After his last horror film, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, André Øvredal returns to the big screen with Passenger. The plot is as follows: a few weeks into their van life adventure, a young couple witnesses a horrific accident that leaves the driver dead. Soon they’re being pursued by a demonic stalker who’s impossible to outrun and follows them wherever they go.
I love it when a movie quickly gets through most of its teaser trailer footage out of the way, and I do not know what to expect from the rest of the film. Passenger does this, but I did not hate the opening scene either. I thoroughly enjoyed the storytelling and lore behind the film. The premise around missing people on road trips could not be truer, whether through supernatural, serial killer, or accidental means.
For the tone Passenger was going for, I enjoyed how grounded the occult elements got. Sometimes, the spirit or monster rules can get out of hand real quick. I was always left guessing what this demonic being could do, but it was not all doom and gloom for the protagonists. A good horror provides enough torture and turmoil for the protagonists, allowing us, the audience, to savour the slow bleeding or timely kill.
This movie opened my eyes up more to the nomadic lifestyle of those who choose to either live out of a van or a camper—constantly parking outside a Planet Fitness or on a camping site. While it looked cool and all, not being tied down to one place, this film also shows the terrors that come with this life choice. But even so, I did not expect to learn about a secret nomadic code called “The Hobo Code,” symbols that travellers would leave behind to either guide or warn other travellers. This reminded me of Death Stranding and leaving signs for those who come after, and I was fully into it.
As far as the dialogue goes in Passenger, I was fine with it. I would have liked the characters to figure out that something in the occult realm was happening to them a bit faster, but I appreciated that the exposition throughout the film was not convoluted. Jacob Scipio (Bad Boys: Ride or Die) and Lou Llobell (Foundation) had some great moments back and forth, really selling that they are a long-term couple. There were some typical “I don’t believe you” lines, but we got through that portion after a fair bit of time.
“Overall, the production carried Passenger to the finish line—making for both an entertaining and educational experience.”
The main critiques I had of this film were a bit with the CGI/VFX or editing, and some of the expository exchanges. There was a scary beat playing out like it was a Sisyphean situation of running in one place, and the green/blue screen element was blown up way too out of proportion to the character’s height and size. It reminded me of the egregiously large moon in A Working Man, beaming in the background out of nowhere.
The exposition was delivered like an NPC was talking to the player, but it was not a whole branching dialogue tree. And yet, I could ignore these small faults. To make up for the film’s shortcomings, the cinematography of certain scenes could be as beautiful as that seen in Sinners or Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. On the score and sound design, I felt like the sound design was pin-drop perfect. The ominous forest sounds in some of the quiet scenes were realistic and unsettling at times, and the technology glitching out sounded and looked spooky. Even windshield wipers wiping in the rain had some edge to it.
Composer Christopher Young has been known for scoring horror greats for decades, such as Hellraiser, The Grudge, and Pet Sematary. I noticed there were no cheap music stings played for jump scares. The score was cool, especially where one or two times it blended some waterphone with some trippy radio static. While nothing sounded very unique and creative for the score of Passenger, I thought it set a good paranormal ambiance.
Overall, the production carried Passenger to the finish line—making for both an entertaining and educational experience. While this was not the scariest film I have ever seen, I enjoyed how grounded it looked. The practical horror really stood out. Even if there are some standard horror tropes within this film, there were some good hidden scares in there. Horror fans should make a quick stop for this well-produced travel horror.
