The Hitcher

The Hitcher (1986), directed by Robert Harmon, Nameless Media remaster, encoded in 10 bit HEVC with AAC sound, including 5.1 remaster, two commentary tracks, and English and German subtitles.

IMDb : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091209/

Video encoded in two-pass 12.0 Mbps x265 10bit with the veryslow preset for archive quality image. Audio encoded separately with Apple AAC for the highest-quality AAC sound available.

Text subtitles converted to SRT. Image subtitles converted to VobSub and repositioned.

Note : As cinema moved into the 80s, the exploitation film also changed, turning to ultra-violent revenge thrillers and semi-slashers, where vigilante-style payback was the order of the day. All of these films are pretty trashy, but not all of them are trash, and this is one of the best, a relentless spree of mayhem headlined by Rutger Hauer, who plays antagonist Ryder not so much as a sociopathic murderer as an unstoppable force of destruction and death, who's both single-minded and carefree at once. The rest of the cast doesn't have to do that much when Hauer's going this fucking hard, and indeed it doesn't, except for Jennifer Jason Leigh, who's much better than she needs to be, and C. Thomas Howell, who's fine as the increasingly frantic protagonist.

Halsey is driving a car to deliver it from Chicago to San Diego, and picks up a hitchhiker in the West Texas desert during a rainstorm. The hitchhiker, Ryder, forces Halsey to keep driving when they pass a stranded car, and tells Halsey he murdered the driver, and will do the same to him, holding him at knifepoint. Ryder tells him he wants Halsey to stop him, before Halsey managed to kick him out of the moving car. However, Ryder isn't done, and the next time Halsey seems him, he's hitched a ride with a family who Halsey later finds murdered. Ryder continues to play games with Halsey as Halsey becomes a suspect in the murders, and the only one who believes in him is waitress Nash, and as the bodycount rises, it may be that Halsey is indeed the only one who can stop Ryder.

This German remaster is not great, but decent enough, fairly filmic looking with ok color and contrast, a little soft, but generally ok. The 5.1 track sounds good, and both the commentary tracks are worth listening to, especially the one with Rutger Hauer.

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