Look, somewhere in the back of my mind I realize that this kind of crap just isn't supposed to make sense. I realize that the filmmakers simply don't sit around looking at the logic of their story and asking themselves whether their audience is going to believe what's going on. Fine. I get it.

The thing is, it's just not that damn hard. A menacing hitchhiker doesn't have to pull out a knife in the first thirty seconds of getting in a car with some dumb couple to be scary. All he really has to do is keep reappearing in places he shouldn't be. That, itself, is scary. But within like thirty seconds, John Ryder (Sean Bean) has pulled out a knife and is threatening Grace (Sophia Bush) while Jim (Zachary Knighton) drives. So basically that's as scary as the movie gets. Clearly the director, Dave Meyers, has no idea what he's doing and doesn't understand that fear is better when it's built up.

The next supposedly scary scene shows Ryder in the back of a station wagon playing with a kid. Now, obviously the people in this family have not only given Ryder a ride, they've allowed a complete stranger to play with their four-year-old in the back of the car. What kind of family picks up a freaky looking, large male hitchhiker anyway? Oh, I know, it's the super-Christian family with the "Jesus Saves" bumper sticker.

Look, I am certainly not Mr. Pro-Christian, but what is the point of making that family religious? So they can get what they deserve? It doesn't make sense anyway since those kind of families are some of the most paranoid around. They just don't go picking up hitchhikers.

There's the basis for a half-decent film here, but neither the director nor the screenwriters make any effort, and they clearly don't understand anything about horror movies or what makes a good film or how to tell a story or the importance of character development. Having said all this, it's probably not surprising that Meyers is best known for his music videos.

Please, Dave, stay in the music video business.