Ride or Die… PASSENGER knows the rules of the road…
After a troubled childhood Tyler wants to live on the open road, forever on the move and though Maddie loves him dearly, six months into the endless road-trip in a camper-van, she loves that Tyler is proposing but less sure that this life on the move is what she wants for life.
Diane warns them that there are age-old ‘rules of the road’ that long-term travellers know how to recognise and keep-to. Don’t travel at night and never stop for strangers. Diane recognises that Tyler and Maddie may have already broken those rules, albeit in good faith. Now something is stalking Maddie and Tyler… not just stalking them, but playing sadistic games. Are there any other rules of the road that can possibly save them?
*some spoilers*
Anyone familiar with urban legends and short horror stories likely knows the old one about the escaped serial-killer, a car stopping on a dark country road, one of the passengers disappearing and then the sudden banging on the car roof. A cop tells you to get out of the car, walk towards them and whatever you do: DO. NOT. LOOK. BACK.
I’ll forego the punchline to that specific legend but watching the first few minutes of Passenger – and what follows – will make that particular tale resonate and what comes later plays into that ‘It’s behind you!‘ trope. But while familiarity sometimes breeds contempt, such a basic fright-formula has worked for eons, tapping into a primal vein that marries old-school suspense and grand-guignol splatter. In that sense, Passenger plays out not as anything new, but with competent chills to keep you watching for the brisk ninety minute running time. Given it’s unapologetic supernatural element, it’s more akin to Jeepers Creepers than The Hitcher, but the Highway to Hell has plenty of lanes.
Norwegian director André Øvredal has form in the horror vein with such effective chillers as The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Trollhunter and The Last Voyage of the Demeter. He knows the territory and how to play with visuals, sound (often overlooked – or should that be overheard?) and the art of the well-timed jump-scare. Passenger knows its audience is just as well-versed and doesn’t try to subvert its delivery system. It offers a mixture of a growing sense of dread and then a pall-mall of panic. It’s not always subtle but a succession of omens glimpsed in headlights and portents glitched in dash-cams, it gives new warning to the idea that ‘objects in the rear-view mirror may be closer than they appear…‘ It goes from the creeping ‘it’s behind you!‘ moments to the smash-and-grab of demonic fingers around the throat.
On the good-guys front, it’s mainly a two-hander and the two leads – Pieces of Her / Bad Boys for Life‘s Jacob Scipio (as Tyler) and Foundation / Voyagers‘ Lou LLobell (as Maddie) are good enough to hold the attention and if the script and plot mean they occasionally have to make bad decisions, they at least have the audience on their side. The bad-guy or ‘Passenger’ of the title is a fairly generic demonic force and it’s a pity something more distinctive couldn’t have been done with the premise. However, Joseph Lopez had a history of otherworldly and menacing bad guys and this will fit in well. Melissa Leo (who won an Oscar for 2010’s The Fighter) is asked to do a lot more than provide exposition and backstory but she makes the most of her few scenes.
Amid the stalking, there are moments of whimsy. Maddie and Tyler’s van has a horn that plays the Hawaiii-Five-O theme as absurd punctuation and a Bob Ross bobblehead is a nice nod to ‘happy accidents amid the gruesome variety.
Not to be confused with any other film of a similar name out this year, go into this ride expecting nothing new but a darkly entertaining ride, navigating through the horror tropes and cliches rather than around them… and Passenger goes off without a hitch’.
Passenger is now on major streaming platforms and debuts on blu-ray and DVD on 8th September 2026.