While driving through the New Mexico Desert during a rainy night, the college students Jim Halsey and his girlfriend Grace Andrews give a ride to the hitchhiker John Ryder. While in their car, the stranger proves to be a psychopath threatening the young couple with a knife, but Jim succeeds to throw him out of the car on the road. On the next morning, the young couple sees John in another car with a family, and while trying to advise the driver that the man is dangerous, they have an accident. While walking on the road, they find the whole family stabbed in the car, and John sees that the driver is still alive. He drives to a restaurant seeking for help, but the police blame Jim and Grace to the murder and send them to the police station. However, John kills the policemen and pursues the couple, playing a tragic and violent mouse and cat game with Grace and Jim.
Genre(s): Action, Horror, Thriller
Runtime: 84 minutes
Rating: 5.5/10 (16,321 votes)
Release Date: 19 January 2007
Country: USA
Languages: English
Company: Focus Features
Sound: DTS, Dolby Digital
MPAA: Rated R for strong bloody violence, terror and language.
Director(s): Dave Meyers
Producer(s):
Michael Bay – producer
Matthew Cohan – associate producer
Andrew Form – producer
Bradley Fuller – producer (as Brad Fuller)
Alfred Haber – producer
Alma Kuttruff – co-producer
Charles R. Meeker – producer (as Charles Meeker)
Writer(s):
Eric Red – (screenplay) and
Jake Wade Wall – (screenplay) and
Eric Bernt – (screenplay)
Eric Red – (1986 film)
Cast:
Sean Bean – John Ryder
Sophia Bush – Grace Andrews
Zachary Knighton – Jim Halsey
Neal McDonough – Lt. Esteridge
Kyle Davis – Buford's Store Clerk
Skip O'Brien – Sheriff Harlan Bremmer Sr.
Travis Schuldt – Deputy Harlan Bremmer Jr.
Danny Bolero – Officer Edwards
Jeffrey Hutchinson – Young Father
Yara Martinez – Beth
Music: Steve Jablonsky
Tagline: Never pick up strangers.
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The open highway becomes a terrifying battleground of blood, metal,fear and murder when a young couple, Grace and Jim, hit the road andencounter the mysterious John Ryder during a violent storm.
The initial encounters with Ryder escalate rapidly as he transformsinto a deadly raging psychopath, and the stakes are raised further whenhe frames Grace and Jim for a horrific slaying that makes themfugitives from the law. As the carnage mounts and the action pushes youto the edge of your seat, Grace and Jim must fight for their lives andface their fears head-on.
A lot of people don't like this movie. Those are the people that harpon about clichés and what-not, who are unable to enjoy and see a moviefor what it is because they are so absorbed in thinking "Oh! There's acliché. Oh! There's another one!" What they don't realise is that EVERYmovie has clichés and everything has been done before and I really feelsorry for said people in this case. They are missing out on some greatacting from Sean Bean and Sofia Bush.
This movie was brilliantly tense and terrifying and I give it 9/10.
I would rather poke a pen into my eye than watch this movie again. Ihaven't seen the original but this was awful!! When they managed toescape from the hitchhiker the first time (after he nearly murderedthem)… why oh why did they not think to go to a telephone box andreport the whole incident to the police?? Instead they stop on theroadside and have a nice long snooze. All the more strange since theyhad told the baddie their destination… Thus giving him a chance totrack them down 12 hours later!! And he obliged! In 12 hours I wouldhave been on the other side of the world being molly cuddled by my mumfor having been through such an ordeal.
It got more and more stupid. The café scene where the girlfriend wassupposed to call the ambulance. Why did she tell the waitress to doit?? The waitress didn't know what was going on. Another stupid stupidscene. Anyone with half a brain would have been on the blower to thepolice themselves pouring their heart out about the murders they'd justwitnessed.
Watch the original instead. This has all the classic script mistakeswhich make the characters look like morons and diminish your sympathyas a result.
1) Idiot takes his eyes of the road – TWICE! Once when they first meetthe Hitcher and again when they try to warn the family in the stationwagon. (Actually several more times but that's just bad acting) In theoriginal he's tired – we've all done that.
2) Sticking your finger prints all over a crime scene, getting coveredin blood then expecting the dumb local cops to believe it isn't youthat did it.
3) The old stick the gun through the van door and get grabbed error.
Worst of all they removed my favourite scene "He couldn't have walkedvery far," "Why's that?" "Because I cut off his legs. And his arms. Andhis head. And I'm gonna do the same to you."
After hearing all the negative reviews on the Hitcher, I watched it atfirst without any big expectations. Not that I regret it because I wasreally well pleased. After convincing my friend who hates horror moviesto watch this film with me, we both watched it expecting to have acouple of jump scenes but thankfully for him, only one or two occurred.Sean Bean was so excellent in his role, and so was Sophia Bush. Sheproved a lot of young pretty actresses that you CAN be pretty and beable to act at the same time. Zacharie Knighton, however, left meindifferent, but for the one and only reason that I didn't eye him asmuch as super sexy Sophia Bush. However, now that I mentioned the goodthings, the movie has cons too.
For those who aren't familiar with either the original or the remake,the story revolves around a young couple (Bush & Kinghton) who decideto go on a trip during Spring Break, where they meet a man who asks fora lift. They accept, but this is a wrong choice because that man is amurderer.
The cons are mostly some scenes who seem awfully long for an 84 minutesmovie. Besides that, all the violence, gore, and blood are worth yourtime.
The original was good and had some decent tension and point to thefilm. This was average. It's absurd how Hollywood keeps remakingmovies. The acting in the film was average. The story was silly. Theactual action was decent and the gore was good but overall the moviewas pretty pointless. Sophia Bush was hot though, that was the oneexcellent thing the movie had. Using a NIN song was a good idea but'Closer' does not fit in with an action scene! Hollywood please enoughwith the remakes already…I've had enough!
The main villain wasn't threatening at all. There was one scene in themovie made me jump but really do we expect cars or in this case a dodgeram to fall out of the sky? Oh there was one other decent thing aboutthe movie….the scenery was gorgeous…but really we weren't watchingthis for that now were we?
The Woods Have Eyes. This is such trash I am mad at myself for notreviewing this ungodly DVD before I rented it.
To begin with neither of the principle characters is too likable andobviously dumber than a fence post. As for the Hitcher, who he is , orwhy never can be explained. These two dumb college kids, although both
way too dumb and perhaps too old,race from on disaster to another,faster than bull moose rampages in a china shop.
Gore Gore and more Gore.. If this is what you want, and a dumbsenseless chaser flick and add a touch of mad slasher, go rent the DVDtoday.
I would give this thing a minus rating, but my choice was a one or norating at all.
I just don't care anymore. I don't even know why I'm writing thisreview.
After you've seen every slasher ever made, seen them remade, seenmodern slashers, seen slashers that claimed they weren't slashers, seencountless modern "bring back the old days of horror!" slashers . . .who really cares anymore? It's one thing to complain about the lack oforiginality in cinema, but it's a completely different thing tocomplain about the ridicules overabundance of movies that are EXACTLYthe same in every way. And what's worse is that every one of thesemovies seem to think they're some sort of original idea. Listen toaudio commentaries: directors have a mentality that because THEY madethe movie, it's magically superior to the others exactly like it. Theyalso know that if they can churn out another 80s homage or remake,they'll be rich, because it's an unwritten falsehood that every singlehorror fan must love, watch, and appreciate every piece-of-crap slasherever made, or they're not "A True Horror Fan". But if a director is "ATrue Horror Fan", wouldn't he want to further the genre with originalideas instead of basking in the nostalgia of crappy slashers gone past?My point is, there is no need for The Hitcher. Or the thousands ofother movies just like it. If you want a truly good slasher, check outthe original Black Christmas.
The Hitcher is directed like a Hollister commercial. Primary colors areeverywhere, with hollow, flat, fresh-faced prep kids running around formost of the runtime. There is a generic killer with generic motives.The acting isn't good and it isn't bad—how hard is it to ask collagekids to play politically correct collage kids? The cinematography isfun and colorful and gives everything a plastic sheen, as with allMichael Bay-produced slasher remakes. The pacing is average. I don'tthink I would call this boring as much as I would call it justdownright uninteresting. You know in the end the kids and the killerwill either live or die, and we've seen both endings done so manytimes, who really cares to see it again? And in between the opening andthe ending, the cookie-cutter plot is even less interesting. Not tomention filled with laughable plot holes. (Paper towels, anyone?)Calling this scary, gory, or anything else a horror movie is supposedto be is a laugh-out-loud joke.
There is nothing good I can say about The Hitcher, and there is nothingelse I can say that people haven't complained about before. The factI'm even writing this page-long review is giving The Hitcher too muchcredit. You'll have forgotten you even watched it within a week, maybeless.
0/10
I realise that to propagate the plot of a mindless so-called "horror"film you have to accept that unrealistic situations might arise, butthis transcends plausibility to an extent I could barely grasp. It'sjust indescribable. The plot would have collapsed within the first fewminutes, but happily the actors manage to drag it out by making themost absurd and inexplicable decisions since that time my brothermoon-walked off the back of the sofa and head-butted the fireplace. Asthe psychotic John Ryder holds the heroes captive in the basement of apolice station, the cops arrive to save the day. Yay! Saved! Unless, ofcourse, you choose to run from the police. Which makes sense… underno circumstances. Being consistent, however, is the central characters'only redeeming quality. In fact, having fled the police once for noapparent reason, they then take a cop hostage. Even the bit in Bride ofRe-Animator where a man's head gets transplanted onto a bat makes moresense than that. I've skipped over quite a lot of the outrageous plotidiocies, though I would like to mention our rescued heroine somehowending up in a convoy with the deranged madman. But it's OK, never fearfor her safety because, happily, the guard in the back of the prisonvan has a gun. I'd say there is absolutely no chance the bad guy willget his hands on that. Overall, a pretty terrible film. Not even so badit's good. Just awful. Nice scenery though.
This high-budget(produced by great producer-director Michael Bay) newversion about the classic horror film deals about a young couple(agorgeous Sophia Bush and Zachary Knighton) driving on a rural highwayalong barren landscapes. They pick up a hitchhiker(with decent actingby Sean Bean in the role of Rutger Hauer)with diabolic plans, and heresults out to be a psycho.The sadistic serial killer terrorizes themwhile killing several people and framing them for his murders. Thehitcher sets up machinations and the cops(Neal McDonough)won't believethem.
In this big budgeted version is showed on screen overwhelming carcrashes, breathtaking pursuits, kinetic action scenes, unflinchingterror and extreme violence .The film is told with nimble edition andfast pace .There are some noisy scenes with gunfire and blowing up andalso the pleasantly visual look is quite nice. Moving and thrillingmusical score by Steve Jablonsky. Colorful and atmosphericcinematography by cameraman James Hawkinson. The tale is professionallydirected by Dave Meyers, though with no originality. Not withoutinterest, however is obvious needless thriller is justly a spectacularremake inferior to predecessor.The film transpires frenetic action, andsadism that will leave you emotionally and psychically affected.
The previous films were the original, the superior¨Hitcher¨(1986)directed by Roger Harmon with C. Thomas Howell,JeffreyDeMoon and Rutger Hauer, ¨The hitcher II: I've been waiting¨(2003)withThomas Howell, Jake Busey and Kari Wuher( in similar role to SophieBush).