Night 4 of "The 31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest"

I've joined in the fun over at Domestic Witch's October Blog Party. You can find a list of participating blogs that are having fun celebrating the season of Halloween. When you're done here take a broom ride over to her site and you'll see the list of blogs on the right side bar.
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Here at The Lounge we will have a "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest". Check back each day to see which movie is featured and some days you may get more than one. They will be a random selection of my favorites. You can see all past selections on the sidebar.
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Make sure to leave a comment for each movie as one lucky person will win their choice of pendant from Laughing Vixen Lounge at the end of the film fest. Please see rules at end of post.
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Night 4...."The Hitcher"

I used to love Tommy Howell. The I grew up and realized a cute boy does not a good actor make! That aside, this movie is still creepy and fun.

Directed by Robert Harmon (They) and released in 1986 by HBO Pictures. A young man, Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell), is delivering a car from Chicago to San Diego. Unable to keep his eyes open, he decides to pick up a hitcher, John Ryder (Rutger Hauer), standing on the side of the road so he could have someone to talk to. As the passenger door opens Jim utters the infamous line "My mother always told me not to do this". We the viewer know that mom was right but Jim has to learn the hard way.

Jim quickly realizes he has made a terrible mistake as he discovers the hitcher has killed his last ride. Luckily, Jim manages to get shove the hitcher out the door and assures himself that it's all over. The hitcher has other plans. Throw in a dozen cops who think Jim is the killer, some more murders and Nash (Jennifer Jason Leigh) as the overly trusting love interest. The movie plays out as a cat and mouse game along a desolate highway that Jim will have to finish whether he likes it or not.

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OK...this movie has lots of flaws. Mr. Howell really can't act and it does show in this movie. I don't remember him being so painful in the Outsiders but it has been a long time since I've seen it. Also, it's quite amazing how the hitcher can always be hiding right where Jim is about to show up. Maybe his character is psychic and they forgot to tell us. It's probably laying on the editing room floor.

The silliness aside, there really are some great scary and creepy elements here. It plays on all of those terrible "what could happens" of traveling, especially on your on. Driving in out of the way places, stopping at gas station and rest areas and crossing paths with lots of strangers. Usually harmless things but we all know the horrible things that do happen to people sometimes and that's what feeds the fear here.

What takes that fear and kicks it into high gear is Mr. Hauer himself. This is the first movie I really noticed Rutger Hauer in and it took a good decade to be able to separate him from this character. He is truly scary as the villain here and it shows just how talented of an act he can be.

Besides, the scene with Nash at the truck stop is just classic horror film making. Maybe you don't get to see as much as nowadays but it's horrible all the same.

Some trivia about the movie...

1.The writer of the screenplay, Eric Red, has said the story was inspired by the Doors song "Riders on the Storm".

2. Sam Elliott was originally signed up to play the hitcher but had to back out due to a scheduling conflict.

3. Rutger Hauer knocked out one of his teeth with the shotgun he was holding during the windshield scene.

Rules for pendant giveaway...

One comment about the movie per film. You can get (1) extra entry by following this Blog and (1) by following on Twitter. You can also get (1) extra entry for Tweeting about this. Please use this message -Check out the "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest" to win your choice of pendant from @LaughingVixen http://tiny.cc/SB74Z . 3 Tweets a day max and no more than 1 an hour! You can also get (1) extra entry for guessing the next film. I will tweet hints on Twitter about the next days movie and you can post your guess as a comment. Just make sure to post each extra entry as an individual comment on any of the movies comment page. If you already follow go ahead and take the extra entries. Make sure you can be contacted from your post.