In recent years Sean Bean has made a tidy living playing assorted villains and psychopaths in Hollywood movies. In a "trashy" remake of 80s thriller The Hitcher he goes the whole hog, terrorising a young couple as they embark on a road trip across lonely desert highways. Trading in cheap thrills, it's no wonder the reviews were scathing, but for once audiences took note and stayed away.

Highway To Hell

In a ten-minute Making Of featurette, Bean explains that he signed up to play yet another baddie because those sorts of roles "tend to be more psychologically rewarding." We're not sure what that says about his personality, but it's clear the filmmakers aren't thinking too deeply about the psychological aspects. Director Dave Meyers is shooting from the hip when he says, "We got blood! We got thrills! We got scares! We got cars!" His testimony is reinforced by clips of cars crashing and blood being let in what is, essentially, a glorified trailer.

In case you haven't had your fill of blood, scares, thrills etc, supporting player Zachary Knighton allows video cameras to follow him around in Dead End. On this particular day he's gearing up to die, not literally of course, but a latex replica of his body filled with gloopy red stuff. While the effects bods get to work dissecting their grotesque mannequin, Knighton is strapped into a torture rack and muses, "This is the coolest thing ever." Can't be much of a life, can it?

Burning Rubber

With the blood and scares taken care of, focus switches to the cars. Another featurette goes behind-the-scenes on a virtual demolition derby in the California desert, which is overseen by an overexcited Mr Meyers. If the biggest problem with the film is its frivolous approach to violence, then this footage echoes that. One of the stunt drivers ploughs a car into another vehicle at 75mph - a very close call - and casually remarks, "This is what we do." Then he proceeds to tell us that nine of his friends have been killed performing similar feats.

Bean does a lot of leering in eight deleted scenes whilst Sophia Bush fumbles around in a dark hotel room looking vulnerable in small shorts. In the face of looming tragedy, Meyers also finds the opportunity for not one but two gratuitous shower scenes. The close-ups are an obvious homage to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, which only serve as a sharp reminder that you could be watching a better film than this one. Oh, and there's yet more blood in an extended finale.

Mock news reports of The Hitcher's exploits complete this scrappy collection of bonus features. Unless the spectacle of girls in hot pants and human entrails is enough to rev your engine, save yourself some time and bypass this DVD.

EXTRA FEATURES

The Hitcher DVD is released on Monday 24th September 2007.