Hitch-Hike

An obnoxious alcoholic and his long-suffering wife pick up a hitchhiker while driving through the middle of nowhere. Naturally, the hitchhiker turns out to be a bankrobber on the lam, who takes them hostage, forces them to drive him to Mexico, and is making bedroom eyes at the wife.

Hitch-Hike starts with a standard issue premise, but throws in enough unique wrinkles that you're never quite sure where it's going. It's a nice mix of crime, thriller and horror, with maybe a dash of western thrown in for good measure. I tend to prefer my Italian thrillers to be a little more stylish than this, which tries to go for a more gritty feel. There's 0% giallo in this one's DNA, so don't go in expecting anything too strange.

The performances are solid, and the story takes a few unexpected twists. At least one major character is dead much earlier than you'd expect. The final act veers into a completely new direction, with a dark ending. It's a little jarring at first, until you think back to the beginning of the film and realized it had been well set-up.

It's a solid little thriller for a low budget Italian movie pretending to be American, light on logic but helped by clever ideas and good lead performances.

Rating: B-