After a young couple witnesses a gruesome highway accident, they soon realize they did not leave the crash scene alone, as a demonic presence called the Passenger won’t stop until it claims them both.
Norwegian filmmaker André Øvredal has made some good horror films throughout his career. “The Autopsy of Jane Doe,” “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,” and 2023’s “The Last Voyage of the Demeter,” which I particularly liked. Now comes his latest effort, the supernatural horror thriller “Passenger,” offering viewers another chilling entry in his filmography.
The film centers on Maddie and Tyler (Lou Llobell and Jacob Scipio), a couple celebrating six weeks on the road after leaving their jobs and taking up the van-life lifestyle. One night, they come across a crashed car on the side of the road and get out to help the driver, but Maddie quickly grows uneasy. She starts seeing a strange being in the shadows, and the feeling worsens as they keep going.
At a gathering of other van-lifers, Maddie meets a woman named Diana (Melissa Leo) and tells her about stopping to help the other driver. Diana’s tone turns ominous as she urges Maddie never to drive at night or stop for strangers. Before leaving the event, Maddie sees pictures of many missing people, as well as a stick figure with three lines through its body. Later, she picks up a book titled ‘The Hobo Code’ at a roadside stop. She quickly learns the book contains a secret, symbol-based system of signs and markings, including the stick figure, that guides travelers along the road and helps them navigate around, or avoid, a lingering supernatural entity known as “the passenger.”
After they pull over for the night, Tyler sets up a makeshift screen, and they watch “Roman Holiday,” but they quickly learn they are not alone when the passenger attacks them until they pack up and leave. Through Diana, they learn about an abandoned church called the Church of St. Christopher in the desert near Flagstaff that could possibly help them get rid of the demon, but it isn’t on any map, turning their journey into a far more complicated ordeal. As their van slowly runs low on gas, will they reach safety before the entity claims them?
“Passenger” doesn’t revolutionize the supernatural horror genre, but it has some decent jump scares and unsettling imagery. The story of a couple being haunted by an otherworldly demonic being has been done before, but director André Øvredal cleverly moves most of the action inside the couple’s van, transforming the open road into a setting fraught with claustrophobia and unease.
Lou Llobell and Jacob Scipio are fine in their respective roles, and Melissa Leo is fun to watch as she informs Maddie of crucial lore about the passenger, grounding the supernatural threat in unsettling detail. Thankfully, the film wraps up its story without leaving things unresolved or teasing a sequel. But then again, this is Hollywood, so a sequel could most certainly be a possibility down the road; let’s hope not, as the story feels complete and well-defined.
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