Hitcher in the Dark

Rating:
Summary: Yes, it's that bad.
Review: Hitcher in the Dark (Umberto Lenzi, 1989)

Directed by Umberto Lenzi under the name Humphrey Humbert and produced by Joe D'Amato. I mean, come on, doesn't that just scream "Emmanuelle meets Cannibal Ferox" to you?

Keep screaming. It ain't even close.

A rich kid (Joe Balogh, who also worked with Lenzi in Black Demons) has his father's camper and is taking it down the coast. Along the way, he happens to be picking up hitchhikers and killing them. Until, that is, he meets Daniela (Josie Bissett in her screen debut) and becomes obsessed with her. Her boyfriend is following them, the cops are turning up bodies, and Daniela, of course, keeps spurning his advances...

By that synopsis, vague as it is, you may be wondering what all this has to do with the title. Nothing. It would have been like taking Henry V and calling it "Please Don't Eat the Daisies." Second, Joe Balogh may be the world's worst actor. (And even scarier, in the DVD extras, Lenzi says in an interview that Balogh was much more involved in his character here than he was in Black Demons-- THERE'S one to avoid!) His voice barely registers any emotion, and then only when he's angry. Bissett does well enough to have gotten her a career, but is the only highlight in the otherwise uniformly atrocious acting. The movie looks very dated, as well, from the hairstyles to the clothing to the godawfully cheesy music that wanted desperately to be a Goblin soundtrack. By the time you get to the two "bikers," you'll have already figured out this movie doesn't even rate as a cheesefest. Lenzi's carping that the production company changed the ending has nothing to do with the film's being bad. *

Rating:
Summary: Anybody read "The Collector"?
Review: This interesting film is rather difficult to review. It tells the story of an RV driving serial killer who picks up unsuspecting women and who also has some serious issues concerning his mother. The acting of the male lead is rather poor and rarely demonstrates why anyone would actually want to enter this guy's RV, let alone be anywhere near him. This is the main problem as only the most unobservant person would think this individual is safe to get a ride from. That said, the film works on a tension level as the viewer truly wants to see the main female character find a way out of the situation. The film borrows rather freely from John Fowles novel "The Collector" with many scenes being lifted almost exactly. The DVD contains an interview with the director, Umberto Lenzi, in which, no mention of this connection is made. In all, "Hitcher in the Dark" is worth seeing if you are a fan of Italian Giallo, the director, or early eighties fashions as they are in full display here. The DVD presentation is acceptable with only very mild color saturation issues at one point. The extras include the director interview and three trailers. One warning; do not watch the director interview before the film as he explains why the ending is so dumb and how it had originally ended, which is much better.