Hitcher in the Dark (1989) User Reviews

Oh, come on now!

[coldwaterpdh · 5/10 · 24 December 2007]

This film has to be viewed with this in mind first: it is ridiculous and not meant to be scary.

I like "Hitcher in the Dark" a lot. It's no award winner, but what do you want? It's a low budget, late-80's slasher/thriller with a good dose of comedy and sleaze thrown in for good measure. I doubt Lenzi was even trying to make it scary. The 'killer' is a preppy looking RV driver cruising the Virginia Beach coast on his daddy's dime. He picks up a girl and makes her life hell for a few days, and ends up paying for it in the end. Thrown in between is a cheesy plot, an angry boyfriend, lots of 80's beach people getting drunk and listening to horrible music, and some pretty nice looking chicks.

For the time it came out, it was a little ahead of it's time, too. Pretty much all the new thrillers are 'real life' terror rides like "Hitcher in the Dark." For what it is, "Hitcher in the Dark" is a lot cooler than any teen horror movie of today. And it's funny as hell!!!

5 out of 10, kids.

Psycho in a Winnebago.

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 2 December 2018]

Umberto Lenzi is perhaps best known for his zombie and cannibal movies of the early '80s: the derivative but gory Eaten Alive!, the silly but fun Nightmare City, and the spirited nasty Cannibal Ferox. He's certainly not so fondly remembered for his later movies, which include this frustratingly dull psycho thriller that possesses a mean-spirited tone, and boasts a fair amount of sleaze, yet still manages to be both tedious and rather dumb.

Joe Balogh plays rich kid Mark Glazer, who cruises the highways in his daddy's Winnebago picking up young hitchhikers to torture, rape and kill. After seeing pretty blonde Daniela Foster (Josie Bissett) dancing at a campsite, he decided to make her his next victim: when she storms out of a bar following an argument with boyfriend Kevin (Jason Saucier), Mark is there to offer her a lift to the bus station. She doesn't make it. Instead, she spends days shackled in the RV being abused by crazy Mark, who has confused the girl for his long-gone mother, who ran off with the tennis coach when Mark was ten. Meanwhile, Kevin is combing the area for his missing girlfriend.

Much of the movie focuses on the mind games played by captor and captive, and with neither Balogh or Bissett being great actors, these scenes are interminably boring. The film is much better when its being more exploitative: the opening murder of a gorgeous blonde is promisingly lurid; Daniela's attempted seduction of Mark delivers lots of nudity; a wet t-shirt competition at a family waterpark is totally unnecessary, but welcome; and the torture of Kevin provides the gore (the nut-job carving the word 'PIG' into Kevin's chest with a switchblade).

As far as the dumb stuff goes, the daftest scene sees Daniela wasting a prime opportunity to smash a vodka bottle over a sleeping Mark's head, although the twist ending is almost as unbelievable (it was apparently tacked on leave things on a happy note).

Really Feels Like A 70's Flick

[Griking · 5/10 · 4 April 2021]

I love 70s movies and it shocks me that this was released in '89 as if looks and feels like a mid 70's movie. Its not a "horror" but more of a thriller about a young man who preys on woman hitchhikers in his dad's camper. Its cheesy and there's nothing new here but its entertaining if you go in not expecting much.

There's also a small amount of T&A sprinkled in if you're into that.

What the hell happened to Umberto Lenzi?

[lazarillo · 25 September 2004]

This movie has some things going for it. It features some really beautiful scenery of the American South. It features some really beautiful scenery of a young, lovely Josie Bisset. And it is not quite Umberto Lenzi's worst movie ever. It has a lot of problems though. First, the dialogue is terrible. (Maybe these ridiculous conversations would sound better if they were badly dubbed and delivered with Italian accents). Second, the acting is wretched. The aforementioned Bisset is even worse than she was on "Melrose Place". The only time her acting is halfway tolerable is the scene where she is being photographed naked and sexually assaulted, and that is only because she has been mercifully drugged unconscious. The killer is played by a Christopher Atkins look-alike who is not only just as bad as Bisset but woefully miscast to boot. A five-foot-tall, effeminate pretty boy wearing Vaurnet sun-glasses and driving around in a RV camper is just NOT scary.

The amazing thing though is director Umberto Lenzi who started out as a great director with classic Italian giallo like "Paranoia" in the late 60's, but seemed to get worse with each film. His infamous cannibal and zombie movies in the early 80's were awful but at least they elicited some reaction. This movie and its Florida-lensed follow-up "Nightmare Beach" don't even do that. At the rate he was going here, if Lenzi's still working at all he's probably making amateur porn videos and forgetting to take off the lens cap. I can certainly understand why Lenzi started using a cinematic pseudonym about this time, but why did he choose the name "Humbert Humphrey" recalling classic literature's most infamous pedophile?(Would that make Josie Bisset "Lolita")? What a strange, strange guy.

Worthless non-giallo

[goblinhairedguy · 1/10 · 11 March 2004]

This is a completely artless and tasteless contribution to the psycho-slasher genre, existing only as another cynical Eurosleaze rip-off of a far superior American original, The Hitcher (something done only slightly better by Festa-Campanile's Hitch-Hike). Lenzi made some serviceable paint-by-numbers giallos and cannibal epics, but never had an original idea in his head. Without the exotic background -- it seems that colourless Virgina Beach was chosen merely as an excuse to insert some topless footage of college girls -- there's nothing left but bare-bones plot, pseudo-psychology and some nasty, intrusive violence. And campers aren't exactly the most exciting vehicles on the road, are they? The young cast play it so sensitively that one feels embarrassed for them. What is most irksome is that the DVD is being sold as part of "The Giallo Collection" on the strength of Lenzi's name. This ain't no giallo, and it's frustrating to think how many truly superior films by Sergio Martino and his colleagues are desperately in need of re-release.

Anonymous, rather dull giallo

[Coventry · 3/10 · 30 May 2004]

Italian director Umberto Lenzi will hopefully always be remembered for gruesome and bloodthirsty splatter films like `Cannibal Ferox' and `Nightmare City' much more than this worthless movie. Hitcher in the Dark is lame and redundant attempt to explore the mind of a disturbed psycho-killer. The 22-year-old Mark Glazer picks up young hitchhiking girls in his camper. Too bad for these girls, Mark suffers from a really bad case of the Oedipus-syndrome and goes over to torturing the girls if they don't want to take mum's place. The plot of `Hitcher in the Dark' (wrong name, by the way, the entire movie is shot in broad daylight!) isn't exactly original and elaborates on the success of `The Hitcher', with a slight Norman Bates twist. There's no tension, the characters are absolutely non-believable and there even isn't enough horror to keep you alert. Hitcher does contain a few bloody make-up sequences, but nowhere near as shocking as some of Lenzi's previous films. I don't know if Josie Bisett likes to be remembered about her starring in this film, but it did mean her debut in the world of cinema. Bisett plays the main muse of the young weirdo. Although I don't like the film at all, I prefer it over watching all the `Melrose Place' episodes, so it can't be that horrible. And at least Bisett shows a little naked flesh here

As exciting as watching paint dry.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 4/10 · 8 April 2005]

Deranged mama's boy Joe Balogh prowls the Virginia Beach area in his Winnebago,picking up women whom he thinks might take the place of his dead mother,then killing them when they come up short.He kidnaps a slim blonde(Josie Bissette),because of her resemblance to his dead mother."Hitcher in the Dark" is a cheesy and predictable Umberto Lenzi's thriller that manages to be slightly entertaining.There are some total lapses in logic and there is absolutely no suspense.The climax is incredibly awful and the script is weak.The movie is poorly done in typical Lenzi fashion with lots of false suspense and a total lack of believability in both the performances.However if you are a rabid fan of Italian horror films you can give it a look.4 out of 10.

More Interesting Than First Glance

[rachelrachel-33431 · 7/10 · 30 December 2021]

Before putting in Hitcher in the Dark, I expected the usual lost in translation quality that haunts so many films made in America by European directors, but the script is stronger than expected with some interesting psychological things going on and the acting isn't terrible either. The interplay between rich boy psycho and kidnapped victim is interesting and it's nice to see a victim try to make the right choices to escape every now and then.

Slightly better then gazing at a blank screen

[movieman_kev · 4/10 · 24 October 2003]

Tedious tale of a serial killer who picks up hitch-hikers, Daniela (Josie Bisset) is his current pray and Kevin (Jason Saucer) is her boyfriend trying to rescue her.It is written by Umberto Lenzi. The guy who made Cannibal Ferox & Eaten Alive should just stick to people who eat people movie, as this film plays out like a poor man's Toolbox Murders. Heh what am i saying?? Toolbox Murders was a poor man's Toolbox Murders. But I digress, the point is you'd probably do better just waiting for the upcoming remake of The Toolbox Murders by Tobe Hooper.

My Grade: D

Dvd Extras: Umberto Lenzi interview; theatrical trailer; trailers for Black Demons, and My Dear Killer

Eye Candy: Daniela (Josie Bisset) goes nude & a completely random wet T-shirt contest

Hitch Hike to Hell...again

[The_Void · 5/10 · 16 January 2008]

I'm a big fan of Umberto Lenzi; he is the king of Italian 'Polizi' flicks and also made a handful of brilliant Giallo's, not to mention some decent stuff in other genres; but the man obviously didn't know when to quit as almost everything he made post-Cannibal ferox (Nightmare Beach excluded) is terrible, and Hitcher in the Dark is no exception...though it has to be said that it's better than the likes of Ghosthouse, Black Demons and House of Witchcraft. As the title suggests, the film is based around the common thriller of theme of hitchhikers, and the plot reminded me a lot of the solid seventies exploitation flick 'Hitch Hike to Hell'...mostly because they're essentially the same film (although the fact that this came out just a couple years after The Hitcher should be noted). We follow Mark: a disturbed young man who drives around in a camper van picking up young girls and killing them. It's not long before he comes across Daniela; a pretty young girl who Mark decides not to torture and kill immediately because of her resemblance to his mother...

Yes, if Alfred Hitchcock taught us anything, it's that there's no such thing as a young psychopath who isn't obsessed with his mother, and clearly Umberto Lenzi subscribes to that view as well...which isn't much of a surprise. The fact that the film greatly lacks suspense doesn't do it much of a favour at all. The way that the plot is portrayed actually isn't that bad; but we're never made to care for the characters and it's always obvious where it's going (or at least it is to anyone who has seen more than a couple of films like this one) and the film never really manages to shock or surprise; two key elements of a thriller! The characters are all incredibly clichéd and positively wafer thin, which helps to make the film less interesting. Content with torturing his audience, Lenzi ensures that the film does not feature a great deal of blood or gore either, which often made me wonder why I was watching. Still, I can't completely condemn this film. Hitcher in the Dark is better than I was lead to believe it would be before seeing it; and at least I didn't fall asleep before the finish.

She Prays Like a Roman With Her Eyes on Fire...

[TheFearmakers · 8/10 · 7 October 2019]

Before what would become an intensely popular super-bad horror phenomenon, TROLL 2, featuring a group of teenage boys traveling in a recreation vehicle, Italian producer Joe D'Amato and his synth-composing Carlo Maria Cordio used just one young man, a kind of misleadingly boy-next-door Ted Bundy type, who kidnaps, tortures, rapes and kills female hitchhikers in HITCHER IN THE DARK, where the title is also misleading, sounding as if THE HITCHER were the villain...

Instead it's rich kid Mark (Joe Balogh), who picks up a girl he saw fight with her muscular, two-timing boyfriend, and she's one of the cutest blonde starlets in the history of cheap horror exploitation. Although MELROSE PLACE fans may not recognize a younger Josie Bissett in her literal career beginnings with long locks. But soon enough, like put-upon wife Jane Mancini, it's cut short, and it wasn't her idea...

The preppy-dressed RV driving Norman Bates has mother issues, and wants Bissett's Daniela to look exactly like a nostalgic photo. Also a modern retelling of THE COLLECTOR, most of this Kidnapped Damsel venture has plenty of those frustrating moments when the victim almost escapes, but at the last minute, fails: Stretched to a long 90-minutes of the good girl and bad boy trading off the upper-hand as most of the picture takes place inside the RV...

But not without lovely exterior shots of both the city and rural surroundings of Virginia Beach, making this a kind of circular-road movie. The nervous monotony is sporadically broken by b-story stud Jason Saucier's Kevin, her boyfriend, sometimes only a few oblivious seconds behind, searching for the girl that literally got away in this obscure, low-budget thriller that, for better or worst, takes its time to torture both the ingenue and audience...

Meanwhile, composer Cordio's creepy (and familiar) score, and one scene featuring a flying headless gorilla from a movie shown at a drive-in, will make rabid TROLL 2 fans dizzily nostalgic. But more conventional horror fans may want to skip this bizarre and exploitative ride.

Made right around the time of Nightmare Beach

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 23 October 2019]

I can hear you out there. You're saying, I wish Umberto Lenzi made another movie in Florida right after Nightmare Beach. And I hope its a ripoff of The Hitcher but about a rich kid in an RV and that it's so scummy that I feel like a Silkwood shower still wouldn't make me feel clean.

Good news, friend. There's Hitcher In the Dark, a film that crosses off every horrible thing on your deranged bucket list.

Mark Glazer wants to have sex with his dead mother.

If that upsets you, seriously, move on to another review.

He's driving around in his rich daddy's RV and picking up female hitchhikers to assault, murder and take Polaroids of. That's when he runs into Daniela (Josie Bissett, who somehow moved on to the tamer - if that's possible - Melrose Place), who he turns into a living version of his mother. And thanks to a cocktail of Stockholm Syndrome and Italian movie making magic, she starts to fall for our killer.

Originally, this movie ended with Mark getting away with it. But hey - they added on a little end where Daniela finally gets her revenge.

Amazingly, someone released this on a three pack with Hell High and The Majorettes. I can only imagine how people felt being confronted by this movie.

Lurid psycho drama

[Dr. Gore · 28 March 2003]

*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*

A psycho and his Winnebago. So a nut travels up and down the Virginia Beach coastline looking for hitchhikers. Seems lonely boy has a fixation on his mother. Don't they all? He wants to mold the hitchhikers into his hot, saintly mother's image. Lurid mind games follow.

This movie could have been good. The problem is the acting. Since most of the movie is spent having the psycho converse with his prey, it is imperative that the psycho be believable and, if at all possible, scary. He is none of that. In fact, he's awful. One of the worst acting performances ever. Since the camera is on him through most of the flick, he starts to wear you down with his lazy psycho routine. The hitchhiker he picks up, (Josie Bissett), was good. All of the other actors stunk. The music was also horrible. Late 80's synthesizer cheese.

On the plus side, the movie did have an authentic, grimy feel to it. The filmmakers knew the right deranged words to put in the psycho's mouth. He just couldn't deliver them convincingly. There are some good exploitation scenes in his camper. Here's the psycho party mix: A girl, chloroform and an instant camera. It makes for a happy psycho. I did enjoy the completely unnecessary wet T-shirt contest as well.

"Hitcher in the Dark" may just be sordid enough to warrant a viewing. I can't say that I loved every second of it but it does have its seedy moments.

Not bad if you follow a couple of rules

[tvcarsd · 5/10 · 7 June 2021]

Firstly, you can't be paying movies like this your fullest attention. This is the kind of movie you watch when getting through a stack of ironing or playing a monkey bloons game. Secondly, these midday horrors have to be watched accelerated somehow.

Ok, so the story is straight out of 80's slasher heaven. It's a jump in my ride of death movie. Acting is pure B gold. So rich guy uses camper van to catch female hitchhikers is kill them. The movie is full of one liners, thats about the depth of the dialog. Don't bother unless you are seriously into B thrillers.

Umberto Lenzi's disappointingly lackluster "danger on the road" psycho thriller

[Woodyanders · 4/10 · 4 December 2006]

Misogynistic psycho wackjob Mark (a creepily manic and intense performance by handsome beefcake hunk Joe Balogh) wears mirror shades, suffers from a severe mommy complex, drives a fancy expensive Winnebago, and has a nasty penchant for picking up stray foxy young female hitchhikers whom he likes to rape, debase and brutally murder. Mark chooses the feisty Daniela (gorgeous blonde hottie Josie Bissett, who went on to slightly more respectable work as a regular on the trashy nighttime soap opera "Melrose Place") as his next victim and abducts her. Daniela's obsessive boyfriend Kevin (woodenly played by Jason Saucier) gives chase.

Limply directed by spaghetti splatter specialist Umberto ("Nightmare City") Lenzi (who also wrote the flat, clichéd, talky cookie cutter script), with slack pacing, nil suspense, mostly mild and goreless violence, atrocious acting, and a humdrum plot which offers no fresh twists or novel surprises, this strictly from hunger Eurodreck rip-off of "The Hitcher" qualifies as a real stinker. However, both Jerry Phillip's polished cinematography and Carlo Maria Cordio's throbbing rock score are up to par, while the copious gratuitous nudity rates as the single most watchable and enjoyable thing in this whole godforsaken turkey (said nudity includes several scenes of Bissett in the buff and an especially tasty wet t-shirt contest). And hardcore Bissett bashers such as yours truly should get a kick out of the extensive degradation Josie suffers throughout the flick: she's drugged, gagged and handcuffed by our star loony, has her hair cut short and dyed black, gets photographed by nutso while nude and unconscious, and is even forced to watch the freak carve the word "pig" in Kevin's chest. Taking that last nugget into consideration, I guess this picture ain't so bad after all.

Hitcher In The Dark

[a_baron · 1/10 · 21 December 2021]

A sexual psychopath with Mommy issues picks up a young woman who is hitchhiking to get away from her boyfriend, and ends up kidnapping her. He has already murdered at least one young woman in similar circumstances, so things don't look good for her. This was billed as a psychological thriller, but the bad guy's acting is so wooden it doesn't pass muster. When the damsel is rescued by the persistent boyfriend, the latter makes an unfathomable mistake. Having smote the bad guy to the ground, and being twice his size, instead of putting the boot in, the two of them run off. The finale is simply implausible, but how seriously were we meant to take this piece of celluloid trash?

The collector hits the road

[dbdumonteil · 2/10 · 7 August 2008]

Although this is a road movie ,Lenzi's screenplay (Lenzi takes an American name in the cast and credits of the version I saw)is roughly a photocopy of William Wyler's impressive "the collector" (1965) with snatches of "Psycho" (the mother) and "Vertigo" (how to turn a woman into another one)thrown in.A collector who would travel all across the country ,picking up girls and (well read the plot)...The dialog is most of the time funnier than it is scary,and acting is particularly poor.Some scenes such as the "beauty" contest are mostly filler.At times ,it seems that Lenzi is begging to be taken seriously : there is a "poetic" scene when the "hero" helps a bird to fly away.But most of the time it is Punch and Judy level with vodka,handcuffs and pills galore.One can save ,at a pinch,the scene in the drive- in where people are having fun watching a farce while horrible things happen not far from them.

Bad.

[bombersflyup · 1/10 · 22 March 2021]

Hitcher in the Dark is woefully amateurish and stupid.

Senseless from the get-go, stuck watching some annoying idiot without depth for 90 minutes.

Hitcher in the Dark (1989)

[jonahstewartvaughan · 8/10 · 20 March 2023]

Vinegar Syndrome Cuts #29

Hitcher in the Dark (1989)

(8/10):A sleazy kidnapping flick from Italian Director Umberto Lenzi.

It is a shocker that is about a young man who is sick in the head that drives his dads camper around looking for lone hitchhiking women to kidnap, torture, rape and murder.

It follows one woman who is kidnapped by this man and her struggles to escape.

It's fairly acted,especially for a movie released by VS, and the lead character is pretty messed up and is convincing enough that he has some screws loose.

The movie is mostly confined to the inside of the camper and it does a decent job at being a solid shocker.

There isn't a whole lot of stuff to break down about it as it is a fairly simple movie that is a good horror/thriller giallo style film, especially for its era as Italian horror was starting to lose some steam by the late eighties as the two titans Fulci and Argento were starting to enter a point where their movies were declining in quality and consistency.

I recommend it as it is a solid flick with a simple plot and while it's nothing like peak Italian horror, it's definitely not the worst.

Excellent Film

[sxyboy169 · 18 November 1999]

One of Umberto Lenzi's finest films. This underrated movie goes deep inside the mind of a deranged serial killer/rapist. Excellent acting From Josie Bissett. I highly recommend this film. If you may happen to know where i can get this movie please Email me. Excellent Directing. Needs a little better Setting.

Kidnapped in an RV - cheap but good!

[abduktionsphanomen471 · 9/10 · 11 July 2021]

Hitcher In The Dark - 1989 ( This Films Rates An A- ) A obsessive alcoholic creep in an RV violently kills a girl, takes pictures and then kidnaps the next victim. He drugs her, sexually assaults her and tortures her. Not much gore but does contain some realistic savagery. There are some really weird scenes of 80's cheese here. The dancing in the RV park towards the beginning was a bit unexpected and she didnt even dance well. Gay bikers on acid? Or the wet t-shirt contest. The injured pigeon on the beach. The movie playing at the drive in. They just come out of nowhere! And then theres weird lines like "Let him go, he looks like a fag to me anyways", Poorly acted and not always convincing for the worst of times, however, there is some nice build up even if its very predictable. The abuse and kidnapping torture scenes are terrifying. The scenery is pretty great and filled with late 80's highway and city scapes. The soundtrack is very good. Plus T&A. Even though there are many short comings to this film, there is a high sense of belief from the cast and crew. Also, that ending caught me off guard. This film succeeds even in areas it shouldnt. Highly recommended,

Hitcher in the Dark

[Michael_Elliott · 30 October 2008]

Hitcher in the Dark (1989)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Incredibly silly psychological thriller from the same man who brought us Eaten Alive, Cannibal Ferox, Nightmare City and countless giallos. This time out he tells the story of a young man (Joe Balogh) who is so in love with his mother that he drives around in his RV kidnapping women who look like her so that he can sexually assault them, kill them and then feed them to alligators. All of this changes when he kidnaps one girl (Josie Bissett) who he plans on settling down with, although she doesn't share the same feelings. This Italian/American production is a cross between Bill Lustig's Maniac and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and Vertigo but needless to say it doesn't come close to any of those films. This movie is without question one of the dumbest and most boring thrillers I've ever seen and trust me when I say I've seen a lot. The biggest problem is Lenzi's direction, which is just downright horrible as he never brings any life to the film nor does he ever dig into this killer's mind even though that's what he's trying to do. There's no doubt Lenzi could create a good film earlier in his career but everything I've seen from after 1983 is pure junk and this film is included. There's some female nudity along the way but this too grows very tiresome. The only thing that keeps this sucker from getting a BOMB rating is the incredibly horrid dialogue, which Ed Wood would probably laugh at. The dialogue in this film is so bad that I couldn't help but laugh at loud during several scenes because it really seems like a two-year-old wrote it. Be sure to pay close attention to one scene where the girl's boyfriend, searching for her, sneaks into a RV, which belongs to a black man. This scene must be Lenzi paying tribute to the blaxploitation pictures of the 70s because of how bad and out of touch with reality it is.