Passenger: Movie Review

Cast: Lou Liobell, Melissa Leo, Jacob Scipio
Director: André Øvredal

The latest horror movie gets its kicks on Route 666 in this creepy new movie from Troll Hunter director André Øvredal.

When young travelling couple Maddie and Tyler give up their stable life and apartment to go live on the road,they witness a horrific accident on a highway, they begin to realise they didn't leave the scene alone - as a demonic presence known as The Passenger is haunting their every move.

Passenger has a very simple premise and for some two-thirds of the film, it's an effective unsettling ride that makes great fist of the rising tension and the more-or-less two-handed pairing.

Maddie's less keen on life in a van, but sees the joy it brings Tyler. Subsequently, the film taps nicely into her rising discomfort at the van life and the fact she begins to see things gives it an edge too. Wisely, rather than have the pair bicker and disagree, the story pushes them together, rather than apart.

As the early tension builds, there are some impressively upsetting moments, including a fantastic sequence in a car park that has to be seen to be believed, but taps into every woman's feeling of unease late at night.

Unfortunately though, Passenger finds itself in need of a desire to over-explain its urban myth, its connections to a Hobo code and history, thus robbing it of some of the illusion of horror.

Things are made worse when an exposition-heavy sequence sees one character spill all the details before having their head removed from their neck.

It's at this stage that Passenger abandons all pretensions of being anything more than a schlock horror fest and betrays some of the subtler edges of the start.

It'd be wrong to say this Passemger isn't worth hitching a ride with. But at some point, you'll want to get off before it's way too late.