History Main / BewareOfHitchhikingGhosts

* The ''Literature/SparrowHillRoad'' series is written from the point of view of the ghost. She's not malicious, but she frequently shows up for a driver who's going to crash soon, so she gets a bad rap (she's actually attracted to people who are about to die on the road so she can save their life or, if that's not possible, act as a {{Psychopomp}} to prevent ''them'' from becoming a malicious ghost). The story also ties together several variations of the "vanishing prom date" subgenre and provides a plausible explanation for the borrowed jackets.

* The ''Literature/SparrowHillRoad'' series is written from the point of view of the ghost. She's not malicious, but she frequently shows up for a driver who's going to crash soon, so she gets a bad rap. The story also ties together several variations of the "vanishing prom date" subgenre and provides a plausible explanation for the borrowed jackets.

[[folder:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

[[folder:Film]]
* Used in ''Film/{{Creepshow 2}}'' when a woman accidentally runs down a hitchhiker; when she drives off instead of helping him or calling for aid, he haunts her all the way home.

* One of the victims of the Abaddon Hotel in ''[[Film/HellHouseLLC2 Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel]]'' was hitchhiking to the disastrous opening of the [[Film/HellHouseLLC Hell House opening]] and has continued to lure victims to the hotel by standing on the roadside looking for rides.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

[[folder:Mythology]]

* GenderInverted and ZigZagged in the ''Podcast/AliceIsntDead'' episode "Alice," wherein an elderly man stuck in a GroundhogDayLoop which confines him to the mobile VanishingVillage of Charlatan [[InvokedTrope attempts]] an escape by manifesting in the cab of the visiting {{Narrator}}'s truck and silently pointing to the road out of town. The silence as he enters the truck suggests that he's [[OffscreenTeleportation intangible]], and may be a ghost. [[spoiler:The Narrator escapes the loop, but sees the man restored to his usual mark in her rearview mirror.]] Unusually, the Narrator is unable to make sense of events, and never gets an answer as to the nature of the town or its people.
-->'''Narrator:''' I don’t know what this meant. I only know that it’s meaning does not include me. I am not necessary to it.

* One of the victims of the Abaddon Hotel in [[Film/HellHouseLLC2 Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel]] was hitchhiking to the disastrous opening of the [[Film/HellHouseLLC Hell House opening]] and has continued to lure victims to the hotel by standing on the roadside looking for rides.

* Referenced and played with in Creator/BruceCoville's short story "The Ghost Let Go". Protagonists Nina "Nine" Tanleven, her friend Chris Gurley, and Nine's father get in an accident because of what they initially suspect might be a hitchhiking ghost, with Nine and Chris theorizing that she caused them to crash rather than ask for a lift because the driver wasn't alone. The "ghost" later turns out to be the very much alive Dolores Smiley. Her ''mother'' is a ghost, who was accidentally struck and killed by a car almost identical to the Tanleven's (Dolores mistook their car for the one from long ago, which is why she ran out in front of them and caused ''their'' accident), and Dolores goes out every year on the anniversary of Mrs. Smiley's death, hoping she'll find her spirit wandering the road where she died so that she can finally apologize for the last, hateful words she ever said to her mother.

# The passenger may complain of being cold, regardless of the actual weather. The driver will loan her his jacket or a blanket.

# When he visits her gravestone, he finds his jacket draped over it.

%% commented out as ZeroContextExample * Used in ''YuugenKaisha''.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' episode "The Hitch-Hiker" involves a woman who keeps passing the same creepy hitchhiker while driving cross-country, and comes to believe he's trying to kill her. When the woman calls home, [[spoiler:she learns that [[DeadAllAlong she died in a car accident]].]] It ends [[spoiler:with her driving back to the hitchhiker, who is actually [[TheGrimReaper Death]].]]

* ''Series/GrowingPains'': In a Halloween episode, Mike claims he had met a beautiful teen-aged ghost named Kara, who had died 17 years earlier in a car accident. An in-joke in the episode is that, along the way, Mike and Kara stop at a roadside bar, where a talent show -- featuring all of the guests dressed as dead celebrities -- is taking place. Mike's making up the tale.

* In a subversion of this trope, David Allen Cole wrote a song "The Ride" where he is given a lift to Nashville by the ghost of Hank Williams, who gives some advice on how to become a country music star.

* Hilton Edwards directed a 1951 movie called ''Return to Glennascaul'', starring Orson Welles, which centred around a Vanishing Hitchhiker event.

There's yet another variant where the ''passenger'' is alive and the ''driver'' is dead.

** The story was originally written as a RadioDrama by Lucille Fletcher, and was featured on several different programs throughout the 1940s, including ''Suspense'', ''Philip Morris Playhouse'', and ''Mercury Summer Theatre''; in each of these, the protagonist/narrator (originally [[GenderFlip written as a male]]) was portrayed by OrsonWelles.

* A phantom hitchhiking woman may be picked up in ''SteambotChronicles''.

* In the opening dream sequence of ''AlanWake'', the title player character runs down a phantom hitchhiker, who then proceeds to menace him with an axe.[[/folder]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} TabletopGame/InfiniteWorlds'' also has a double inversion: troubled people might get picked up by a mysterious stranger who gives them life-affirming advice before dropping them off. Turns out he's some kind of supernatural being (not necessarily a ghost) who drives [[AlternateReality across worlds]] for this very purpose.

* Pennsylvania also gets in on the act with several hitchhiking ghosts, at least one of them the ghost of a murdered girl. And the (in)famous Hawk Mountain has its own ghostly truck that tries driving people off the road. As well as a [[http://tiny.cc/lw16by ghostly serial killer innkeeper]] and (supposedly) literal murderous devils.

* Pennsylvania also gets in on the act with several hitchhiking ghosts, at least one of them the ghost of a murdered girl. And the (in)famous Hawk Mountain has its own ghostly truck that tries driving people off the road. As well as a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schaumboch's_Tavern ghostly serial killer innkeeper]] and (supposedly) literal murderous devils.

* The ''Literature/SparrowHillRoad'' series is written from the point of view of the ghost. She's not malicious, but she frequently shows up for a driver who's going to crash soon, so she gets a bad rap.

* In ''TheMightyBoosh'' season 1 episode "Hitcher", Howard Moon picks up one of these.

* A ''HappyDays'' episode has Fonzie getting involved with a girl who he comes to believe might be a ghost. (It turns out [[spoiler:to be AllJustADream.]])

* In the pilot episode of ''TheGreatestAmericanHero'', Ralph and Bill keep passing the ghost of a dead man in the desert.
* ''GrowingPains'': In a Halloween episode, Mike claims he had met a beautiful teen-aged ghost named Kara, who had died 17 years earlier in a car accident. An in-joke in the episode is that, along the way, Mike and Kara stop at a roadside bar, where a talent show -- featuring all of the guests dressed as dead celebrities -- is taking place. Mike's making up the tale.