After quitting their jobs for life in a van, Maddie and Tyler (Lou Llobell and Jacob Scipio) are stalked by a demonic entity in this religious road-based horror flick they should have called The Blair Hitch Project.
Despite setting up a potentially interesting genre take on life on the road, Passenger soon descends into the usual rash of jump scares, Christian propaganda and supernatural horror tropes – from the rules imparted by a visibly checked-out Melissa Leo (don’t drive at night, don’t stop the car etc) to the specific roadside demon being explained through a google search. This cliché-ridden approach makes the film feel longer than its 90-minute runtime, never diverting from its drive, jump scare, repeat formula, and going nowhere but in circles.
And where Jeepers Creepers and Joy Ride navigated their silly premises with comedy, Passenger‘s serious tone shows up its daft story and hokey dialogue, such as “People don’t take trips, trips take people”, and “They call him… the Passenger.” The heavily signposted script drives you mad with its insistence on spelling out every moment, even having Maddie say “holy grounds” upon approaching a church, which would be unnecessary even if she hadn’t somehow messed up the phrase “holy ground”. Maybe she had coffee on the mind after all that driving.
The smug protagonists and glossy cinematography also fail to convince, always glowing like movie stars (well, B-movie stars) despite supposedly living in a van with limited access to showers. Their appearance stands in stark contrast to the other van-dwelling characters, a community the movie portrays as superstitious and backwards. And ultimately the film’s Christian messaging comes down firmly on the side of conservative indoor lifestyles, as those who seek adventure face punishment by the “highwayman from hell.” I told you it was hokey.
This is all the more disappointing as Norwegian director André Øvredal (Trollhunter) executes some great sequences that distort perception rather than simply relying on jump scares, including the repeated appearance of the Passenger by the side of the road, a car park that seems to expand as Maddie tries to get into her van which keeps getting further away, and an outdoor scene illuminated by a projector showing the film Roman Holiday. But the movie’s unscary antagonist, patronising outlook and gaping plot holes (why don’t they use their SOS button until the very end?) make Passenger as hopelessly misguided as its irritating characters.
