Customer Reviews

The Hitchhiker, Vol. 2

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4 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(4)

 

 

When The Hitchhiker came on in the 80's i was totally hooked on this tv show!!!!! It's cool that it came out on two volumes on dvd so that way you can relive all those classic horror tales!!!!! What made it creepy was the music and the stories and it had a great cast to play the parts in the stories so go and get them in your collection now!!!!!

Up until recently I never knew of "The Hitchhiker" and I was a little disappointed in myself for not know about this fantastic series sooner. I am a huge fan of horror/mystery/sci-fi anthologies (TFTC and TFTDS are my 2 favorites). "The Hitchhiker" is a fantastic addition to this genre. Included on this 2-disc set are a total of 10 eps (5 eps per disc) that were first broadcast on Home Box during the golden era of the horror anthology series.

These are some of the best eps from this set:

Perfect Order / February 17, 1987 - Will a model do anything it takes to pose for one of the world's most eccentric photographers?

Cabin Fever / May 12, 1987 - The tables are turned when a young man goes to work on a houseboat.

Out of the Night / October 29, 1985 - A man wonders aimlessly searching for something or someone and along the way he finds out a startling secret.

Secret Ingredient / May 5, 1987 - A glib salesman gets his comeuppance when he finds out that all isn't what it appears. (This is my favorite ep from the set.)

The storylines and themes do not revolve around a hitchhiker, rather it was narrated/hosted by Page Fletcher (The Hitchhiker) who had the tightest jeans in Hollywood. He always opened and closed each ep, sorta like the Crypt Keeper (but not nearly as funny).

The set is closed captioned, includes subtitles and includes audio commentary for 3 of the eps by one of the directors and Harry Hamlin who was in one of the eps. By the way, I posted a pic of the 2 discs and the insert.

I would like to see more DVD sets of this series (including some complete season sets) come out as I am sure many fans would just gobble them up. Or at the very least Home Box could provide some eps to YT or even Crackle or FearNet. I realize many eps are available through other channels but in twenty-eleven many consumers do not use a computer as their primary streaming method anymore and can only access what their blu-rays provide.

Get "The Hitchhiker" Vol. 2 and experience macabre, terror, excitement and lots of overdone '80s acting.

It was a modest set of shows, and I had modest enjoyment watching (some of) them. However, the failure to present entire seasons, and the abominable quality of the transfers (they look like VHS tapes burned to DVD) lowers my rating, a lot. If HBO still owns the rights, and I realize they might not, it would be the decent thing to make these available, in proper fashion, to their loyal viewers. Of course, I'm still waiting for the rest of Dream On. and Long Gone. and the final conflagration of Deadwood. and so on.

The Hitchhiker began on HBO, but was eventually sold to USA network. The series focused on story lines that, while violent, could often be explained through reason and science rather than the supernatural. Although the third season had a truly great episode ("Nightshift," which is not featured on this compilation), the series was still lackluster at best. I still find it entertaining, but I'd be remiss to call it a "good" show. It was often confusing and/or terrible. The episode on this compilation entitled "O.D. Feelin'," for example, is more like a morality play put on by a high school drama club than a professionally-produced TV show. Surprisingly, both Gene Simmons (as "Mr. Big" the least original character name in history) and Sandra Bernhard (with a lousy voice-over dubbed to make her character more convincing as a man) appear in "O.D. Feelin'."
When making these DVD compilations, the producers seem to have chosen the shows based on star power (I use the term loosely, most of the more prominent "stars" from this series are B-listers who gained small amounts of fame after appearing on The Hitchhiker) rather than quality. I have watched volumes one through three, and as a true fan of anthology horror, I found only one episode to be on the same level as, say, Tales From the Crypt, or even Tales from the Darkside (which had MANY bad episodes)--or even The Ray Bradbury Theater. The Hitchhiker is not great, but its shortcomings are further compounded because this compilation features some of its worst moments.

This is by far the worst of this series. I own all three volumes, which one and three are good. Some of the storylines did not make much sense and were quite boring. Everyone's taste is different, so this may appeal to some. For me, I could have saved my money. I am glad I paid $8.95 instead of over $20.00 for this not so good volume.

Bleah. I never caught this back when it was on HBO, and I'm glad. It's terrible. I couldn't get through two whole episodes. They call these tales of terror. What's terrible is that this ever got put on DVD. Don't bother picking this title up. It's cheesy and not terrifying at all. Maybe really late at night back in the 80's. But probably not even then.