Episode 4 – The Horror Double Bill: And Soon the Darkness (1970) & The Hitcher (1986)

In this episode of The Horror Double Bill, we explore two chilling roadbound nightmares that turn travel into terror. First, we examine And Soon the Darkness (1970), a sun-drenched British thriller where isolation in the French countryside gives way to dread. Then, we dive into The Hitcher (1986), a haunting, nihilistic American horror-thriller in which a lone driver picks up far more than he bargained for on the open road.

Both films use beautiful yet empty landscapes to generate feelings of isolation, and in this episode we discuss the use of space, cinematography, casting, and production stories, as well as the original critical reception and later re-evaluation of both films.

sources used for this episode:

And Soon the Darkness

StudioCanal Blu-ray (2021 edition):
https://www.studiocanal.com/

British Film Institute (BFI):
https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/and-soon-darkness-daylight-thriller

Little White Lies retrospective:
https://lwlies.com/articles/and-soon-the-darkness-1970-retrospective/

Film Stories article:
https://filmstories.co.uk/features/and-soon-the-darkness-1970-british-thriller/

Hammer and Beyond blog:
https://hammerandbeyond.blogspot.com/2012/06/and-soon-darkness-1970.html

Newspaper archives: The Guardian, The Times, The New York Times,

The Hitcher

The Hitcher (1986) – Second Sight Films 4K UHD Blu-ray Special Features (2024) : Interviews with Robert Harmon, Eric Red, C. Thomas Howell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mark Isham, and John Seale:

https://secondsightfilms.co.uk/

"The Hitcher - How do these films get made" - feature included in the Momentum special edition DVD release.

Chris Broughton, “How we made chiller classic The Hitcher,” The Guardian, Oct 7, 2024:
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/oct/07/rutger-hauer-chiller-classic-the-hitcher-thomas-howell

Roger Ebert, “The Hitcher,” Chicago Sun-Times review, 1986
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-hitcher-1986#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20Hitcher%E2%80%9D%20grants%20the%20Hauer,movie%20is%20diseased%20and%20corrupt.

Newsweek review by Jack Kroll (quoted in Los Angeles Times, 1986)
Daily Variety & The Hollywood Reporter reviews (1986), quoted in Los Angeles Times

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-02-23-ca-10847-story.html

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