Hitch Hike to Hell

1977

1h 28m

IMDb RATING

5.2/10

YOUR RATING

Rate

POPULARITY

Play trailer

1 Video

6 Images

Crime

Mystery

Howard is mild-mannered and slightly simple-minded, with a habit of picking up teenage hitchhikers while driving his delivery routes. Sometimes the girls admit to being runaways, and if they claim to hate their mothers it drives Howard into a violent frenzy; his sister ran away from home years ago and was never heard from again, causing his desperate, addled mother to tighten her hold on him. Howard never remembers raping his victims or strangling them with wire coat hangers, though his boss does notice missed deliveries and late arrivals.

Directors

Irvin Berwick

Writers

John Buckley(screenplay by)

Stars

Robert Gribbin

Russell Johnson

Dorothy Bennett

See production, box office & company info

Videos1

Trailer
Watch Hitch Hike to Hell (1983) ORIGINAL TRAILER [HD]

Photos6

Top cast

Howard Martin

Captain J.W. Shaw

Mrs. Martin

Mr. Baldwin

Lt. Davis

Mrs. Burke

Evelyn Davis

Lisa

Mr. Burke

Sharon

Pam

Gail

Gay Boy

Directors

Irvin Berwick

Writers

John Buckley(screenplay by)

All cast & crew

Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

User reviews1

Review

Featured review

**_Simple-but-effective tale about a mentally ill mama’s boy preying on hitchhikers_** As female runaways turn up dead in a town of Greater Los Angeles, the chief of police and his partner (Russell Johnson and Randy Echols) zero-in on an unassuming delivery man for a laundry cleaning business (Robert Gribbin). "Hitch Hike to Hell" (1977) is a ‘B’ flick with a simple story and prosaic delivery featuring an antagonist reminiscent of Clark Kent and the police chief played by The Professor from Gilligan’s Island. Speaking of whom, the captain makes a reference to three serial killers that were popular at the time: The Zodiac Killer in San Francisco (who has never been identified), The Skid Row Slasher in Los Angeles (who turned out to be Vaughan Greenwood) and The Houston Mass Murderer, Dean Corll. Yet, the movie is actually loosely based on Edmund Kemper, The Co-ed Killer whose victims in 1972-1973 were six female students hitchhiking in the vicinity of Santa Cruz County, which is an hour’s drive south of San Francisco. The movie was originally advertised as a fun Crown International hot-chicks-and-cars flick, but it’s nothing of the kind. Despite its modest budget and pedestrian technique, it’s a serious take on a psychologically messed-up serial killer in which sympathy is worked up for the murderer. Don’t get me wrong, there’s no excuse for what Ed Kemper did in real-life or what the fictitious killer does here, but it all comes down to the consequences of serious mental-spiritual illness, not to mention a questionable relationship with one’s mother. The tone is similar to “Targets” meshed with “The Toolbox Murders.” While it’s easy to look down on these kinds of films, there are some well-done parts here that are respectable and even moving, such as the lieutenant’s hesitancy about bringing children into a world where such wicked things happen. Then there’s the climatic depiction of the shock/grief of the girl’s mother, which is actually moving. Russell Johnson’s role in Gilligan’s Island ended a decade before this, but he looks basically the same, just slightly older. It runs 1 hour, 28 minutes, and was shot in Encino, Los Angeles, which is located 7-12 miles west of the iconic Hollywood Sign. GRADE: B-

Wuchak17 Nov, 2024