'Passenger' Review: A Road-Trip Horror That’s Mostly Asleep at the Wheel
‘Passenger’ is unfortunately as average as they come. Although its premise, on paper, could make for a decently entertaining summer horror, many factors affecting the project prevent it from being worthy of its runtime.
The horror genre is amidst a new surge of prosperity within the theatrical experience. With many original films failing to showcase box office strength at the hands of IP juggernauts, horror has proven to be the exception. In just the past year, original and exciting films like ‘Weapons’ and ‘Sinners’ have not only defied box office odds, but received several award nods, including multiple Academy Awards. All this being said, horror seems to be a safe and secure bet for studios looking for legitimate success. André Øvredal’s (‘The Autopsy of Jane Doe’) Passenger, however, seemingly forgets what makes the horror genre special in the first place, which may be its biggest sin.
Our leads, Maddie (Lou Llobell) and her partner Tyler (Jacob Scipio), ditch their city life in Brooklyn to live as van-ridden nomads. Their journey is then troubled by the presence of a demonic entity they pick up on the side of a road. Their chemistry throughout the film is palpable, albeit bogged-down by dialogue that borders on Disney Channel Original territory. It’s rather disappointing that a pair of charming leads with real chemistry are working with a shallow script and quite unintelligent character direction. As a viewer, I found myself growing increasingly frustrated by their lack of calculated decision-making. The film’s side characters also feel far from genuine, and instead resemble video game NPCs who exist solely to spell out quests. Their dialogue is short and unnatural, contributing to a growing sense of inauthenticity that plagues the film’s 94-minute runtime. If you’re looking for well-rounded characters that exist in a world that feels lived in, this is not the film for you.
When it comes to Passenger’s horror elements, genre fans will not find anything new or, quite frankly, worth their time. Cheap thrills and lazy jump scares are all over Passenger, with little to no reason for their use other than manufacturing tension. Before the entity picked up by our leads is revealed in full, a lot of the scares come from loud radios, window banging, and other miscellaneous sources, creating an almost useless sense of fear. The demon himself, however, is far from something audiences should fear. His design is reminiscent of a Halloween mask that has yet to be picked off the shelf, with shallow eyes and a lack of emotion being a layer of prosthetics. When we do get a clear look at his face, the scares that accompany it carry no weight, which is more unpleasant to watch than it is horrifying.
This is, sadly, not a film that believes in the intelligence of its audience. Nearly every aspect of their relationship (and beyond) is spelled out verbally on several occasions, playing better for an audience of half-scrollers who’ll find this on Amazon Prime in about two months. That lack of faith translates to its issue-ridden runtime, crafting no prolonged tension as a direct result of ill-pacing. Moments of high tension are immediately broken up by driving montages set to various modern country tunes on multiple occasions. Allowing tension to build is the hallmark of a great horror film (as evidenced by the recent ‘Obsession’), something that Passenger has seemingly forgotten.
Lacking any real depth or substance, the project is also littered with religious themes that are also quite brittle. The central narrative revolves around St. Christopher, a Christian martyr denoted as the patron saint of travelers. In a climate of thematically-dense horror films that put story above scares, the themes presented by this film feel tacked-on. Rather than allowing the story to create the scares, everything feels haphazardly thrown on in an attempt to curate a richer story. Its narrative is more reminiscent of a local haunted house with a frivolous story rather than any interesting narrative horror. Coupled with an abysmal pace, the runtime feels about twice as long, and I found myself checking my watch a lot more than I would care to admit. By the time the ending rolled around, its final needle drop felt completely unearned, a sign of defeat if I’ve ever seen one.
If you’re looking for cheap thrills at a nightly 9:45 show, maybe Passenger is for you, but if you want any semblance of depth or story, you’re out of luck. With such a robust landscape for horror, standing out with a new and exciting project is the bare minimum for success, and this film offers nothing new for casual fans or genre aficionados.