If you thought a deluge of obnoxious “Van Life” influencers invading your TikTok algorithm was horrible, wait until you watch Passenger. Director André Øvredal does what he does best with a simpler, more direct concept: maximizing atmospheric dread. Writers Zachary Donohue and TW Burgess give Øvredal the idea of a hitchhiking bogeyman, from which he squeezes every drop of scare tactics on haunted highways. It’s the ghost story version of The Hitcher Or Tower of joyand a bizarre interpretation at that. Sometimes, as a horror fan, the scares hit just the right note.
Jacob Scipio and Lou Llobell play former Brooklynites Tyler and Maddie, who become cross-country van denizens. Their vehicle, a burned-out Mercedes-Benz Sprinter sienna, was transformed into their home on the road. It’s Tyler’s dream to live wild and free, but one night, while Maddie is driving, their adventure turns into a nightmare. Maddie witnesses a freak accident and stops to help, only for their vehicle to have a three-claw mark on its paint, the same as on the crashed sedan. From then on, Maddie feels a presence that always watches over, sometimes from inside the van. Much to his paranoia, they seem to have caught a paranormal companion.
Passenger takes on the creative challenge of filming in confined, moving spaces with a strangely claustrophobic feeling. Cinematographer Federico Verardi uses equipment that can fit on the Sprinter to capture angles that are difficult to maneuver, ensuring that the tiny living quarters feel uncomfortably cramped. Even though Tyler and Maddie find themselves alone on open sidewalks, Verardi maximizes the feeling of non-escape while amplifying the surrounding isolation. What happens inside the Sprinter forces Tyler and Maddie to collide with evil, while the dark forest sequences, when they are forced to stop, accentuate the feeling of being hopelessly off the grid, with no people for miles around.
Øvredal’s visuals are such a threat because he has become skillfully manipulative under the cover of midnight darkness. Passenger is often terrifying, as outrageous jump scares play with human characters blurring windows, only to appear in locked, speeding cars. Øvredal has so much fun playing with the rule “Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear” while translating the principles of haunted house movies into something meaningful as a journey, tormenting a couple who can’t outrun their demonic pursuer. Whether it’s a date night and Maddie has to shine a spotlight Roman holidays as a flashlight, or Tyler crawls under their jacked-up vehicle, searching for now-inconceivable bolts under the van, the devil is in Øvredal’s visible details.
Donohue and Burgess give us more than “bad guy chases zoom zoom.” Establishing the backstory of their villain, everything from urban myths to the Hobo Code to Saint Christopher’s protection over travelers is woven into a fascinating nightmare. There is a little The strangers the nihilism at play, “because you were driving”, but also the inventiveness required to unleash a Creepypasta-y villain with roots in American travel history. Tyler and Maddie can’t just rack up milestones and seek refuge; they are linked to a ruthless entity that loves to play with its prey. It’s rich in nomadic norms and wary of overly romantic lifestyles on wheels, especially after dark, where constant movement keeps you alive.
That said, there’s a limit to Tyler and Maddie’s development as partners in peril who feel indebted to the horrors on screen. Passengers is a brand of “scare first, worry later” genre roller coaster that feels somewhat typical in its handling of protagonists forced to sort through their emotions – the looming marriage questions, the length of their disappearance, and conflicting goals. Tyler’s star-studded encounter with a famous #VanLife vlogger is adorable, but the couple’s dive into van culture without clear expectations seems easily prone to conflict. Scipio and Llobell are believable together and serve moments of intensity or anxiety well, but it’s all very much in line with the predictable expectations that come with character arcs precoded into familiar planes. But, Passengers gets one of those gratuitous shrugs and a “Who cares?” in response.
Øvredal is brought THE Autopsy of Jane Doe energy to Passengers while film serves as a suitable medium Jeepers Creepers replacement (seriously, stop watching these movies). It makes you squirm in your seat and scream bloody murder, thanks to Øvredal’s impressive ability to generate terror through well-placed tension and jolts. Horror fans will feel (un)comfortable with a film that delivers a robust soundtrack of road anthems equal to the number of adrenaline rushes that make you bounce in your seat. Just for that, Passengers earns his pass.
Movie score: 3/5
