THE HITCHER II: I'VE BEEN WAITING

Jim Halsey, recently fired from his job in the police force, is still haunted by the memory of the psychopathic hitchhiker who tried to kill him years before. He decides to confront his fears by retracing, by car and with his girlfriend Maggie, those long and isolated roads of the western Texas where the unforgettable encounter with hitchhiker John Ryder took place in the past. But Jim doesn't know that another psychopathic hitchhiker is waiting for him on those roads, who doesn't take long to target Jim and his girlfriend Maggie, reenacting the terrible "game" started years before by John Ryder. It was the year 1986 when "The Hitcher" hit the big screen, directed by Robert Harmon ("They - Incubus from the World of Shadows", "Highwayman"), a film that told the story of a young man who did not respect the rule "don't talk to strangers" to the point of giving a ride to a tired and disheveled hitchhiker who was none other than a psychopath ready to ruin the boy's life and those around him. The film, although not particularly enthusiastic, became over time a small cult that was remembered above all for the splendid performance of Rutger Hauer as the psychopathic hitchhiker John Ryder. For years, "The Hitcher" remained a single film and strangely no sequel was ever attributed to it, although many copied its form; seventeen years later, in 2003, it was finally decided to make a sequel to that small cult of 1986, a sequel that did not reach the levels of the first film at all and was destined to receive a miserable distribution for the home video market only, but which, in any case, managed to distance itself from the mass of bad products released for the sole purpose of rental commerce, resulting in a somewhat useless but still enjoyable and entertaining product. The story of this "The Hitcher 2 - I Was Waiting for You..." does not stray much from the plot of the first film: the viewer is once again forced to see the young Jim (who this time is not so young), accompanied this time by his girlfriend Maggie, having to flee the murderous fury of a new hitchhiker who acts similarly to John Ryder, persecuting and trying in every way to frame the young couple by making them bear the blame for the crimes committed. The story, therefore, does not stray at all from the first film, resulting almost like a sort of remake of the first chapter rather than a real sequel. The screenplay appears not very professional; in fact, the work is filled with several holes that would have been appropriate to fill; one of them is due to the fact that the connection between the new hitchhiker and Jim is absolutely not clarified and why he chooses Jim precisely as a pawn in his sadistic game. Will he perhaps have family ties with the old hitchhiker John Ryder? However, despite various inaccuracies, the screenplay seems quite frantic and engaging; while the direction, this time entrusted to Louis Morneau ("Carnosaur 2", "Bats"), does not turn out to be very relevant. In the cast, we find the same C. Thomas Howell once again as Jim; Kari Wuhrer ("Anaconda") as Maggie; while in the role of the psychopathic hitchhiker we find the actor with the dazzling smile Jake Busey ("Suspension of Disbelief", "Starship Troopers") who, unlike what Rutger Hauer managed to do in Harmon's film, is not always suitable for the role, as he offers us continuous off-topic jokes and constantly assumes a clownish attitude that does not suit the character and the atmosphere of the entire film. In conclusion, this "The Hitcher 2 - I Was Waiting for You..." is a film of little use, there was no need to release a sequel to the '86 film after so many years, but nevertheless, overlooking that, it turns out to be a smooth, entertaining film that distances itself quite a bit from the standard bad product for home video.