American musician-songwriter turned writer-director Kurt
Voss, best known for his work as the guitarist and songwriter for Hindi Guns
as well as the director of Sugar Town, Down and Out with the
Dolls and Horseplayer, churned out a number of rock-oriented films with
frequent collaborator Allison Anders including Border Radio recently
released through the Criterion Collection.
Also a writer on the Will Smith film Where
the Day Takes You and the writer-director behind the Alyssa Milano and
Ice-T actioner Below Utopia and Jaime Pressley’s straight-to-video
erotica debut Poison Ivy: The New Seduction, Voss was proving himself to
be a jack of all trades frequently enmeshed in the American film industry but
still operating under the radar.
Which brings us to the MVD Marquee Collection DVD release of
his 1998 neo-noir action thriller Highway Hitcher or according to the
original working title The Pass starring William Forsythe, James Le
Gros, Elizabeth Peña, Nancy Allen, Jamie Kennedy and even Michael McKean that’s
equal parts Duel, The Hitcher and just a little hint of Lost
Highway. Film Noir in the classical
sense, this cat-and-mouse game thriller zeroes in on Charles Duprey, a wealthy
businessman selling comic strips to newspapers frittering away his savings on
his gambling addition which drives his wife Shirley (Nancy Allen) away from
him.
Eager to blow off some steam ala
some more gambling, he ventures out alone to Reno, Nevada when he sees a broken-down
car with a bearded ruffian named Hunter (James Le Gros) asking for a ride to
the next town. Unbeknownst to Charles’
good Samaritanism, the hitchhiker is actually psychotic and makes it readily
apparent he intends to kill him.
Moreover, the guy might not just be some random encounter but rather
paid off by someone close to Charles’ life.
A taut little violent and tense neo-noir filled with
mercurial mercenary characters harboring killer instincts, Kurt Voss’ small,
lean and mean indie while plainly borrowing elements from numerous films before
it still manages to fulfill the obligations of the Film Noir tropes. From the jazzy score that eventually turns
threatening by Vinny Golia, drifting in and out of noir and horror with the
same level of darkness that greeted Oliver Stone’s U-Turn to Denis
Maloney’s moody cinematography presented open matted in 1.33:1 on the DVD, Highway
Hitcher or The Pass depending on where you buy and/or watch the film
looks and sounds solid.
Featuring a cast
not just consisting of notable actors including William Forsythe from Rob
Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects as a nebbish dandy forced to confront his
own killer instinct, a wonderfully nutty James Le Gros, John Doe from X in
an unexpected cameo and the late Elizabeth Peña makes a wonderfully world worn
local junkie ready to ensnare the film’s antihero into her spider web.
Though it didn’t make much of splash with audiences or
critics due to derivation and little to no promotion, getting a miniscule
theatrical run before being dumped on home video amid shifting title changes, Highway
Hitcher aka The Pass for what its worth still manages to pack in a
satisfying little cat-and-mouse game thriller set in the American Midwest with
a sizable cast.
Ostensibly a Friday
night renter that got lost in the shuffle before being picked back up hastily
by the MVD Marquee Collection, the DVD while scant on extras (only including a
trailer) and in fullscreen will still turn over a decent modern low budget film
noir that finds room to pack some unforeseen pulpy punches. Not the first choice for Kurt Voss’
filmography considering the pedigree of his other works, but as a noir venture
it got the job done.
--Andrew Kotwicki