13 Scariest Horror Movie Moments, #8
#8: Nash Meets Her Doom in The Hitcher
Poor Jim Halsey. All he wants to do is take a cross-country road trip, an adventure every lad should have at least once in his life.
Bored and lonely, one dark, rainy night, he picks up a hitchhiker even though he knows he shouldn’t and his mother told him to never do that. Sometimes, boys, you just gotta listen to your mamas.
This is a lovely study in mood and atmosphere, with an ever-present sense of dread that does not let up; the viewer in this way is forced into Jim’s nightmare. After revealing the fate suffered by the last guy who picked him up, John Ryder (The Hitcher) is forced out of the car by a terrified Jim. But alas, the crazy dude is always one step ahead…
C. Thomas Howell’s wide-eyed everyman performance as the ill-fated Jim grounds the picture, and makes the spectral-like presence of The Hitcher that much creepier. Notable scenes abound in this much-adored flick, most famous being the notorious finger-as-french-fry moment.
But as usual, it’s the other stuff that bugged me more. There’s one moment, when a nice girl named Nash, the only one who believes that Jim’s life is in danger and tries to help, is captured by the killer and forced into a no-win situation that Jim must witness.
The violence and gore is so extreme here that the scene is almost out of place in this film of a more subtle, psychological terror, and that may account for the jarring effect. Seeing Nash tied between two huge vehicles, knowing how she is going to die, aware and suffering the entire time, with no way out, is sickening.
In fact, many years later the TV show ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ would ‘kill’ the Buffy-Bot in a similar fashion, and I couldn’t stand to watch it. And that was only a robot!
The guts aren’t shown here, and it’s not necessary; the sound of tires and screaming is enough to set off the worst in your imagination.
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