Hitch Hike to Hell

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DarkImbecile
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Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 6:24 pm
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Hitch Hike to Hell

#1 Post by DarkImbecile » Mon Sep 09, 2019 3:14 pm

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Be careful who you hitch a ride with! All roads lead to terror in Hitch Hike to Hell, the delightfully sleazy cautionary tale from cult director Irvin Berwick (Malibu High, The Monster of Piedras Blancas).

Howard is a mild-mannered momma’s boy whose job running deliveries for a cleaning agency affords him a lot of time out on the road. It’s not until he picks up young women who’ve run away from home that he transforms into a twitching, homicidal maniac, hellbent on meting out punishment for their “transgressions”. Can the cops put a stop to Howard’s demented spree before he claims yet another victim?

Influenced by the depraved crimes of the likes of "Co-ed Killer" Edmund Kemper, Hitch Hike to Hell is a bona fide American nightmare from the vaults of legendary exploitation producer Harry Novak (The Child, Toys Are Not for Children).

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
  • Brand new 2K restoration from original film elements
  • 1.33 and 1.78 versions of the feature
  • High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
  • Original uncompressed mono audio
  • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • Newly-filmed appreciation by Nightmare USA author Stephen Thrower
  • Road to Nowhere: Hitchhiking Culture Goes to Hell - brand new video essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas exploring the dark side of hitch-hiking in the real world and on the screen
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • Original press book (BD-ROM Content)
  • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by The Twins of Evil
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Heather Drain

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zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Hitch Hike to Hell

#2 Post by zedz » Sun May 03, 2020 7:05 pm

Extremely amateurish production (there are ‘blows’ that don’t come within three feet of connecting) that nevertheless retains some thematic power because of how straightforward and brutal it is. It has a kind of weird PSA-gone-rancid vibe.

There’s a really great, unexpected extra on this: the interview with music industry veteran Nancy Adams, who sang the theme song (without seeing, or knowing too much about, the film). The interview has little to do with that dubious distinction, but she’s a delight. She was in the business for decades and worked with just about everybody. Possibly the most charming name-dropping I’ve come across!

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Boosmahn
Joined: Mon Sep 04, 2017 10:08 pm

Re: Hitch Hike to Hell

#3 Post by Boosmahn » Sat Aug 29, 2020 5:06 pm

This film forms a solid trilogy with two other '70s exploitation movies Arrow has released: Toys Are Not for Children and The Baby. Not only do all three feature truly demented endings, but they also have some (or most) of their foci on familial relations. Toys explores a relationship between a daughter and her father, The Baby dives into a little bit of everything, and this film touches on the mother-son bond.

Those who are enticed by the lurid one-sheet — featuring a police shoot-out, car chase, and two scantily-clad women — better prepare to be disappointed. As Heather Drain says in the included essay, this pessimistic film is all but a "one-way-ticket to trauma town."
SpoilerShow
In keeping with its downbeat tone, Hitch Hike to Hell's ending involves the main character attacking an 11-year-old girl. The actions are, of course, off-screen, but the film doesn't exactly obscure what happened. Among the three endings of the films, this one may by the bleakest, and that's saying quite a lot. (Additionally, the fact that the lead thinks the girls are his runaway sister as he rapes and murders them opens to the door to some sick interpretation.)
I was reminded of The Killing Kind by this film, as both stories feature smothered sons whose crimes are influenced by their mothers' attitudes (though the matriarch in The Killing Kind is far more overt in her suggestions).

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