Robert Gribbin stars as Howard, a dry cleaning delivery van driver and pampered mama's boy who goes over the deep end in this violent exploitation thriller. Howard is mild-mannered and slightly simple-minded, with a habit of picking up teenage hitchhikers while driving his delivery routes. Sometimes the girls admit to being runaways, and if they claim to hate their mothers it drives Howard into a violent frenzy; his sister ran away from home years ago and was never heard from again, causing his desperate, addled mother to tighten her hold on him. Howard never remembers raping his victims or strangling them with wire coat hangers, though his boss does notice missed deliveries and late arrivals. He becomes increasingly careless during these violent fits, strewing clues that the police are unable to piece together. The crime spree is investigated by Captain Shaw (Russell Johnson), who hopes that this "mental case" doesn't turn out to be another Zodiac Killer. Howard starts feeling sick and uneasy but can't understand why, suffering nightmares and headaches. His job is in jeopardy and the stress overwhelms him, so when he picks up an 11-year-old girl alone on the interstate, he makes a final mistake. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
Review
Sensitive viewers may find the blunt nastiness of Hitchhike to Hell too much to take, while the hardy few with extreme tastes will consider it a sick, tacky masterpiece. Making up for clumsy execution with nihilistic bombast, director Irvin Berwick drags his cast through a grimy, repetitious film that doesn't change the serial killer formula much, but certainly pushes the pitch into the red. The film is detailed in its violence and doesn't lack for topless victims, and though the rape scenes are implied, they're unmistakable and brutal. Aside from the teenage hitchers, who are nubile, sexually willing, and ignorant, nearly every other character looks tired, insane, or spiritually beaten. In a brief subplot, one policeman is so affected by the violence of the world that he reacts with dismay when his wife announces her pregnancy. Robert Gribbin's turn as the nebbishy psycho is intense, but also overblown enough to satisfy as comic. In his role as a dedicated cop, Russell Johnson (who everyone will recognize as the Professor from Gilligan's Island) has little to do other than give impassioned speeches on bad parenting and wring his hands over the latest dead teenager. Hitchhike to Hell concludes with a nicely anti-climactic finale, providing the first possible hint of realism in an otherwise tawdry and exploitative feature, though the lack of an exciting shootout or car chase at the end is probably due more to budget constraint than a desire for accuracy. Thanks to the generally bad performances, a primitive synthesizer score, mechanical plot structure, and unflinching cruelty, Hitchhike to Hell should be greasy entertainment for junk film fans with strong stomachs. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
