I saw Michael Bay’s remake of this movie a while back (more on that one tomorrow) and didn’t even realize it was a remake until recently so I figured I’d give the original a try. With C. Thomas Howell (as Jim) and Rutger Hauer (as the hitcher) I figured it couldn’t be all bad. And it wasn’t!

There were some interesting choices made in the remake that make more sense now that I’ve seen both films, but I really like both of them. I think I like them in slightly different ways, though. In this one, it’s because Rutger Hauer is a total creeper and C. Thomas Howell is so believably distraught that the whole movie was really compelling.

I looked up the director of this film because I was so impressed and was curious if he’d done anything else I’d seen. It turns out he’s only done a few movies, one of which is the movie They, which I really liked and am now thinking of watching again on Saturday. And then a bunch of episodes of various TV shows I’ve never watched.

Anyway, the acting is great in this, the music understated and nicely done, and the story an interesting take on a familiar tale. All in all, this was a pretty entertaining watch that has some intense action scenes but not too much blood and gore. Not really for the faint of heart, but it’s not that disturbing.