Passenger

“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 that won’t stop until it claims them both turns their van life adventure into a nightmare.”

André Øvredal has proven himself to be a talented horror director with films like The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Trollhunter, and The Last Voyage of the Demeter. His latest film, Passenger, has an interesting premise, placing a supernatural horror story within the world of modern nomadic living. Unfortunately, while the movie has a few creative sequences, it never develops into anything particularly memorable.

The story follows Maddie (Lou Llobell) and Tyler (Jacob Scipio), a couple who have decided to leave their old lives behind and embrace the van-life lifestyle. Their journey takes a turn when they stop at the scene of a gruesome accident and unknowingly bring something back with them. A demonic entity known as the Passenger begins following them, turning their road trip into a fight for survival.

There are some truly innovative moments in the film. The idea of a couple living out of a van, constantly moving from one location to another, creates an interesting environment for a horror film. There is something unsettling about being on the open road, surrounded by darkness, with no real place to escape to. The nomadic lifestyle also gives the movie opportunities to explore unfamiliar locations and isolated environments that a typical haunted-house story wouldn’t offer.

There are a few sequences where the movie takes advantage of this setting particularly well. One of the best involves Maddie and Tyler watching Roman Holiday on a projector in the woods. When something begins moving around them, Maddie uses the projector to illuminate the surrounding forest. The images from the movie are projected into the darkness, creating an eerie combination of old Hollywood imagery and an unsettling woodland environment. It’s an inventive idea, and one of the few moments where the film feels genuinely creative.

Unfortunately, moments like that are not consistent throughout the movie.

For the most part, Passenger relies on fairly standard horror techniques. The jump scares are predictable, the music frequently signals when something is about to happen, and the movie often settles for loud noises instead of building genuine tension. There are some effective visual moments, including the use of darkness and isolated locations, but they are surrounded by scares that feel like they have been borrowed from countless other supernatural horror movies.

The biggest issue is the lack of a compelling mystery surrounding the Passenger itself. We are given very little meaningful information about what this entity actually is, where it came from, or what rules govern its existence. There are hints of religious symbolism and references to its history, but the film never provides enough substance to make the mythology particularly interesting. Instead of building curiosity about the antagonist, the movie mostly uses it as a reason to move from one scare to the next, making the story feel rather bland. The premise has potential, but there isn’t enough development to make the Passenger feel like a memorable horror villain. The film seems to expect the mystery surrounding the entity to create suspense, yet withholding information only works when the questions become more interesting as the story progresses.

The performances from Jacob Scipio and Lou Llobell are decent, and they do what they can with the material. Their relationship provides some grounding, but the script doesn’t give the characters enough depth to make the emotional elements particularly effective. The movie also occasionally hints at larger ideas about relationships, fear, and the uncertainty of life on the road, but it never develops these themes in a meaningful way.

There are certainly worse horror films, and Passenger has enough atmosphere and a few inventive sequences to show that there was potential here. However, the by-the-book scares, underdeveloped mythology, and forgettable antagonist make the movie feel like a missed opportunity.

Video

The Blu-ray presentation looks good, particularly considering how much of the movie takes place at night. The image remains clean, with solid detail and strong contrast in the darker scenes. The lighting from headlights, emergency lights, and roadside locations helps create some nice visuals, and the transfer generally handles the film’s shadow-heavy cinematography well.

Audio

The Dolby Atmos soundtrack is easily one of the stronger aspects of the release. The sound design makes effective use of the surround and height channels, particularly during the sequences involving the woods, the van, and the supernatural attacks. Low-frequency effects provide plenty of impact, while the quieter environmental sounds help establish the isolated atmosphere.

Special Features

The this release has a slip-cover for those who care about those types of things, as well as a Digital Code. No other extras are included.

Passenger has a few good ideas, and the use a nomadic lifestyle as the setting for a supernatural horror film is interesting. The projector sequence in the woods is genuinely inventive, and there are moments where André Øvredal demonstrates his ability to create an eerie atmosphere through lighting and location, but this comes nowhere close to the effectiveness of his other films such as The Autopsy of Jane Doe.

The Blu-ray offers a strong audio presentation and a good visual transfer, but there isn’t much here to make the movie worth revisiting. Passenger isn’t completely without merit, but it is ultimately a very forgettable horror film that fails to live up to the potential of its premise.