A Hitchhiker's Tale is an unlicensed Indiegogo-funded live-action film by Mason Betterly. It features potential mortal versions of the Hitchhiking Ghosts (Phineas, Ezra and Gus) as well as the Tightrope Girl and two new major characters, the Carnie and the Stranger. The Devil is mentioned.
Plot
Running away from a cursed circus, three unlikely travel-partners — arrogant troublemaker Ezra, self-centered conman Phineas and eccentric jail-escapee Gus — try to make their way to a mysterious Gypsy witch who they believe will be able to give them back their souls, which have become the property of a sinister figure known only as the Carnie…
References
- The Carnie, "handpicked by the Devil himself", meets his downfall at the Well of Sinners.
Continuity
- The film proposes a potential origin story for the team-up of the Hichhiking Ghosts from The Haunted Mansion (1969). The trio start off looking for a “supernaturally-minded Gypsy”, implied to be Madame Leota.
- The Carnie's modus operandi and his general attitude are not dissimilar to those of Mr Dark in Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983).
- Though it does not otherwise follow its canon, the film borrows the names of Phineas Queeg, Ezra Dobbins and Lillie O'Malley from the Ghost Gallery.
Behind the scenes
This student film was created in 2016 by the independant Craterus Studios production company. It can be watched on YouTube for free, though DVDs were also issued to the film's Indiegogo backers. (Among said backers was, as the end credits reveals, Nick Barbera, the notorious Haunted Mansion fan behind The Haunted Mansion Show.)