Director: Dave Meyers, 18, 83min

Stars: Sean Bean, Zachary Knighton, Sophia Bush

On general release

The strangest thing about this remake of the 1986 Rutger Hauer and C. Thomas Howell horror-on-the-road movie is that its villain doesn’t actually hitch a ride from the hero. Instead, a nameless thug (Bean) pesters Jim Halsey (Knighton) at a gas station and guilt trips the young man into giving him a lift – then proceeds to terrorise him and his girlfriend (Bush).

Obviously, The Pesterer would be a less impressive title but it would be far more apt for this irritating enterprise. On its own terms the new Hitcher is a competent thriller, but it is weaker than the original in every single respect. It drifts through a full reel of plot setting before doling out the shocks at regular intervals as the nightmarish situation moves ever more beyond the bounds of credible plotting.

Like almost all these remakes of video nasty-era horrors, this film skims through the story, spotlights pretty people in distress, and never pauses to let anything like real dread creep in among the jolts.

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