The 1986 classic The Hitcher celebrated its 35th anniversary last year, and fans are finally getting a brand new 4k and Blu-ray release to celebrate. Second Sight Films, who has recently brought other classic movies into the 21st century, such as George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, announced last year that The Hitcher would be joining their list of upcoming Blu-ray releases. The film’s writer Eric Red also teased the upcoming upgrade, but at the time, it was revealed that due to circumstances – which essentially came down to the inability to obtain the original negative of the movie – a 4K restoration would not be possible. It looks like that has changed, and fans will get the full upgrade the film deserves.

Second Sight updated their announcement to reveal that they had succeeded in tracking down the original camera negative of the movie and are moving ahead with a 4K version. The announcement via the Second Sight Twitter account: “Happy New Year everyone! And to kick of 2022 some very exciting news on THE HITCHER! We’ve tracked down the negative!! 😁 Thanks to Warner’s archive team for allowing us access, we will be doing a full restoration for 4K/Blu-ray release later this year.”

The UK-based company usually releases their Blu-ray products tied to European region coding, but their 4K versions have previously all been Region Free, which will be good news for U.S. fans of the thriller. There is no word on when exactly the release will happen, but knowing it is coming this year is probably good enough for most people, and we will now wait to discover what additional extras will accompany the new edition of the film.

The Hitcher was a movie that did not exactly set theaters alight when it arrived in February 1986, and it failed to make back all of its $7.9 million budget during its cinema run. However, as with so many great movies, opinions and interest in the film slowly grew over the years until it became a full-blown cult classic. The Hitcher centers on a young motorist played by C. Thomas Howell, who is stalked across the highways of Texas by a murderous hitchhiker in the guise of the fantastic Rutger Hauer. The film is a tense cat and mouse thriller, which culminates in one of those brutal finales that have you on the edge of your seat until the last second. It doesn’t aim to deliver a happy ending but one that is fitting to the story that it tells.

The film produced a belated sequel in 2003, which saw the return of C. Thomas Howell, as well as a remake in 2007, with Sean Bean giving it a reasonable go at the Hauer role, but once you have seen Hauer playing the crazed killer John Ryder in the original movie, you don’t need a remake or indeed a straight-to-DVD sequel. Needless to say that neither modern interpretation could match the 1986 film, and if anything, just reminded everyone of what a good film The Hitcher was. Now we can all look forward to reliving the trauma in glorious 4K.