There’s a certain kind of horror movie that feels less like a carefully planned road trip and more like somebody blindly following a GPS voice straight into the swamp while ignoring every “ROAD CLOSED” sign imaginable. André Øvredal’s Passenger is exactly that kind of movie. It starts with enough atmospheric promise to make us think we’re headed somewhere interesting, then spends the rest of its runtime stuck on the side of the road trying to explain itself like an insecure tour guide clutching a tattered AAA roadmap.
The setup is solid on paper. Maddie (Lou Llobell, Voyagers) and Tyler (Jacob Scipio, Bad Boys for Life) hit the road after leaving behind their cramped Brooklyn existence, stuffing all their belongings into a shiny new Mercedes travel van to embrace the dream of nomadic freedom. Tyler has ditched his lucrative job to chase the fantasy known as “vanlife,” while Maddie quietly worries that sleeping in parking lots and brushing your teeth at gas stations may not actually count as emotional stability.
Then comes the gruesome highway accident. After witnessing the carnage, the couple realizes they didn’t leave the crash scene alone. A demonic entity known as the Passenger has mysteriously attached itself to them, and suddenly their carefree road trip turns into a supernatural chase across lonely highways, kitschy souvenir shops, and desolate campsites.
Maddie encounters eerie noises, creepy roadside encounters, and eventually a spooky old priest-looking man with enough tangled hair to qualify as his own urban legend. Melissa Leo briefly drops in as fellow nomad Diane, who reacts to the mere mention of the Passenger like someone who just found out Motel 6 charges extra for demonic possession.
The problem is that Passenger never trusts its audience enough to absorb any of this naturally. The film explains its mythology once, then again, then even a third or fourth time. Every conversation feels like it was rewritten by studio executives terrified viewers might miss the point: “This Passenger is bad!” Yes, movie, we already gathered that.
André Øvredal clearly knows how to stage a shot. The opening five or ten minutes are genuinely effective. The editing is sharp, the lighting moody, and the camera work creates real tension. There’s an early sense of dread that suggests Passenger might become a quiet, unsettling supernatural horror film. You know, the kind where shadows linger long and silence does the heavy lifting. Instead, the movie swerves directly into cheap jump scares and loud noises that flatten every ounce of atmosphere.
Supernatural horror works best when it sneaks up on you. But there’s none of that here. Passenger behaves like a haunted house employee banging pots together while yelling “BOO!” from behind a curtain. Every scare feels telegraphed, every loud noise overemphasized. At some point the film mistakes volume for tension, which is sort of like assuming putting a St. Christopher medal on your dashboard automatically makes you a good driver.
There are isolated moments that almost work. One sequence where Maddie and Tyler are watching a movie outdoors at their campsite is quite effective as Maddie is forced to scan the surrounding woods using the light from the projector - they were watching Roman Holiday, and she’s now casting Cary Grant’s face onto the woods. A brief moment of cinematic brilliance. For a few minutes, Passenger remembers that uncertainty is scarier than explanation. Then, it abandons that subtlety and goes back to characters sprinting directly toward danger armed with nothing but a baseball bat and poor decision-making skills.
That becomes the film’s greatest frustration. Nobody behaves like an actual human being. Maddie and Tyler repeatedly ignore warnings to never stop and never travel at night, because horror movie logic apparently requires the survival instincts of a raccoon snorting crack behind a Waffle House dumpster.
By the end, Passenger feels less like a haunting supernatural descent and more like an exhausting roadside attraction that keeps promising “world’s largest ball of terror” only to reveal a flickering gas station sign and a broken fog machine. Øvredal’s technical skill is undeniable, but no amount of slick camerawork can save a script built from stale horror clichés, lazy jump scares, and characters who make road-tripping across America feel like an IQ test nobody can pass.
MPAA Rating: R.
Runtime: 94 mins
Director: André Øvredal
Writer: Zachary Donohue
Cast: Jacob Scipio; Lou Llobell; Melissa Leo
Genre: Horror
Tagline: Only in theaters May 22
Memorable Movie Quote: "No one outruns the Passenger."
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Official Site:
Release Date: May 22, 2026
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
Synopsis: 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 won't stop until it claims them both.
