PASSENGER Review

I watch a lot of horror media. Like, a lot. So, when I tell you that I can count the number of times I have shrieked and curled up defensively in my chair on one hand, you know that I mean it. And, as you may have already inferred, Passenger is currently occupying one of those few fingers.

It's not that it's surprising that André Øvredal delivered on the scares, of course. He's been haunting us for over a decade at this point. What's delightful about Passenger, though, is that it marries jump scares with an uncomfortable ambiance that will keep you tense until the credits roll.

Zachary Donohue's screenplay follows Maddie (Lou Llobell) and Tyler (Jacob Scipio) as they abandon their Brooklyn apartment to adopt van life on the open road. It's a new start for the couple that has felt stifled by big city living, but things begin to go sideways when they stop to check to see if another driver is OK after their car crashes into a tree while driving at night. But that car didn't crash on its own, you see, and the entity responsible finds new blood in Maddie and Tyler.

Passenger plays like a Supernatural episode structured for the big screen, and I mean that as a compliment. Every region in America has a haunted highway tale — a concept that we see Supernatural play with several times in its 15 Season run. Donohue takes that fear and makes it national, ensuring that no corner of the country is safe from the entity (expertly played by Joseph Lopez). Not content with the broader scope of the terror, the writer also decided to make the Passenger a demon rather than a ghost.

If there's one thing to know about me, it's that I am a lore girlie through and through. Donohue expertly weaves the rules of his proverbial road throughout his script, ensuring that the audience gets everything they need to know right when they need it so nothing feels exposition heavy as the story unfolds. Øvredal then takes those rules and uses them to scare the shit out of you, even if the premises are well known and relatively simple.

Perhaps my favorite aspect of the film is its use of the hobo code. (Like I said, lore girlie.) Passenger quickly and succinctly shares a deep piece of American history with its audience, but never makes it feel like it's giving you homework. That code will end up being essential to Maddie and Tyler's survival in a way that never feels cloying, instead making the viewer feel as if they're solving the puzzle alongside the protagonists while enriching the story and (literally) driving us toward the film's climax.

I've mostly gushed to this point, but there are a couple of warts here. The film would be markedly better if more of the gore — of which there is a solid amount — was practical. And yeah, you have to keep reading that line from critics until studios start forking over the time and dough for practical effects; Passenger veeerrryyyy slightly breaks one of its own rules at the beginning of the third act, which is a nitpick but, as you may have surmised, I am fussy about lore rules; and Maddie and Tyler could stand to be a little bit more fleshed out as characters.

Still, the film is just a hair over the coveted tight 90 mark, so I understand why there was a lack of desire to add any more meat to the character bones when there were more pressing horror matters at hand.

What's so fun about Passenger is that it has one foot firmly planted in American history and another secured in the country's present. #VanLife is more popular than ever (because none of us can afford homes, lol), and delivering a horror film rooted in that culture while still tying it to anyone who drives a vehicle is both clever and prescient.

This is the kind of film that I would have had all of my girlfriends over to scream at in High School. It's not gateway horror at all. (I would like to reiterate once more that I full on shrieked in this movie, followed by several minutes of elated giggles.) But it is the kind of fun, hold your bestie's hand as hard as you can with one hand while shoveling popcorn into your face with the other, horror flick that plays great both in the theater and with a room packed full of friends.

See it with a crowd this weekend. You won't regret it.

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