Reviewed by Neil Davey
Stars Sean Bean, Zachary Knighton,
Sophia Bush, Neal McDonough
Written by Eric Red
Produced by Michael Bay
Certification UK 18 | US R | Australia R
Runtime 83 minutes
Directed by Dave Meyers
Yay. Another horror remake. I’m so happy about the current trend, I’ll say it again. Yay. Who needs originality when you’ve got a vault full of okay horror movies that can be reinvented and sold to a whole new audience of unsuspecting teens who don’t know any better? It’s a strange situation. On the one hand, you want people to actually put some thought into a film and try and create something fresh and original. On the other hand, they sometimes just about pull it off, as they did with The Hills Have Eyes. The Hitcher is somewhere towards that standard too, a perfectly solid thriller. Sean Bean might not have the same balance of sinister joy and psychopathic tendency as Rutger Hauer in the 1986 version but he inhabits a darker place and, when he’s left to go full throttle, you can fully believe that this is a man best left alone.
Which is what Jim (Zachary Knighton) and Grace (Sophia Bush) should have done while they had the chance. A young couple driving cross-country to see Grace’s family, their paths cross with John Ryder (Bean), a mysterious man who, it first appears, just wants to get home. It doesn’t take long for his true colours to emerge though – he’s a nutter – and, if he can’t kill Grace and Jim, he’s going to get them framed for a few killings. And then, when they’re in jail, he’ll come back and kill them. And all the policemen. And anyone else who happens to be around. As I say. Nutter.
That’s pretty much it and, if you push the memory of Rutger Hauer’s performance to one side, this is as relentless as the original. Even if you don’t or can’t, there is at least one great surprise that even caught this seen-it-all-before cynic out, a fine car chase and that particularly memorable Hitcher scene — you know the one, the ‘towbar’ moment — is here and just as unpleasant as it ever was. The cast do what they can with the limited roles – Sophia Bush is gorgeous, Knighton is amiable and Bean can do dead-eyed psycho with the best of them. Yes, you can argue that the original was darker and funnier but you know what? It was still about an apparently indestructible psycho chasing someone across the desert so don’t come all high and mighty about the original’s integrity. It might have been a classy slasher movie but it’s still a slasher movie. This is cut down to basics and, at 80-something minutes, it’s never going to outstay its welcome. Unoriginal, yes — but an okay thriller all the same.
• Official Site
• The Hitcher at IMDb