The Hitchhiker - Nightshift

Nightshift will certainly grab horror anthology fans I believe for the names in the cast, if not just for the catchy title. Something like “Nightshift” has that kind of attachment of something dark, lurid, or dangerous. Add two nasty villains (Kidder and McHattie) and this “ancient menace” (McGavin), along with the elderly of a retirement home preyed upon, and this seems like midnight cult television royalty. Well, it isn’t anything particularly extraordinary mainly because it doesn’t contain a single surprise. McGavin is basically a vampire, Kidder the cold-blooded nurse assigned to help those under her care not doing a very good job, and McHattie arrives on call to receive stolen jewelry from the elderly snatched by Kidder for him. We see McHattie and Kidder make out, McHattie talk to his contacts (he owes somebody some dough), and the two of them making attempts to pull away a red-gem signet ring from the finger of McGavin. Eventually the old folks assist McGavin in trapping Kidder before she becomes a supplier of life to the vampire. McGavin’s made up with quite the cadaverous look. The lighting really goes for that “in the dead of night something bad’s about to happen” aesthetic. And Kidder is full on nihilistic, abusive in this sociopathic manner that hides any form of moral compass. She’s a real piece of work. Before long she’s unable to get away from her inevitable peril, and McGavin is as monstrous an old-timer as you could ask for. McGavin, in fact, can be both docile and seemingly harmless and on a dime ferocious. Nothing new, but I can’t say it is a total waste. It just has too much talent to be a completely forgotten item of midnight horror. This is the kind of episode that probably would have scared me as a kid (I would have been around six at this time), but is more or less similar to any number of films and television dealing with vampires, rotten nurses, and petty thieves.

My review from July, 2012...

It was really only coincidence that I had just watched Kolchak, the

Night Stalker before checking out this episode of "The Hitchhiker", an

HBO anthology series in the vein of The Twilight Zone, even having an

enigmatic hitchhiker introducing the tales like Rod Serling. Darren

McGavin never speaks which is odd because he's a delight in the right

role, but in an odd change, he's a menace (!), an old, unidentified man

found lying in the rubble of a collapsed building, wearing a signet

ring that attracts loathsome nursing home nurse, Jane Reynolds (Margot

Kidder, expert at playing a nasty bitch, here portraying an abusive

night shift nurse who enjoys victimizing her patients), typically

taking prized jewelry from the elderly patients, giving them to her

beau, Johnny (Stephen McHattie; Pontypool), a no-good hustler who owes

debts, never keeping them. Jane is such a hissable heel, you will revel

when she gets her just desserts. There's nothing spectacular here, but

the principles play their roles well, even if Kidder and McHattie's are

basically caricatures. Hearing McGavin breathing heavily, as if a

fire-breathing dragon sleeping until the right time before he will

awaken to destroy, is just so unusual; I think this will be enough to

warrant a viewing of this rather insignificant episode, "Nightshift".

The old age make-up on McGavin is painfully obvious because director

Phillip Noyce (Salt; Patriot Games) shoots a bit too close in certain

scenes showing him sleeping seemingly deeply. Margot pretty much plays

Jane one way: a wretched soul who gets what's coming to her. McHattie

summons easily the vile petty thief always looking for another score.

How the elders respond when their tyrant is put in her place is quite

satisfying considering how poorly they were treated.