The suspense of a good car chase is rarely transplanted outside of action cinema for some reason. It's something that seems like a missed opportunity. Beyond Stephen Spielberg's classic road movie Duel the two ideas are mixed together rather infrequently. Why are there so many Jaws imitators and not more truck versus car thrillers? Slashers on wheels, it's a whole sub-genre that could have been. However there is at least one example of the horror genre colliding with the chase movie (beyond The Terminator which takes these ideas to so many other places). I'm of course referring to the high speed chills of The Hitcher.
Beyond all the vehicular mayhem and the spurting blood, this is a story about what might happen if you don't get enough sleep before going on a long trip. So much trouble could have been avoided if protagonist Jim (C. Thomas Howell) had just stopped somewhere to rest over night. However he's a dumb kid who thinks that having a smoke and drinking coffee will be enough. Then he decides to pick up a passenger to keep him occupied. Nice work dummy, now if you lose concentration it will kill two people instead of one. Of course this roadside stranger is John Ryder (Rutger Hauer) and his mistake of picking the titular hitch-hiker will be the start of one very upsetting journey.
The opening is kind of a false start in a few ways. The crimson lettering of the credits sequence against a bleak and rain drenched night sky signals that this could be a pure stalk and slash psychopath story. However much of the initial set up - including this overly theatrical atmosphere - is dropped once the sun comes up and the story begins for real. The bulk of the tale is set against a dry, bleached highway location. Good weather for a relaxing drive from one state to the next. It's a fairly mundane backdrop in which family cars filled with stuffed animals casually pass, until of course the killer reveals himself and the wrecks pile up.
This plot structure, in which Jim escapes or outwits his new best friend before finding a new problem, is what makes the story work. It's got an unpredictable feeling to it and the pacing never lets up. Even when mistakenly arrested he's never safe, even in the back of a patrol car or when he's put behind bars. Gas pumps are set alight, severed fingers appear in unexpected places, and the body count continuously rises. The feeling of real life gone awry goes out the window once the vehicles start doing flips across the tarmac, but for a while the tension is pretty palpable.
The major problem is that it does just become a series of high speed pursuits towards the end, with guns and helicopters being added to the mix. The inclusion of a romantic subplot also feels pretty superfluous, it's as though they needed to make the central cast feel more standard. These are minor issues overall, but it could have been far more nail biting to have Jim be truly alone. It's fun that the killers motives are never entirely fleshed out, and we're left to decide whether he really wants someone to beat him or if he wants to turn a naive kid into a violent menace. Maybe he's just doing it for fun. They add just enough for it to stay interesting and it never veers into eye rolling exposition.
The title character is of course the star, and Hauer oozes screen presence as a deranged but playful psychopath. The supporting cast of course do a good job, but it's his movie and you're always waiting for him to show up when things start to ease off the gas. It's a far cry from the cartoonish villain imagined by the writer who envisioned a murderer with skeletal features and an electronic voice box. Instead we're treated to a series of memorable encounters whether he's behind the wheel of a 4x4 or up close and personal during a diner stand-off. It's not even that gory in terms of actual violence and splatter, but the constant tension and the abundance of sinister charisma make it feel both oppressive and engaging. It's a harrowing thrill ride, but it's a consistently entertaining journey we can all enjoy.
4/5
