Passenger (2026)

Score: 2 / 5

So... hope that your car doesn't get scratched, or you'll be haunted to death?

Andre Ovredal is a solid filmmaker, as evidenced by his remarkable streak of horror films, including Trollhunter, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, and of course The Autopsy of Jane Doe, which is a perennial favorite of mine. But even the best practitioners don't land every attempt, and while Passengers has its moments of terror and technical prowess, this was a miss for me. It doesn't even feel like an Ovredal film, and it often gave me the impression it was rushed through production and maybe even had a mix-up of behind-the-scenes folks, because some of its elements simply don't follow through or make sense in retrospect. I'm not even sure I remember enough of it to offer a useful review, but do let's try.

Paramount chose to release Ovredal's latest without much advertising and on a mischosen weekend based on other releases. We might wonder if they did so to "bury" it and push it out of their queue. Even without much public interest (things like Scary Stories and the Dracula chapter can drum up their own audiences just by virtue of their title, whereas this one is generic to a fault -- yes, even in its title), the film should still excite fans of Ovredal in general. It's a low-budget scarefest with only Melissa Leo as a known star in a bit part, and its plot is the kind of B-movie shlock we love to see at midnight screenings and drive-ins.

Belonging to the odd subgenre of "car horror," the film concerns young people driving out in the boonies as they're haunted and hunted by a mysterious and deadly titular hitchhiker. Yet this one is not quite like Duel, The Hitcher, or The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, doubtless because its big bad is -- you guessed it -- a nonhuman, malevolent entity. It pulls more from the likes of Jeepers Creepers in that regard, so if you like that vibe, definitely give this one a try. Ovredal drowns the film in palpable darkness and almost vicious attention to things like headlights and turning signals, so it's a visual feast for anyone eager to peer into the darkness to see that which they probably don't want to see.

There's a suitably spooky opening scene about two young men getting attacked by said ghoul, but the real story -- if "story" is a reasonable word for a road trip through hell -- starts when a young couple (Jacob Scipio and Lou Llobell) move into their renovated van and flee the city to live on the road. This nomadic lifestyle is gaining popularity these days of unaffordable life in conventional settings, but it's obvious these kids are in for trouble. Despite initial excitement, the two aren't really feeling great about such a life six weeks into their new routine; rather, she's not, and it seems less likely that they'll revert to another plan than that they'll break up due to their different expectations and dissatisfactions. Yet before we get into the Nomadland of it all, they come across the boys from the first scene -- what's left of them -- and unwittingly pick up the demonic spirit that caused the horror.

Unfortunately, we get a lot of time spent on the main couple, and they just didn't work for me. We learn a lot about their past, their proclivities, their interests and activities; I just didn't care about any of this wdrldbuildling. We need it (otherwise they're just flesh to become carnage), but I'd have liked more substance to them, and ideally that they'd match attempts at theming once the horror kicks in. Thankfully, the film avoids needless exposition on the Passenger himself, allowing the mystery and horror to take over. That does make some plot points feel underbaked, as we're never quite sure what the "rules" are for him, but I think that helps with the tension in this instance. The plot's premise is too basic and derivative for me to care much about "lore" it might try to build. Think of this kind of film like a ghost story around a campfire; we don't need logic, we need scares.

That is something Ovredal handles well, as always, alongside his cinematographer and editor. There's a scene where the female lead walks across a large empty parking lot at night to her van, and my skin was crawling as the camera spun around her, each time revealing something just wrong in her vicinity. Like the distance between herself, the store, and the van, or the approaching figure of the Passenger himself. Another memorable sequence takes place as the couple camps out to watch Roman Holiday in the woods with their projector, which they end up using to try and light the forest in their attempts to ward off their attacker. These moments will stick with me, even if I don't remember most of the rest of the film. It also -- and this surely sacrificed my pleasure -- often results to intentional comedy, which sapped the film of much of its horror. One-liners, often admittedly clever, are dropped a little too often, and at least one soundtrack choice heading into an important scene made it feel more like a rock concert than a climactic confrontation. 

Nothing wrong with a fun little thrill ride like this, and frankly it's a fine piece of filmmaking. It just doesn't carry much heft or offer anything original, feeling a little too derivative and a little too simple. On the other hand, I'd happily pop this in on a low-stakes date night or Halloween party, especially if it was outside or in a drive-in. Not everything needs to be hyped or promoted to be worthwhile, and many fine films offer serviceable entertainment for those of us who just enjoy squirming in our seats once in a while.