Hitch Hike to Hell (1977)

hyped garbage

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Well, no doubt about it that the fans of '70's exploitation will still really enjoy this movie. I know I did but I of course still can't call this a very good movie really.Everyhing about this movie is making it obvious that it had a very low budget. It's one of those movies that seemed to be shoot with only one camera, who every now and then switched positions to capture the other character's responses. The movie also being filled with some needlessly overlong sequences which just drag on. It also has some simple editing, simple directing and some simple acting. It's fair to say that this movie is not really very surprising in any way. Of course besides the movie has a pretty simple story in it, that relies purely on it's principal concept.It's a movie about a killer who picks up hitchhiking runaways and then goes completely berserk once he discovers that they had run away from home and do not love their mother. This is something that happened as well to the movie it's poor main characters. His sister had run away from home and his poor old mother, which he loves very much, has never got over this. As a sort of revenge for his mother this man kills these runaways.The concept itself isn't too bad really and I guess this is the only reason why the movie still works out within its genre. The movie is being pretty silly and lame at times, which also gets really due to its dialog and the actors performing. Most actors had very little experience before appearing in this movie and most actors had not appeared in very much ever since.Really for the genre fans only.4/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

A warped and demented mother's boy, Howard (Robert Gribbin) makes a habit of raping & killing various women hitchhikers. When the bodies mount up it's up to Captian Shaw of the Crescent P.D. (played by Russell Johnson, better known as the Proffesor from Gilligan's Island) to try to catch this deviant. The film is a tad on the tedious side (Howard picks up hitchhiker, rapes, kills, back to momma's for dinner, has flask backs to the murders, rinse & repeat) Of course interspersed with the Professor hamming it up.Their IS however one scene that deviates from the standard path that the movie sets up, it has a stereotypical flamboyant gay guy (aptly listed in the credits as 'gay boy') whom Howard picks up and is obviously used for misplaced comedic effect. Oh and a pregnancy sub-plot that comes out of nowhere and feels like it should be in a different movie completely, in this one it just felt like painful melodramatic filler. Given the subject matter and the fact that this is a low-budget exploitation movie, it's pretty tame going. For all it's faults (and there are a great many of them) the film isn't as bad as it is made out to be and i've seen worse. Russell Johnson himself makes the film watchable. If you lack a pretty high tolerance for these kind of low-budget films though I'd recommend that you steer clear.My Grade: C- Something Weird DVD Extras: 3 shorts: "the Hitch-Hiker", "Dangerous Strangers" & "the Cautious Twins"; A 27 minute tour of Box office International with Harry Novak circa 1992; Gallery of exploitation art with accompanying soundtrack (5 minutes, 19 seconds); Theatrical trailer; and 2 trailers for the other film on the DVD "Kidnapped Coeds" (one under it's alternative title of "Kidnapped Lover") Eye Candy: Jacqueline Poseley gets topless; Jane Ratliff shows brief nipple

*May Contain Spoilers*Nerdy Howard lives with his mother, drinks A&W Root Beer (blatant product placement here!), assembles model autos, drives a laundry van for a living--and rapes and kills hitch-hiking runaways he picks up along his route. Seems his sister was a runaway who broke Mommy's heart when she took off, which has turned Howard into a maniac. (Come to think of it, using model glue in a closed room probably didn't do his brain any good, either.) Howard slaps his victims around (with his hands visibly some distance from his victims' faces) and strangles them; the chokings, as in most movies, take about twenty seconds. The slayings are shown but the rapes aren't, making for an uncomfortable suggestion of necrophilia. Most of his victims are female but another of them is the sort of swishy, light-in-the-loafers man you won't see in movies today. Russell Johnson, dear to GILLIGAN'S ISLAND'S two dozen fans, appears as a police captain who tries to steer hitch-hikers out of harm's way and makes reference to The Zodiac Killer. The ending is another imitation of PSYCHO. Nancy Adams sings the not-too-bad theme song and the background score also turned up in Cronenberg's RABID. The director's son Wayne served as sound man and "harmonicist" on the theme. The film overall is no masterpiece but it's above average for a Harry Novak release and was made more professionally than I'd been led to expect. Now available on DVD along with KIDNAPPED (sic) CO-ED and a number of incredible short features, including a grand tour of Novak's headquarters.

considering the title(s) and the releasing company-this is a very sincere and definitely non-exploitative film. the quality of the acting is quite good for its low budget roots, and the points it tries to get across are above those roots. it is a very sad movie, no great revelations occur and there is no gladness at the end when the killer is put in the institution. and the theme song is one of my favorites. this is worth your while to see for what can be done with local talent and a low budget.