05/06/2026

LYFE FRIDAY | JUNE 5, 2026

25

MOVIE REVIEW

Road trip through horror cliches o Passenger turns van life into scary setup H ORROR cinema has been circling the same road for years now. A person or couple is targeted by a The Passenger itself Ű BY AMEEN HAZIZI

0 Cast: Jacob Scipio, Lou Llobell, Melissa Leo, Joseph Lopez, Miles Fowler, Alan Trong 0 Director: Andre Ovredal E-VALUE 6 ACTING 7 PLOT 5

is intimidating, though not especially original. The entity appears as a long haired figure in a Catholic priest’s suit, which makes it difficult not to think of Valak from The Nun and The Conjuring films. The design is serviceable, but it is not iconic. It has enough presence to carry individual scenes, but not enough visual identity to become memorable once the film ends. Unclear rules The bigger problem is how the demon operates. The Passenger seems to enjoy tormenting Maddie and Tyler, but the film never gives a strong reason for why it takes so long with them. At several points, it appears powerful enough to kill them quickly. It can dispatch other victims with brutal speed, as seen with Melissa Leo’s Diana, yet it repeatedly stretches out its attacks on the main couple. The result feels inconsistent rather than mysterious. The rules are also muddy. The film establishes that the Passenger attacks during night drives, which leads the characters to avoid driving after dark. That is a sensible decision. The issue is that the film does not properly explore what happens if they simply stay indoors or refuse to travel at night. They spend a night at a motel after the first haunting and nothing happens. They later spend time in a diner after another attack and again, nothing follows. The danger seems attached to the road, but the characters keep placing themselves back in the same situation because the plot needs them there. That kind of logic gap is common in horror, but Passenger invites overthinking because its own survival rules appear too convenient. One moment, the entity only targets them under specific conditions. Another moment, it can manipulate time or consciousness enough to make the couple skip ahead into night without realising it. The film wants the Passenger to

hateful entity, the entity torments them through jumpscares and visions and the final stretch usually depends on some semi-religious object, building or ritual to end the haunting. Familiar haunting Passenger does not escape that formula. Directed by Andre Ovredal, the supernatural horror film stars Jacob Scipio, Lou Llobell and Melissa Leo in a story about a young couple whose road trip turns deadly after they witness a highway accident. From there, Maddie (Llobell) and Tyler (Scipio) find themselves stalked by a demonic presence known as the Passenger (Joseph Lopez), a figure tied to missing travellers and marked vehicles. On paper, the film has a good hook. Instead of the usual haunted house, Passenger places its horror inside a van. That change gives the film some freshness, especially in its better sequences. The cramped living space, dark nightly drives and empty roads through the woods give the film a strong sense of isolation. The fear often comes more from the act of driving at night through desolate roads than from the ghostly figure itself. Roadside fear That setting is where Passenger is at its most effective. The idea of being trapped in a moving vehicle with nowhere safe to stop gives the film a stronger pulse than many recent haunting films. A van is not built like a fortress. It is small, exposed and always one wrong turn away from danger. Ovredal understands this well enough to stage several scenes around the anxiety of headlights, dark bends and the sense that something may already be inside the vehicle.

The supernatural horror film follows a couple haunted by a demonic entity during a road trip.

Yet the film drives too often through familiar territory. It has mood, a few sharp jolts and a monster with presence, but it is weighed down by cliches, inconsistent rules and a finale that feels too close to the standard modern haunting playbook. For horror fans, it is watchable enough. For anyone tired of demons, medallions, internet lore and characters making half-smart choices, Passenger may feel like another long night on a road already travelled.

more unnerving than the movie itself. Rewatching the trailer after seeing the film also raises questions. Some of the more interesting shots appear to be missing from the final cut, including Maddie’s face on a revolving van tyre and what looks like a fight scene in the burning church. It adds to the sense that the marketing sold a more intriguing film than the one audiences actually get. Passenger has a decent premise and a setting that helps separate it from the usual haunted house crowd.

feel unpredictable, but the uneven rules make the threat less satisfying. Overused tricks The writing leans heavily on familiar genre shortcuts. Maddie becomes the believer while Tyler is slower to accept what is happening. The answers to the haunting are found through online research and a mysterious blog, a trope that already feels tired. It is 2026 and horror is still using the internet as a convenient drawer full of ancient explanations. Diana adds some weight, but the role is mostly there to deliver warnings and background. The scares are mixed. Some jumpscares are too telegraphed, especially when the film pauses just long enough for viewers to know something is coming. A few do catch the audience off guard and there are enough tense moments to make the film scary enough in the moment. Verdict What remains is a film that is neither bad nor particularly good. The acting is fine. The plot is fine. The haunting is fine. The horror is fine. Nothing collapses, but nothing stands out either. The marketing, built around the fear of 15,400 people going missing yearly on the road, may be

Passenger runs for 94 minutes, keeping its road horror premise relatively contained. – ALL PICS FROM IMDB

The Passenger is a demonic entity that stalks travellers after dark.