The Hitcher

A lonely stretch of highway leads to a date with terror in this thriller. Jim Halsey (Zachary Knighton) and Grace Andrews (Sophia Bush) are a young couple in the midst of a long-distance road trip when, during a rainstorm, they take pity on a hitchhiker, John Ryder) (Sean Bean), and give him a lift. ...more

By definition, remakes have a tough act to follow. To even get to the point of a side-by-side comparison, they have to overcome the purists' outrage that they exist in the first place. The original Hitcher (1986), however, wasn't the typical candidate to be remade -- it had a chilling concept, but flawed execution. Dave Meyers' 2007 update plugs those narrative gaps quite effectively. It raises the emotional stakes by involving both protagonists from the start, providing each a necessary ...more