Fans of horror and thriller films are probably familiar with The Hitcher, a 2007 title directed by Dave Meyers and starring Sean Bean, Sophia Bush, and Zachary Knighton. The plot of the movie isn’t particularly complicated, as there is no too much mystery involved, but the action never rests and the fear factor is the great moving force behind The Hitcher.
This isn’t the film for everybody, and The Hitcher wasn’t exactly praised by the critics, primarily because of the lacking suspense. It abounds in gore and torture scenes, but not much else, which usually means a fairly narrow audience it would appeal to.
Hitchhiking on the Reels
Given these facts, it is fair to say The Hitcher wasn’t a huge success outside a relatively small circle of the fans of the gore genre. This means that a sequel probably wouldn’t be a good idea because it couldn’t expect to fare much better than the first part or it would have to diverge too much from the original. Neither option seems too appealing.
However, this doesn’t mean The Hitcher couldn’t find a new life in the entirely different format. We’ve been witnessing an interesting trend lately, where numerous Hollywood titles are being turned into casino slots by big game development companies like NetEnt, Microgaming, Play’n GO, and others.
Some of these slots have really provided many once-popular (and less popular) titles with a whole new life, bringing them back on the grid. Using familiar themes, stories, and characters, casino game developers count on nostalgia of some players, whose enthusiasm for the games could (and often does) transfer to the rest.
Job for Microgaming
If we’re talking about The Hitcher slot, this is clearly a job for Microgaming. The company doesn’t just have a lot of experience with branded slots but are actually quite familiar with the horror genre. For those who don’t know, Microgaming has recently released the Halloween slot based on the 1978 movie classic. The game proved to be a huge success, especially because it was featured on many online casinos promoting no deposit slots.
Microgaming could do equally good job with The Hitcher. Although the film can hardly be compared to the cult classic such as Halloween, there is no reason the casino slot couldn’t be equally as exciting, if not more.
The Hitcher story certainly offers plenty of good elements company game designers could turn into a slot filled with gory effects and suspenseful bonus features, all accompanied by soundtracks used in the original film.
Given the film’s plot, perhaps Microgaming could consider making The Hitcher a 1,024-ways to win game instead of using traditional paylines. Since a lot of the movie takes place on the road, having large or even expanding reels would make a lot of sense. Additionally, it would play along nicely with current market tendencies, where these slots with plenty of ways to win seem to dominate.
Of course, whatever Microgaming (or any other company) would decide to do, the odds are we’d end up with an exciting and suspenseful slot. These are just some suggestions if any casino game developer happens to stumble upon this article.