The original 1986 version of The Hitcher, written by Eric Red, contrived a nerve-shredding game of cat and mouse between a driver and a psychotic drifter.

Rutger Hauer's riveting performance as the eponymous maniac and an unforgettable torture sequence with a truck elevated Robert Harmon's thriller to cult status.

More than 20 years later, Red returns to the desert highways with co-writers Jake Wade Wall and Eric Bernt for this pointless remake, directed by Dave Meyers. In its new incarnation, The Hitcher lacks the elements, which made the earlier film so engrossing: powerhouse performances, an intensely creepy bond between villain and prey, suffocating suspense and an eye-catching supporting turn from Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Instead, Meyers' blood-soaked road movie pits a witless young couple against the devilish hitchhiker, played here by Sean Bean, who lacks the menace of his predecessor (or indeed, a proper American accent).

To sustain our interest, the director shoehorns an overblown chase sequence into the second half, complete with the bad guy squaring off against four police cars and a helicopter.

The orgy of slow-motion crash, bang, wallop that follows confirms what we've known from the opening frames: the young couple are dead meat.

Meyers opens in traditional fashion with college lovebirds Jim Halsey (Zachary Knighton) and Grace Andrews (Sophia Bush) slipping excitedly into his 1970 Oldsmobile 442 as Move Along by The All American Rejects booms from the car stereo. As night falls and the rain belts down, Jim swerves to avoid a stranded motorist standing in the middle of the highway.

"Let's just go. I don't wanna pick up a stranger out here!" says Grace, sensibly.

The motorist, John Ryder (Sean Bean), eventually persuades Jim to give him a lift to a nearby motel. The Hitcher crunches through the gears, mimicking the premise of the 1986 film. Sadly, Meyers never hits the accelerator and the film cruises along at a leisurely pace for 84 minutes, with Bush's terrified heroine rapidly getting on our nerves as she snipes: "Nobody stops for strangers!", "You could have listened to me!" and other grating variations on a theme of "I told you so!"

Why bother?