10 Spine-Chilling Horror Movies Set In The Desert
3. The Hitcher
Rutger Hauer delivers a truly chilling performance as the titular Hitcher, as directed by Robert Harmon in 1986. Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) is driving through the desert when he encounters John Ryder (Hauer), hitching a ride at the side of the road. After stopping to pick the man up, Halsey quickly comes to realise that there's something sinister about John Ryder.
Halsey escapes their initial encounter with his life, but has unknowingly kick-started a series of terrifying road games which will claim a great deal more lives before the day is out...
Rarely has Hauer been more intimidating than he is as John Ryder - part Terminator, part slasher villain. Relentlessly toying with poor Halsey, Ryder's unknowability and lack of a clear motive makes him one of the most unsettling villains ever created. Murdering his way through families, police officers and (in the movie's most upsetting sequence) even Jim's love interest, all just for fun. Ryder is a terrifying force of nature.