A mysterious entity latches onto a road-tripping couple in Passenger, the new horror movie that director André Øvredal (The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, The Last Voyage of the Demeter) calls his scariest yet.
The theatrical-exclusive teaser certainly suggested a terrifying voyage, but the new trailer opens up a wider world of terror ahead of Passenger‘s theatrical release on May 22, 2026.
Watch the new official trailer below, which gives an eerie glimpse at the demonic entity stalking the backroads and highways in Passenger.
What is the Passenger?
Joseph Lopez as “The Passenger” and Lou Llobell as “Maddie” in Passenger from Paramount Pictures.
There’s a lot of striking imagery featured in the trailer that hints at a much larger mythology than the previous teaser suggested, but without giving much away at all.
Øvredal teased more about the mythology when speaking with Bloody Disgusting. “I don’t know how much I can reveal yet, but we’ve definitely been building the mythology of this demonic presence on the roads and highways, and the back roads of America, how he stalks and doesn’t leave you until you’re gone, until you’re dead,” the filmmaker explains. “So it becomes a relentless chase, if you will, of horrors for this couple that the movie is really about.
“They’ve bought this van, and they’re going van life-ing,” Øvredal continues. “After an accident on the road, they meet this presence that just latches onto them, in a way, and it becomes a nightmare. The whole freewheeling journey that they were trying to go on.”
The filmmaker also teases that his entity may take on new mythology, but it’s rooted in the familiar. “There is definitely an evolution in it, but we’re trying to build a mythological character in the vein of…other characters from movies we all love in our genre.”
That Passenger, written by Zachary Donohue (The Den) and T.W. Burgess (Mister Howl), does something fresh that not even genre filmmaker Øvredal has seen before was a large part of the appeal. “I’ve had a relationship with Gary Dauberman and Walter Hamada for a while,” he tells us. “We’ve been trying to connect and work together for years on various projects, actually. They just sent it to me and asked if I wanted to read it. I immediately fell in love with it. I thought it was such a great horror movie that I hadn’t seen before. I’m always trying to make something unique, obviously something that works within the genre and fun for the audience, but something that also brings something new and fresh out of me, in a way.”
Passenger puts Jacob Scipio, Lou Llobell, and Melissa Leo on a practical effects-driven road trip nightmare
Lou Llobell as “Maddie” and Jacob Scipio as “Tyler” in Passenger from Paramount Pictures.
Andre Øvredal has nothing but praise for his trio of leads at the center of his road trip nightmare. That’s not just for the talent they bring, but for enduring what the filmmaker called a tough shoot.
“Lou and Jacob are playing a couple,” he tells BD. “That’s the central characters in the movie, and it was an amazing experience working with them. They have such charisma, they’re so great in front of a camera. They have a wonderful chemistry together and are super professional to work with. Jacob is just coming up with stuff on the spot, from take to take to take, and Lou is just such a professional, knows everything when she walks on set, and it was just a great experience. And Melissa, of course, I’ve been a fan of for years. She has just so much gravitas in the way she performs and the way she behaves on set. She was such a pleasure to work with.
“It was a rough shoot. We were out there, everything is shot on location, everything is shot for real; there is no single blue screen anywhere in this movie.”
“We were out there shooting it like a real road movie, for real, and it was such a blast for everyone. I mean, it was a tough shoot, because it was all nights, but you were really feeling like you were living the movie, living the journey, in a way,” Øvredal adds.
“I mean, it’s such an Americana movie, you know? It’s all about living the life out on the road, and it’s all about reality, and it’s all about being grounded in that way. I mean, we shot the whole movie in Washington state. It was a wonderful place to shoot, because it has everything. It feels like the entire country is represented in that state, so you could feel all kinds of environments. [Prep was] more about the character psychology, about the relationships, and I wanted a bit of a wild feeling to the way we created the movie, so that it feels rough and tumble out there.”
Øvredal teases that the trailer doesn’t even begin to reveal his “scariest movie” to date
Lou Llobell as “Maddie” and Jacob Scipio as “Tyler” in Passenger from Paramount Pictures.
“I think it’s the scariest movie I’ve made,” Øvredal tells us. That’s coming from the filmmaker who scared us silly with The Autopsy of Jane Doe.
The filmmaker isn’t alone in that sentiment either; Passenger has been test screening very well in terms of scares. He explains, “I’m very proud of it. I’ve seen it with the audience in a number of test screenings, and it’s been a riot to watch the audience jump, engage, and be just thrilled throughout the movie, so I’m very happy with it.”
Øvredal pushed himself further as a filmmaker on Passenger and leaves us with perhaps the most exciting tease yet: the trailer doesn’t give away the best parts. “I wanted to change up my methodology on how I direct, as well, on this movie, on how I build certain scenes, and there are some moments in this movie I’m very proud of that aren’t even in this trailer.
“That is, my favorite moments aren’t even in this trailer.”
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