

This week we’ll be looking at THE HITCHER!

THE STORY: A young man (C. Thomas Howell) delivering a car from Chicago to San Diego makes the biggest mistake of his life when he picks up Ryder (Rutger Hauer) a psychopathic hitchhiker, killing his way from coast-to-coast.

THE PLAYERS: Starring: Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Howell and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Music by Mark Isham. Written by Eric Red. Directed by Robert Harmon.

“THE HITCHER was one of those unexpected movies – part thriller, part horror flick – that end up defining a career. It certainly did for me. More than twenty years have passed since we shot it, and yet it stands among the films I’ve made that keep generating interest long after the fact.” – Rutger Hauer – All Those Moments

THE HISTORY: The 1980’s were the heyday of slasher movies. With ultra-realistic, new make-up techniques by genre stalwarts like Tom Savini, the genre was revitalized in an insanely profitable way, and seemingly every major studio had their slasher. Paramount had Jason, New Line had Freddy, Universal had Norman Bates and Chucky, plus there were the HALLOWEEN sequels and more. These movies all turned big profits, but for the most part, they got very little respect.

What made the popularity of these films both a blessing and a curse to horror fans was that serious, elevated genre films were almost non-existent. When they slipped through the cracks and got made, they usually didn’t connect to audiences in a big way, but almost always became cult hits on video/cable. One such film was THE HITCHER, a Hitchcockian-thriller written by genre staple Eric Red, directed by Robert Harmon and starring eighties heartthrob C. Thomas Howell and the legendary Rutger Hauer.

“They went through several possible actors while looking for the man to play John Ryder – and settled on Sam Elliott. Apparently, Elliott was so scary when he came in to audition that Ed Feldman was afraid to go out to his car afterward. But Elliott had a schedule conflict…” – Rutger Hauer – All Those Moments

Despite the pedigree and a relatively high budget for the genre, THE HITCHER came and went at the box office pretty quickly (earning mixed reviews – some loved it and some hated it). Luckily, it became a staple of HBO (who co-produced it during their brief foray into theatrical films) and garnered enough of a following that it spawned a DTV sequel and a (bad) remake a few years ago. However, THE HITCHER remains obscure to non-genre devotees and deserves more recognition.

WHY IT’S GREAT: THE HITCHER is a cold-blooded, cruel movie. No studio would have the guts to make it nowadays, not so much due to an abundance of gore (the gore level is actually quite restrained) but due specifically to one scene mid-way through, where a character meets a grisly demise after being ripped apart by a truck. The remake, done in 2007, has a similar scene but with two key differences. One, the sex of the victim is changed, and two, the death happens on-screen. The sex being changed does dilute the horror somewhat, although probably less due to the gender and more to how sympathetic and likable the performer was in the original (I won’t give it away if you haven’t seen it – but you’ll be able to predict it). But, showing the death in gruesome detail also dilutes the absolute white-knuckle terror of the original, as I guarantee you, what you imagine happening will always be scarier than actually seeing it, no matter how good the FX are.

To me, that’s what makes THE HITCHER such a great film – the fact that despite hitting all the right notes for the genre, it knows when to pull back. This is the difference between run-of-the-mill genre fare and art. Sometimes buckets of gore are just right, but here, director Robert Harmon knows they’re not necessary. The performances and the evocative screenplay are scary enough on their own. This is why I doubt a studio would make it – it all feels too real and thus – too scary.

In this way, I think THE HITCHER foreshadowed the genre we now call “arthouse horror.” Even in ’86, THE HITCHER had to be seen as a cut above the rest, as it was likely rare to have an A-list leading man, such as Rutger Hauer was at the time, sign on to play such a disreputable part in such a committed fashion. Back then, actors played to type. Hauer had spent years establishing himself as a romantic lead, and in some ways, I think THE HITCHER might have pigeonholed him to some degree, as you can’t help but associate him with the part when you think of him. In fact, I’d wager I associate Hauer with THE HITCHER more than I even do with one of my all-time favorites, BLADE RUNNER.

“Tommy has spent twenty years telling people that dealing with me on that set was some sort of life-altering experience. He has said that he found me frightening, intimidating and that he was in a constant state of fear, almost as if he really was Jim Halsey and I really was John Ryder.” – Rutger Hauer – All Those Moments

Truly, his performance is off-the-charts, with him bringing both his action hero physicality to the part (despite being horror – the action scenes are high impact) and enough charm that you get why unfortunate drivers might be foolish enough to pick him up. By contrast, C. Thomas Howell is our everyman hero, and to me, his performance has been underrated over the years. He really starts things off as a silly kid without much going on upstairs, but by the time it ends he’s become utterly hardened and battle-weary – as if he’s gone to war (which he – in effect- has). Most appealing of all is Jennifer Jason Leigh, as the sweet diner waitress who serves as both his love interest and a glimmer of hope throughout that, should he survive his run-in with Hauer, he might have some kind of life waiting for him on the other side.

BEST SCENE: While, obviously, the “truck scene” is THE HITCHER’s signature moment, I don’t want to ruin it for those of you who haven’t seen it. Instead, here’s a terrific car chase from about halfway in that does a good job evoking the dynamic between Hauer and Howell.

SEE IT: THE HITCHER doesn’t seem to be readily available digitally- I’m only able to find the old DVD copy on Amazon. There’s an HD master floating around out there as I believe it was put out on Blu-ray internationally, but it’s shockingly hard to acquire through legitimate means here in North America.

PARTING SHOT: While I like eighties horror as much as the next guy, THE HITCHER, despite being a great deal tamer than a lot of the more popular films of the era, is a whole lot scarier than about 99% of the movies put out by the majors. If any horror film of the era is ripe of rediscovery, this is the one.