NOW STREAMING
THE STORY
What is The Hitchhiker Effect?
Welcome to the official site of The Hitchhiker Effect, a feature-length paranormal dramedy filmed on the banks of the Shenandoah River in Woodstock, Virginia. The film was produced by Los Angeles-based 29 degrees Leo Productions.
The Hitchhiker Effect was officially selected by 32 film festivals, earning 19 awards and 10 additional nominations. Released in late 2025, it is currently available to rent or purchase on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube Movies & TV, and Google TV.
THE STORY:
The inspiration for The Hitchhiker Effect dates back 30 years, when writer-director Zack Van Eyck was an investigative journalist for Salt Lake City’s afternoon newspaper, The Deseret News, and broke the story of what is now known as Skinwalker Ranch, located in Eastern Utah’s Uinta Basin.
Published on June 30, 1996, Van Eyck’s article detailed the mystifying — and often frightening — experiences of Terry and Gwen Sherman and their two children, who spent two years on the ranch encountering a bewildering array of UFO, paranormal and poltergeist-like activity before fleeing the 512-acre cattle property out of fear for their safety.
The article, which also included firsthand UFO encounters reported by other residents of the Basin and elsewhere in Utah, was distributed worldwide. The Sherman family’s story was featured on national radio broadcasts that same weekend — coinciding with the release of the alien-invasion film Independence Day. (Van Eyck’s original article and follow-up stories can be found on this site, on the page entitled Skinwalker Ranch Articles.)
The ranch was quickly purchased by Las Vegas businessman and philanthropist Robert T. Bigelow, who maintained a team of scientists on the property for eight years to investigate the ongoing cattle mutilations and other unexplained phenomena. In 2016, the land was acquired by Salt Lake real estate developer Brandon Fugal and, since 2020, has been featured on the History Channel series The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch.
As both private and government researchers spent extended periods on the ranch, a strange phenomenon known as the “hitchhiker effect” began to emerge. Some personnel reported that when returning home, they were followed by the same paranormal disturbances they had witnessed on the property — including sightings of shadowy humanoid figures with glowing eyes.
According to Van Eyck, his own visits to the ranch were brief and, to his knowledge, nothing unusual followed him home. But that is not the case for his fictional lead character, Alan Thomas, in The Hitchhiker Effect. After an extensive investigation of the ranch and the surrounding area, Thomas concludes the Uinta Basin is host to a secret underground alien mining operation. He — and the audience — are taken on a chilling journey when the strange forces observed on the ranch begin to manifest in and around Alan and Liz’s secluded Shenandoah Valley cabin.
