Robert Harmon’s The Hitcher is an immensely popular horror thriller that fans had been clamoring a Blu-ray release for many years. Fans of the film have finally had their requests met. Not only has it been finally released domestically on Blu-ray for the first time, but also now is available on 4K UHD. Warner Brothers has indeed given The Hitcher a UHD release!

The Hitcher stars screen legend Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner, Nighthawks, Sin City)  who plays John Ryder, the title character. On a rainy evening, Jim Haulsey (C. Thomas Howell, E.T., The Outsiders) who is driving from Chicago to San Diego, picks up Ryder who is standing in the rain, apparently hitchhiking. That one move changes Jim’s life forever. While in the car, Jim realizes that John Ryder is psychotic!  Luckily, at the face of what appears to be near death for poor Jim, he narrowly escapes Ryder by dumping him out of the vehicle. But that isn’t the end, as Jim continues to be stalked by him while on his route to San Diego. The murderous hitchhiker leaves a trail of murdered victims in the vicinity of where Jim is, be it a diner or a gas station. Jim unfortunately winds up being framed for all the murders Ryder is committing with the local police after him. While Jim is being pursued by the cops along the highway, Ryder is driving by killing them all!  Thankfully, Jim does receive some help in the way of Nash (Jennifer Jason-Leigh, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, eXistenZ) but is she also doomed for helping Jim?

As many fans already know, The Hitcher is an excellent cult horror, thriller with a lot of suspense and excellent acting, especially by Rutger Hauer. Yes, there are some plot holes as to why John Ryder is the way he is, and we don’t really know much about this character or what his actual motives are! There is also some type of connection between Jim and John implied, but unfortunately, we really don’t know what it is!

The Hitcher arrives on a native 4k UHD disc with HDR10 and Dolby Vision, giving the film the best possible audio / video presentation ever. You can toss away the DVD! Warner Brothers has done a tremendous job here as the film looks fantastic with a beautiful, clear image. John Seale’s cinematography looks fantastic with some wonderful shots of the scenery in West Texas. Daylight scenes simply look marvelous with deep rich textures. Skin/ flesh tones also look strong, as do the varied colors of outfits the actors wear such as a police uniform. The blue skies under daylight are also quite robust and truly impressive. The color palette appears to be on the cooler side from what I noticed. Black levels were rich, and you can clearly view action that takes place in evening scenes. No DNR or other artificially enhancers seem to have been applied.

For this UHD release, both English Dolby Atmos TrueHD 7.1 and English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 were used.  I thought they were both flawless, with the 2.0 track sounding a bit more aggressive, with a slightly stronger audio presence on my system. Dialogue was easy to follow and understand, with the background sounds of cars, explosions, gun shots and musical score by Mark Isham all were perfectly balanced and blended well together. No audio issues such as popping or crackling were detected. English subtitles are available for this release.

 The Hitcher also comes equipped with a few extras. There is a commentary track with director Robert Harmon and screenwriter Eric Red. This is from one of the German import DVD releases.

Bullseye, a new featurette is a 2024 interview with director Robert Harmon.

A theatrical trailer rounds out the extras.

For those who do love supplemental materials, this release does not contain every single extra that this movie has received on prior releases on DVD and other Blu-ray or UHD releases, so depending on how you feel about the movie and the extras that are out there, you might want to hold on to the other releases of The Hitcher.

I am aware that Second Sight also released The Hitcher on UHD, but I don’t have it to compare the audio and video quality. I do know there are more supplements and different packaging on the Second Sight release.  To me, the Warner Brothers UHD offers a more affordable option to those who really don’t need all the bells and whistles, such as the digibook packaging or other extras that the other release offers.

All in all, Warner has finally given The Hitcher a long-awaited release both on Blu-ray and UHD and is satisfactory. The UHD presentation in my opinion looks and sounds fantastic and can strongly recommend it!

The Hitcher

Director – Robert Harmon

Cast- Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Howell, Jennifer Jason Leigh

Country of Origin-USA

Distributor – Warner Brothers

Number of Discs –1

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date – 11/10/2024