The Autopsy of Jane Doe director André Øvredal trades the claustrophobic chills of a small town morgue for the open road in his latest haunted house horror feature, Passenger. Despite the filmmaker’s considerable talents and a novel concept for a nomadic style haunting, though, Øvredal’s latest winds up falling asleep at the wheel.
After an effective cold open that sees a road trip among friends run afoul of the eponymous entity, Passenger introduces young couple Maddie (Lou Llobell) and Tyler (Jacob Scipio) as they pack up their Brooklyn apartment and embark on a new van lifestyle, roadtripping across the country. But their novice experience leaves them exposed to danger, and crossing paths with the ill-fated opening sequence vehicle on a rainy night leaves them vulnerable to a demonic entity that latches on and refuses to leave them in peace.
Llobell and Scipio as the central couple are perhaps too precious and adorable for a film like Passenger. Maddie and Tyler are so wholesome that they gift each other with Bob Ross bobbleheads before a major life upheaval. The type that plot sickeningly sweet marriage proposals and offer unwavering support. They’re also almost completely devoid of conflict.
The script by Zachary Donohue (The Den) and T.W. Burgess (Mister Howl) bides its time acclimating to the van life with a novice pair who take nearly half the film to drum up any kind of drama or conflict to break up the increasingly formulaic haunting they’ve stumbled headfirst into. While Maddie and Tyler are endearing, they’re also extremely uninteresting.
Lou Llobell as “Maddie” and Jacob Scipio as “Tyler” in Passenger from Paramount Pictures.
That quickly becomes a glaring problem as Passenger doesn’t have much to say about its entity, either. The underserved Melissa Leo does pop up now and again as a veteran nomad more savvy to the road’s supernatural threats, injecting much-needed energy and urgency in a film that’s as laid back as its peripheral van life characters. But there’s not a lot of exposition for Leo to deliver, aside from vague formulaic warnings that propel the couple further along their fight for survival.
This is ultimately where Øvredal’s strengths as a filmmaker pick up the slack, compensating for the sparse mythology and plotting with stunning vision and set pieces. You can count on Øvredal to find inventive ways to frame a scene and raise visual interest. A scenic wooded screening of Audrey Hepburn’s Roman Holiday transforms into a breathtaking vision of terror. The film’s climax injects scale and awe with its scale and eerie imagery. And endless praise should be heaped on Passenger for its ability to capture night and darkness with rare clarity.
Joseph Lopez as “The Passenger” and Lou Llobell as “Maddie” in Passenger from Paramount Pictures.
As gorgeously well-crafted and tactile as Passenger is, it’s ultimately undone by a screenplay that offers nothing new aside from putting its haunted house on wheels. Joseph Lopez does make for a haunting vision as the demonic entity, but Passenger never really fleshes this character out beyond superficial, undefined motives. Without anything for the audience to latch onto here, both character-wise and lore-wise, the barrage of jump scares winds up mostly toothless.
In keeping with the road trip metaphors here, Passenger doesn’t really offer much in the way of a journey or a destination. Its setup is novel, but the lack of depth prevents this handsomely made haunted house road tale from ever becoming truly interesting, let alone scary.
Passenger releases in theaters on May 22.
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