I’ve been afraid of late night drives for as long as I can remember, so the opening scene of Passenger had me on the edge of my seat right away. For me, it’s the isolation of the empty roads, not knowing what could be lurking round winding corners, and just the sheer darkness of your surroundings, especially on those poorly lit backroads. Directed by André Ørvedal, Passenger leans right in to that unsettling atmosphere, and definitely wastes no time dropping us into it in that initial scene.
After tense but quick introduction to a mysterious demon, the focus is shifted to young couple Maddie and Tyler (Lou Llobell and Jacob Scipio) who are leaving New York to begin their “van life” journey. Subtle signs of their dynamic are shown – Tyler is clearly very invested in getting on the road, where Maddie is a bit more reluctant. As the film goes on, her reluctance gradually becomes justified, as it becomes apparent that the couple has been marked by a mysterious entity.
Spoilers ahead…
This film had some real captivating scenes that incited fear without relying on obvious jump scares, one of my favourites was the outdoor movie scene where the entity had found them, and in the darkness of the campsite, Maddie used the light of the film projector to find the entity. This made for a visually stunning but rather eerie effect as scenes from 1953 film Roman Holiday were projected across the surrounding trees and foliage. I loved the use of practical effects here and it made for such an unnerving moment, as you anticipated the entity to jump out at any moment, but this was difficult to spot exactly where from as the faces of Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck were being projected wherever Maddie turned. Ørdeval utilised lighting as a way to create tension in another scene; as Tyler is changing a tyre we see a nervous Maddie checking around the corner, with only the red glow of the cars blinker illuminating her surroundings intermittently. This gives the audience only momentary glimpses of Maddie but otherwise we are just shown darkness, waiting for the appearance of the entity. This is a brilliant use of lapses of darkness as a means of creating anticipation, and it really made for a suspenseful moment of the film.
Unfortunately the film lacks substance beyond these stylistic choices. The tagline “130 million people take road trips every year. 15,400 of them are never seen again” gave me expectations of a film that looks into the dangers and unpredictability of the road life, and this is only doubled down with a piece of dialogue that really stuck out to me – “People don’t take trips, trips take people.” But instead of taking this metaphorical direction, the plot goes down the cheaper supernatural route, linking the demonic entity to Christianity (how many times do we need to see this trope in horror movies?!) The demonic entity, named The Passenger, had a really solid setup – making its victims see things that werent there and doubt their reality, something that almost alludes to the dangers of driving without breaks or while sleep deprived, so it could have been a pretty apt metaphor. Instead it is just portrayed as an evil parallel to St Christopher, which was a pretty disappointing development to see.
The film slightly touches on gentrification, particularly the gentrification of life on the road. This is evident when Diana describes some of the other vanlifers as “yuppies,” and when one of the nomads refers to Tyler and Maddie’s van as an “Airbnb on wheels”. I found this to be a very interesting commentary on the divide between those who embrace van life out of necessity and those who treat it as a temporary, fashionable lifestyle choice. This is further highlighted by the hostility shown towards Maddie and Tyler as the other travellers believe they aren’t following the unwritten rules, which could be seen by them as disrespectful towards their community and way of life.
Along the way, Maddie meets a seasoned nomad named Diana (Melissa Leo) who warns her of the perils of the lifestyle they have chosen, and gives her some simple rules to follow; Don’t drive at night, and if you do, don’t stop. Later in the film, Diana asserts that the reason she has survived so long despite The Passenger’s presence, is because she has followed the rules. Again, this feels like another spot on metaphor for keeping yourself safe while driving, which just left the villain feeling undercooked as it took a vague anti-Christian direction. At the end of the film, after defeating the evil, Maddie and Tyler agree to ditch the van life, and settle down. This almost suggests that the right thing to do is to live a conformative lifestyle, rather than take any adventurous paths in life. But earlier we saw plenty of nomads who were managing their van life just fine, as long as they followed the rules. So once again I question why the film took this Christian “East or West, home is best” approach rather than what could have been a perfect opportunity to explore the topic of cars providing freedom at the expense of countless humans and animals losing their lives every year. I’m not anti-car by the way, but it definitely would’ve been a fresh take to see rather than yet another religion-adjacent demon.
Overall, this film was definitely style over substance – though I really did appreciate some of the unique scenes and visual motifs used. I just wish they took a bit more of a daring approach to the story they were trying to tell. If you like Jeepers Creepers (2001), It Follows (2014) or The Ritual (2017), this is the film for you!
This movie is showing at Showcase Cinema de Lux Southampton, the ultimate student spot. Experience luxury with recliner seats and enjoy unbeatable value with their “Saver Mondays,” making blockbusters super affordable for your student budget. Catch your next film here: Showcase Southampton