(no subject)
While I'm on the subject, here is the weekly viewing list for my Horror Film Theory IS (many of which I've already seen):
Frankenstein (1931)
Cat People (1942)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Paranoiac (1963)
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Halloween (1978)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Daughters of Darkness (1971)
King Kong (1933)
Eyes Without a Face (1959)
Videodrome (1983)
Suspiria (1977)
Blunt Force Trauma: The Hitcher Redux
(Contains Spoilers)
One of the enduring fascinations of Robert Harmon’s 1986 film The Hitcher is its defiance of easy categorization. Critical response was notably unkind to this unusual blend of horror fable (the hitchhiker who turns out to be a psychopath), action flick, and the Hitchcockian trope of a wrongfully-accused innocent trying to clear his name. To this day, there hasn’t been anything quite like it (and indeed, no cinema villain quite like Rutger Hauer’s violence-defined John Ryder).
With its sense of highway-bound horror and Grand Guignol automotive setpieces, The Hitcher, in theory, seems most suited to the recent string of Michael Bay-produced remakes, all of which have hammered on the accelerator (with predictably dismal results). The surprise of Hitcher 07 is that it’s, well…good. Surprisingly respectful of its source (original screenwriter Eric Red gets a credit here, as well), this Hitcher contains enough faithful reproductions of scenes (amplified in terms of noise, grue, and gore, but well-executed nonetheless), plus enough new stuff to attract horror fans and die-hard fans of the original. Instead of being just a passable remake of a great film, Hitcher 07 comes very close to being a great film in its own right.
So close.
The plot is as before: Jim Halsey (Zachary Knighton) picks up college sweetheart Grace (Sophia Bush) for a spring-break road trip back to Grace’s place; as daylight fades and a rainy night settles in, Jim nearly hits a shadowy hitchhiker standing in the middle of the road. At a gas station a few miles down the road, John Ryder (Sean Bean), the hitchhiker, catches up with the couple; Jim, regretting the previous run-in, offers the stranger a ride…and the less said about the rest of the film, the better (if the opening shot of a cute bunny getting splattered by a speeding car doesn’t clue you in, a police dog snacking on its dead owner certainly will).
Performance-wise, the film fluctuates: not surprisingly, this is yet another Bay production cast mostly on bland looks over acting ability. Bush and Knighton are blandly passable, their shortcomings (mostly) covered up by fast edits, loud noises, and splattering gore (the dialog, thankfully, is not Shakespeare). Though considered a casualty of 1980s teen flicks, C. Thomas Howell gave a good, highly underrated performance in the original. Sean Bean, picking up Rutger Hauer’s trench coat and blank-stare psychosis, is the driving force (pardon the pun) behind this Hitcher--as a big fan of Hauer’s performance, I can say that Bean is every bit as good, and just as diabolically passive to committing murder; there are moments when his shifty glances, parted lips, and passive delivery (the “I want to die” chant is effectively reproduced) blows the rest of the cast out of the water.
Hitcher 07, like most recent remakes, is a blood-spattered affair (whereas the original implied more than it shown), but exercises a certain restraint in its violence compared to, say, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre prequel. The film presents bloody death as the stuff of spine-tightening, mortality-reminding dread instead of a recipe for desensitization; there were several moments that left me particularly shaken (including a jaw-dropping “quartering” merely implied in the original). Again, this is helped by Bean’s totally convincing portrayal of the soulless, cunning, and smart psychopath.
***SPOILER***
While Hitcher 07 is quite faithful to its 1986 parent, its worth as a companion is heavily influenced by its third-act twist, where Grace-not Jim-takes on Ryder in a spectacular climactic showdown. While the setup is well-done, Bush’s lack of acting skill seriously impairs the ‘change’ she seems to suddenly undergo at the end. The politics of the scene-pitting a woman against the killer in a genre where the gender is presented as weak (save for the “Final Girl” theory), and extraneous to the plot unless naked or dead-are not daring, but the alteration of the original film’s narrative is-and, save for Bush’s total lack of ‘tough chick’ pathos, the reversal works, even though Bean’s Ryder gallantly carries much of the scene’s weight.
***
As with nearly every remake, The Hitcher isn’t entirely necessary, but it is effective. Most updates of old films merely encourage viewers to revisit their much-better source (and to those who haven’t seen the ’86 Hitcher, do so before seeing the new one), but this makes for a nice companion piece-familiar enough to engage fans, and tweaked enough to stand as its own entity.
I just wish some of its “aesthetic touches” had been jettisoned during pre-production.
6 out of 10 (good)
Frankenstein (1931)
Cat People (1942)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Paranoiac (1963)
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Halloween (1978)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Daughters of Darkness (1971)
King Kong (1933)
Eyes Without a Face (1959)
Videodrome (1983)
Suspiria (1977)
Blunt Force Trauma: The Hitcher Redux
(Contains Spoilers)
One of the enduring fascinations of Robert Harmon’s 1986 film The Hitcher is its defiance of easy categorization. Critical response was notably unkind to this unusual blend of horror fable (the hitchhiker who turns out to be a psychopath), action flick, and the Hitchcockian trope of a wrongfully-accused innocent trying to clear his name. To this day, there hasn’t been anything quite like it (and indeed, no cinema villain quite like Rutger Hauer’s violence-defined John Ryder).
With its sense of highway-bound horror and Grand Guignol automotive setpieces, The Hitcher, in theory, seems most suited to the recent string of Michael Bay-produced remakes, all of which have hammered on the accelerator (with predictably dismal results). The surprise of Hitcher 07 is that it’s, well…good. Surprisingly respectful of its source (original screenwriter Eric Red gets a credit here, as well), this Hitcher contains enough faithful reproductions of scenes (amplified in terms of noise, grue, and gore, but well-executed nonetheless), plus enough new stuff to attract horror fans and die-hard fans of the original. Instead of being just a passable remake of a great film, Hitcher 07 comes very close to being a great film in its own right.
So close.
The plot is as before: Jim Halsey (Zachary Knighton) picks up college sweetheart Grace (Sophia Bush) for a spring-break road trip back to Grace’s place; as daylight fades and a rainy night settles in, Jim nearly hits a shadowy hitchhiker standing in the middle of the road. At a gas station a few miles down the road, John Ryder (Sean Bean), the hitchhiker, catches up with the couple; Jim, regretting the previous run-in, offers the stranger a ride…and the less said about the rest of the film, the better (if the opening shot of a cute bunny getting splattered by a speeding car doesn’t clue you in, a police dog snacking on its dead owner certainly will).
Performance-wise, the film fluctuates: not surprisingly, this is yet another Bay production cast mostly on bland looks over acting ability. Bush and Knighton are blandly passable, their shortcomings (mostly) covered up by fast edits, loud noises, and splattering gore (the dialog, thankfully, is not Shakespeare). Though considered a casualty of 1980s teen flicks, C. Thomas Howell gave a good, highly underrated performance in the original. Sean Bean, picking up Rutger Hauer’s trench coat and blank-stare psychosis, is the driving force (pardon the pun) behind this Hitcher--as a big fan of Hauer’s performance, I can say that Bean is every bit as good, and just as diabolically passive to committing murder; there are moments when his shifty glances, parted lips, and passive delivery (the “I want to die” chant is effectively reproduced) blows the rest of the cast out of the water.
Hitcher 07, like most recent remakes, is a blood-spattered affair (whereas the original implied more than it shown), but exercises a certain restraint in its violence compared to, say, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre prequel. The film presents bloody death as the stuff of spine-tightening, mortality-reminding dread instead of a recipe for desensitization; there were several moments that left me particularly shaken (including a jaw-dropping “quartering” merely implied in the original). Again, this is helped by Bean’s totally convincing portrayal of the soulless, cunning, and smart psychopath.
***SPOILER***
While Hitcher 07 is quite faithful to its 1986 parent, its worth as a companion is heavily influenced by its third-act twist, where Grace-not Jim-takes on Ryder in a spectacular climactic showdown. While the setup is well-done, Bush’s lack of acting skill seriously impairs the ‘change’ she seems to suddenly undergo at the end. The politics of the scene-pitting a woman against the killer in a genre where the gender is presented as weak (save for the “Final Girl” theory), and extraneous to the plot unless naked or dead-are not daring, but the alteration of the original film’s narrative is-and, save for Bush’s total lack of ‘tough chick’ pathos, the reversal works, even though Bean’s Ryder gallantly carries much of the scene’s weight.
***
As with nearly every remake, The Hitcher isn’t entirely necessary, but it is effective. Most updates of old films merely encourage viewers to revisit their much-better source (and to those who haven’t seen the ’86 Hitcher, do so before seeing the new one), but this makes for a nice companion piece-familiar enough to engage fans, and tweaked enough to stand as its own entity.
I just wish some of its “aesthetic touches” had been jettisoned during pre-production.
6 out of 10 (good)