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Howard (Robert Gribbin) is a good boy. Sure, he's a bit slow, and
sometimes drives his boss (John Harmon) at the dry cleaners he works as a
delivery boy at a little bit crazy, but there's no ill will in it. And in
town, everybody loves him, and he loves them back. But on top of
everything, he truly loves his mum (Dorothy Bennett), even if she might be
slighty overbearing. He's also the proper nice guy who always gives
hitchhikers a ride, and there are plenty of hitchhikers in and around the
small town he lives in, as multiple highways cross there. There's just one
thing he doesn't like, and that's teenage runaways, since they're bound to
break their mothers' hearts. And there are plenty of teenage runaways
among the girls he picks up on the road - and when they start to rant
about their mums, Howard just loses it, and he kills the girls, often not
without raping them first. He usually forgets about these episodes
straight afterwards, but is plagued by glimpses of their demises. Police
Captain Shaw (Russell Johnson) and Lt. Davis (Randy Echols) are baffled by
these murders for sure, not only because Howard seems harmless as can be
and has no previous criminal record, thus no fingerprints on file, but
also because he hides out in the open - after all his dry cleaners van is
cruising the streets all hours of the day because of business, so much so
that it has become invisible. Things only heat up when an 11 year old girl
(Sheryl Lynn) goes missing, and the police get a report about her running
away before she's found dead - but while Howard isn't very good a
delivery boy, as psycho killer he's very efficient ... That Hitch
Hike to Hell was inspired by Hitchcock's Psycho
is rather obvious (up to the final, asylum-set scene), what with a
mild-mannered, reasonably attractive, mother-obsessed psycho-killer at the
center of both movies who manages to evade capture for the longest time
due to pure luck rather than design. But quality-wise this here film
doesn't even play in the same league as Hitchcock's masterpiece. That's
not to say Hitch Hike to Hell is a bad movie in its own right
though, it's an effective if a bit run-of-the-mill psycho thriller with
shocks, suspense and bits of nudity in all the right places, with a
mounting feel of unease the longer it goes on. And it's carried by strong
enough performances to make this work for sure. And of course, from
today's point of view, it's an almost irresistible trip down memory lane
for all genre lovers out there, and thus well worth a look!
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