10 Best Horror Movie Villains With Absolutely No Motive
5. John Ryder - The Hitcher (1986)
While driving through the desert, Jim (C. Thomas Howell) decides to pick up a lone hitchhiker at the side of the road. This is John (played by a delightfully menacing Rutger Hauer), and this turns out to be the biggest mistake of Jim’s life.
It’s not long into their journey when John shows Jim his true colours. Forcing his foot down on the accelerator, they speed past an abandoned car which John admits to having dismembered and decapitated the driver and threatens to do the same to Jim. Though he manages to push the hitchhiker out of the car, Jim's nightmare has only just begun.
He can’t seem to shake John from his tail. He’s always just behind him and always trying to kill him along with every other unfortunate person in John's path.
Despite Jim pleading for an explanation to why he’s being targeted, he’s only ever given vague answers like “I want you to stop me” and “You’re a smart kid. You’ll figure it out.”
Whether this murderous passenger wanted to go out in excessive, murderous style or if he was a sadist on a road trip, it’s the titular hitcher’s lack of humanity that makes him so threatening.