Passenger
This "Passenger" is fairly predictable, but not unentertaining.
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Norwegian horror director André Øvredal (“Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,” “The Last Voyage of the Demeter”) makes his return to the genre with “Passenger” (now in theaters).
Tyler (Jacob Scipio, he played Will Smith’s son in the last two “Bad Boys” flicks) and Maddie (Lou Llobell) are a young, New York couple looking to take a break from the grind by hitting the road living out of a van.
Somewhere along the way during their travels they encounter Daniel (Miles Fowler) when he crashes his wrecked whip into their home on wheels.
They stop to help Daniel, but in doing so pick up an undesired supernatural passenger (Joseph Lopez).
Our titular passenger is a hobo horror legend who attaches himself to unsuspecting victims and toys with them until they meet their demise.
Maddie makes the acquaintance of Diana (Academy Award-winner Melissa Leo), a fellow traveler who encourages them to stick to the main roads and only to drive during daylight. Suffice it to say they don’t listen and there’s hell to pay.
“Passenger” is a slick and entertaining horror picture with some solid performances, but it’s wholly predictable. I knew for a fact Iggy Pop’s tune “The Passenger” would appear in the closing credits - alas, it was actually Siouxsie and the Banshees cover of the same song. A lot of this has an aura of been there, done that.
The narrative is thin and mostly serves as a skeleton upon which Øvredal hangs tension-building scenarios. The script by T.W. Burgess and Zachary Donohue doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but works well enough with Scipio and Llobell’s performances to make the audience care about what happens to these folks.
“Passenger” feels like someone’s play in Movie Dominoes by being a “Nomadland of the Dead” of sorts. The scariest thing about this hobo horror hullabaloo is the idea of footing the gasoline bill with where prices are right now.