A young man name Jim Halsey is transporting a car to San Diego when he sees a man hitchhiking at the side of the road so Jim pulls over and gives him a lift. We quickly find out that John Ryder (the hitchhiker) is a psychopath, as they pass a stranded car containing John Ryder's earlier victims, he starts to threaten Jim with a knife. Jim successfully kicks John out of his car but for the rest of the film, Ryder manipulates Jim from afar putting him into a terrible position with the police.
One of my favourite scenes is when Ryder meets Jim in a cafe and sits in the seat opposite him. Jim pulls out a gun and aims it at Ryder under the table and Ryder reciprocates with his hand in the shape of a gun. I feel this scene is effective because it convey's how twisted Ryder is by tormenting Jim and making him feel like he's in power since he has the gun, but taking that power away again by just knocking on the table.
Another effective scene takes place after Ryder is arrested and in the back of a police van. Even with Ryder arrested Jim still isn't satisfied and will only stop when he is dead. Because the audience and Jim are the only people that understand what he's capable of and the police don't take him quite as seriously, this foreshadows his escape. The audience are feeling uneasy when he is in the back of the police van and are expecting something to happen, so when we get the point-of-view shot from Ryder looking at the shotgun in the lap of the officer next to him and smiling to himself, the audience knows he is going to escape. I feel this is an effective scene since all this is told to the audience just through him smiling, rather than an action-packed fight scene in the back of the police van.
For an 18 rated horror film there isn't a lot of body horror it's more based around psychological torment than physical threat. The only occasions when there is quite a lot of body horror used is in the police station when Ryder kills the officers on duty and let's Jim out of his cell. This shows us what Ryder is capable of and he is very skilled at killing, but it also more importantly shows us that he can quite easily just kill Jim at any point he likes, the only reason he hasn't is because he enjoys playing the voyeuristic puppet master more than killing.
There is restricted narration used when Jim looks in the car with the family of Ryder's victims in. We never see there bodies but we see Jim throw up after looking inside. This can be more powerful than showing the corpses especially back in 1986 when special effects weren't quite up to the standard they are nowadays.
The film is set in the middle of no where to give the feeling of solitude, and also we see that there are mountains in most directions which gives the idea that Jim is boxed in and there is no escape. This is very common in horror films to give the protagonist no way out.
The film uses pathetic fallacy to create a moody atmosphere. The first scene in the film it is raining which usual connotes sadness, this is very common for horror films. This scene also takes place during the night which means that they can use low-key lighting which adds to the bleak atmosphere.
There are several examples of parallel music throughout the film such as long, choral sounding notes when Jim is exploring the abandoned gas station to make it seem more eerie. They also play fast-paced exciting music when Jim is trying to steer the out of control police car he's in.
When John Ryder is holding a knife to Jim's eye, Robert Harmon (the Director) uses an extreme close-up. This sort of cinematography is used to make the audience feel uncomfortable since being this close to someone is disconcerting, especially with the addition of a knife.
Just after Jim kicks John Ryder out of his car we get a shot of John on the ground and a fairly high angle, but when John Ryder stands up the shot changes to a very low angle nearly to the point of being vertical. This shows the audience that John hasn't been defeated and he's only just beginning.
The end of the film is unhappy - like most horror films - because Jim can't be together with Nash since John Ryder kills her. Even though the antagonist does die, we don't go back to an equilibrium since Jim has been changed by the events that happened to him. Jim has became a cold-blooded killer like John was, we see this when Jim shoots Ryder 3 times with a shotgun, but shows no emotion and just keeps a blank expression.
The restricted narration I mentioned earlier could go well with a low-budget trailer like the one we're doing in class. It is quite easy to get a good locking vomit effect but very difficult to show extreme gore. Therefore we could still convey the same idea of a mutilated corpse without having to spend a lot of money getting it to look realistic.
I feel The Hitcher's use of collision cutting would also be a good technique I could use in my own trailer. The film uses it when Jim is in the back of a police car on the radio to the captain, he is speaking calmly and there is no music playing, but suddenly Ryder fires a gunshot through the side of the car. At this point There is lots of screaming, the cars engine becomes louder, fast paced music starts which is a massively different from moments ago where it was slow and quiet. This is a simple technique to do, but it's still quite effective.
One aspect of the film that I didn't particularly like and wouldn't want to include in my trailer, is the slightly unbelievable skill at killing that Ryder possess. A prime example of this is when he manages to kill an entire police station of armed officers and their dogs without even waking up Jim. I feel that in my trailer I'd like to keep to a more realistic antagonist, because something that is believably real -in my opinion- is more scary.
For me, the most enjoyable part of the film takes place when Ryder meets Jim in a cafe. You get to see Jim's face light up with anger and excitement when Ryder sits opposite to Jim and he has a gun in his hand. Jim really thinks that he has won, and he's in control of the situation, but Ryder turns the situation around when he pretends to have a gun. I like this sequence because we get close-ups on both characters and we can see both their reaction as the scene progresses.
