FilmRPsychological Survival

The Hitcher1986

Name: The Hitcher
Genre: Psychological, Survival
Released: 1986-01-17
Rating: 6.8

“The terror starts the moment he stops.”

Directed by Robert Harmon

6.8

Crypt Score

Blended from 4 sources

IMDb 7.2Rotten Tomatoes 63%Metacritic 32TMDB 7.0

✍ Review

On the charts

#7·Top Horror Movies of 1986

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Year

1986

Runtime

98 min

Box Office

Budget

$6,000,000

Revenue (worldwide)

$5,844,868

Domestic

$5,844,868

🏆 3 wins & 1 nomination total

The premise

On a stormy night, young Jim, who transports a luxury car from Chicago to California to deliver it to its owner, feeling tired and sleepy, picks up a mysterious hitchhiker, who has appeared out of nowhere, thinking that a good conversation will help him not to fall asleep. He will have enough time to deeply regret such an unmeditated decision.

Horror Vault's take

A lone young driver crossing the vast American desert makes a split-second decision to pick up a stranger on a rain-lashed highway — and unleashes a nightmare he cannot escape. The hitchhiker is no ordinary drifter; he is something far more calculated and terrifying, and he has chosen his mark with purpose. What follows is a punishing, high-speed pursuit across sun-scorched asphalt where our protagonist finds himself hunted, framed, and utterly alone. Rutger Hauer delivers one of genre cinema's most chilling performances as the enigmatic, seemingly unstoppable antagonist.

Content: Graphic Violence, Mass Murder Depictions, Intense Threat And Menace, Scenes Of Sadism