In André Øvredal’s latest supernatural thriller “Passenger,” van-life daydreams quickly sour into a frantically paced chase built on misdirection, standout jump scares, and creative use of driving technology. The film keeps tension high and delivers nervous la
Anything can happen on a remote road at night. One minute. you’re staring through a bug-speckled windshield. following the hazy glow of headlights and reflective guidelines stretching into blackness. The next. you’re ankle-deep in mud next to a dead vehicle. desperately trying to get a call through to your mechanic—and maybe your mom.
That modern dread sits at the center of André Øvredal’s “Passenger. ” a supernatural thriller that doubles down on the very specific terror of being stranded far from help. The Norwegian director—known for cult favorites like “Trollhunter” and “The Autopsy of Jane Doe. ” and for sharpening surreal fantasy sensibilities in “The Last Voyage of the Demeter”—keeps the pedal pressed to the floor as his story turns a routine rural stop into a monstrous. reality-bending race.
Writer T.W. Burgess and Zachary Donohue open the film with a simple setup: two friends argue over an impromptu bathroom break on a rural road. At first, Øvredal withholds what kind of horror movie this is. When one of the guys vanishes into the woods and returns abruptly in a genuinely shocking. supernatural fashion. the film locks into its momentum—turning the ride into a chase built for relentless forward motion.
From there. “Passenger” narrows its focus on Tyler (Jacob Scipio) and Maddie (Lou Llobell). a charismatic boyfriend-girlfriend duo trying to live out the ambitious “van life” dream. They’re likable, and their chemistry feels affectionate even when it starts to skew agitated. The film leans into the couple’s recognizable dynamic without over-scripting it. helped by concrete little details: Tyler leaves a Saint Christopher pendant swinging from the rearview mirror. while Maddie’s Bob Ross bobblehead bounces happily on the dashboard. It’s the kind of texture that makes their vehicle feel lived-in rather than staged.
As the story pushes into its second half, that foundation strains. “Passenger” repeatedly gestures toward bigger themes—guilt. isolation. and aimlessness—echoing the kind of moral reckoning associated with 1997’s “I Know What You Did Last Summer. ” even though no such hit-and-run tragedy explicitly occurs for Maddie and Tyler. The result is that the characters can start to feel less like fully realized people and more like screwed commuters caught on a demonic voyage they barely understand.
Even a fearful wanderer’s warning—stay off the roads at night—can’t save them. Tyler and Maddie stumble straight into an excruciating pursuit, guided by advice that lands like a note to self: always take it from the gal with a turquoise nose stud headed for Flagstaff.
What the screenplay doesn’t always deliver in conceptually haunting depth, Øvredal and editor Martin Bernfeld compensate for with timing. The jump scares aren’t just frequent—they’re among the year’s best so far. They’re not defined by louder or grislier shocks. Instead. they’re built around orchestrated misdirection that refuses to play fair. with Øvredal steering into action just long enough to strike from somewhere unexpected. weaponizing shadows. negative space. and transitions with wicked precision.
Cinematography from Christopher Young, along with rich lighting and sound design, helps carry the movie’s momentum. The final cut lands with the dexterity of 2016’s “Lights Out,” while maintaining the relentlessly stylish hum of something like 2001’s “Joy Ride.”
The film also finds original ways to fold contemporary driving technology into its scare mechanics. Drawing from the same found-footage sensibilities Øvredal explored in “Trollhunter. ” and from co-writer Zachary Donohue’s experience with “The Den. ” “Passenger” uses the van’s exterior camera system as a fleeting but effective storytelling tool. Backup monitors, distorted projections, and shifting roadside imagery create a disorienting 360-landscape that feels refreshing in its creepiness.
There’s even a standout sequence set in a parking lot that manages to squeeze in a nerve-shredding illusion—one that makes freeway merging look like a breeze. It’s the kind of set-piece that turns fear into something close to kinetic entertainment.
Still, the atmosphere lands scarier than the antagonist itself. While the pursuer’s ability to bend reality to its cruel whim stays alarming throughout. the being is overexposed and rendered with a sleek digital look that doesn’t fully work. Even when the film tries to be charitable. the thing resembles a severely dehydrated Alice Cooper stumbling out of Spirit Halloween.
The movie’s tightening-seatbelts logic does much of the heavy lifting. As claustrophobia mounts and the automobile no longer feels safe—along with the loosening of carjacks that should have done more—it becomes easier to feel trapped inside the film’s dread. even when the creature design isn’t always winning.
Some promising texture also doesn’t quite grow into a bigger mythology. A recurring symbol that weirdly looks exactly like the claw marks in “Jurassic Park” leads Maddie toward the real-world history of American hobo codes. nudging toward a folkloric subculture the film lightly explores. The script also invokes Christian imagery, sometimes implying spiritual salvation that may or may not literally exist within the story.
The movie’s showmanship, though, keeps paying off. Tyler watches 1953’s “Roman Holiday” on a portable projector—until he’s forced to use Gregory Peck’s shimmering face as a flashlight. It’s eerie, silly, and surprisingly beautiful. There’s a brief complaint in the same scene: the film’s corporate use of the Paramount logo. Branding is branding, but it’s distracting enough to pull the moment sideways.
“Passenger” doesn’t always reach the interpersonal and mythological complexity needed to become an obsession-worthy classic. Even so. Øvredal is skilled at trapping an audience inside a disorienting. semi-liminal space where anything can happen—and probably will. Like the best late-night drives. it’s an outing without a meaningful destination. built for the fun of darkness. not the comfort of arrival.
Grade: B-
From Paramount Pictures, “Passenger” is in theaters on Friday, May 22.
André Øvredal Passenger Paramount Pictures T.W. Burgess Zachary Donohue Jacob Scipio Lou Llobell horror thriller van life horror jump scares film review Martin Bernfeld Christopher Young