HITCH
HIKE (1978)Director: Pasquale Festa Campanile
Anchor Bay Entertainment
HITCH
HIKE (1978)Six years after starring in the infamous LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, David Hess became a Eurocult superstar by appearing in a handful of Italian genre films. His two most noteworthy films of this time period, HITCH-HIKE and HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK, have been plagued by censors for years. Anchor Bay unleashed their DVD of HITCH-HIKE, completely uncut, to a crowd of anxious fans and those wondering if the DVD measures up to expectations have nothing to fear.
Franco Nero is Walter, an alcoholic
reporter who is traveling cross-country with his sultry wife Eve (Corinne Clery
looking like 'Doris Finsecker' from FAME). Their marriage is 
crumbling,
burdened by drink and rape, and there seems to be no end in sight for their
misery. Enter Adam (David Hess), a frizzy-haired hitchhiker that the couple
pick up on the side of the road. There are signs he's not all he seems to be
when he comes onto Eve with some porno speak. After a tussle with Walter, he
whips out a gun and the road trip transforms from a headache into a nightmare.
To
give away anymore of the plot would be rather criminal, as HITCH-HIKE is a film
that is best to see with as little knowledge of the proceedings as possible.
Jam-packed with sleaze, sex, and some incredible violence (all intact, including
a previously censored bullet to the head), HITCH-HIKE also includes some undeniable
tension generated by dead-on performances from all three leads. Nero is more
animated than his usual restrained roles and Clery, besides dropping her clothes
in every other scene, seems to understand her character very well. Eve isn't
some unhappy housewife who bitches all the time, she's a woman who has fallen
out of love with her husband and searches for an escape from her dreary existence.
And nothing more needs to be said about Hess but that he is simply off-the-wall
and even 
more
psychotic than he was in Craven's classic! Still, HITCH-HIKE does feature a
soundtrack that wears out its welcome rather fast, some pretty stupid dialogue,
and Hess' consistent profanity becomes laughable after he uses "fuck"
as every other word. Eagle-eyed Eurocult perverts will notice Monica Zanchi
(EMANUELLE AND THE LAST CANNIBALS) as the young girl having sex at the campsite
early in the film.
Anchor
Bay's DVD looks simply wonderful. But it is still plagued by problems that I've
noticed in all their recent discs. Letterboxed at 1.85:1 and 16x9 enhanced,
blacks are solid for the most part, but then display greenish hues and heavy
pixellation in dark scenes (of which there are many in HITCH- HIKE). Audio is
a very strong mono, accurately balancing music and dialogue.
The extras should please fans
and newcomers to the film. There is the standard theatrical trailer 
(which
is surprisingly spoiler-free) and a featurette with a spoiler disclaimer proceeding
it. David Hess, Franco Nero, and Corinne Clery were tracked down by documentary
experts Blue Underground for interviews, and all three have varying different
accounts of the making of the film. Most interesting is Hess insisting Nero
broke his nose in their big fight scene, while Nero denys that any real harm
was done. Clery and Nero both seemed to think they had control over the other
on the set, which is made even funnier by Blue Underground's editing (which
is 
excellent
throughout the featurette). In addition to these gems of discussion, Hess calls
HITCH-HIKE his favorite "psycho" film and both Clery and Hess give
hilarious accounts of the fireside sex scene.
2002 is the year for David Hess. With HITCH- HIKE's release, an August 27 street date for LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, a slated November release of HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK, and controversy raging over MGM's SWAMP THING DVD, Hess is ripe for re-appraisal as an actor and as a film icon. (Casey Scott)