FIRST, an admission. This remake of the 1986 chiller made me jump.

A bloody hand suddenly coming out of the darkness and thumping on the window of the car at dead of night always does that to me.

But a couple of frights aren't sufficient justification for remixing the tale of terror concerning a mysterious hitchhiker who then gleefully proceeds to torment and torture the young couple who've failed to stop to pick him up.

Once again with a horror remake, there's nothng particularly wrong with the new version but you're left asking the question why?'. The only answer the film-makers can possibly put forward is the one that says "because we can".

It would help if the behaviour of the frightened young couple, Grace (Bush) and Jim (Knighton), being stalked by John Ryder (Bean) and his deadly form of road rage wasn't so downright stupid.

Faced with a crazed maniac dogging their every move, they always opt for the silliest course of action that puts them right back in the firing line.

Most damaging, Bean is no substitute for Rutger Hauer, the original Hitcher. Perhaps too many Morrisons voiceovers have robbed Bean of the ability to be evil.

Ryder is still no pussycat as he goes about making the lives of Grace and Jim a misery. But you never feel, in Bean's halfhearted display of menace, as if he's totally obsessed with destroying this couple - and that he's enjoying doing it.

At least director Dave Meyers keeps it short and delivers enough bloody carnage to satisfy lovers of gore and cheap thrills. But why, I wonder, has he opted not to reprise the famous severed finger in the chips scene? We're expecting it and feel cheated when it doesn't appear.

Sean Bean, Sophia Bush, Zachary Knighton, Neal McDonough
Running time: 90 mins
Rating: Three stars