PASSENGER
**
Directed by André Øvredal.
Starring Lou Llobell, Jacob Scipio, Melissa Leo, Joseph Lopez.
Horror, US, 94 Minutes, Certificate 15.
Released in Cinemas in the UK on 22nd May by Paramount Pictures.
We are barely halfway through the year and already we have been gifted with a variety of quality releases from new and exciting directors who are pushing and stretching the genre into new directions. As welcome as this, sometimes you just want, or need, a nice straight-forward spookfest. Something that will entertain and scare you in equal measure, sending you out of the cinema with an adrenalised spring in your step. PASSENGER would seem to fit this particular set of requirements with its original (ish) premise coming from the skilled André Øvredal, a director who made a splash with his debut TROLL HUNTER then further impressing with the severely underrated THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE and SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK. While he may have stumbled somewhat with his attempt to stretch Dracula into little explored territory with THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER, this small scale horror/road movie mash-up seems tailor made for his skillset.
At first it would seem that this is the case, with a smart prologue, featured heavily in the film's ad campaign, that sets the film up nicely with a driver having to make an unscheduled bathroom stop for his friend soon turning into a desperate chase from an unknown and fierce entity of some sort. After this we catch up with our protagonists, Tyler and Maddie, a young couple who have decided to give up their lives in Brooklyn for a NOMADLAND like existence on the open road in their kitted out camper van. This idealised life with no ties soon comes under scrutiny however when they witness a traffic accident. Already shaken by what they witness, they soon realise that something far more monstrous is at play and seems to be toying with them in its own terrifying and sadistic fashion, no matter how fast or far they try to outrun it.
Horror movies set on the road seem few and far between these days. Spielberg’s DUEL and Robert Harmon’s THE HITCHER still set the benchmark for this particular sub-genre, especially the latter with Rutger Hauer’s mesmerising portrayal of blank faced pure evil. The central figure here, a supernatural figure with an aversion to Christian iconography, particularly patron saint of travellers Saint Christopher, is a far less impressive, and scary figure. With zero motivation as to why it does the things it does there is little to no reason to get scared or disturbed by it. This sadly goes hand in hand with our heroes, despite a shade of tension that comes between them in their choice of lifestyle, they are a lifeless, bland and severely underwritten pair of characters who are desperately hard to feel scared for or even sympathise with.
This is especially disappointing for Øvredal. Despite that effective beginning and two other scenes, one involving an intimate screening of ROMAN HOLIDAY in the darkened woods that makes inventive use of its projector and another that involves changing a tyre into a desperate race against time, there is little else here that reminds of how skilled a director he can be in wringing out tension or in staging a truly surprising scare. All we have here are bog standard jump scares accompanied by a loud sting in the soundtrack that have been witnessed countless times before.
Paper thin in almost every way, this is forgettable stuff. Oscar winner Melissa Leo tries her best to inject some personality into proceedings but is utterly wasted in her exposition heavy role. Alongside a mute villain with no other characteristic than bad teeth and pale skin, and a pair of leads with next to no personality this is sadly another blot on Øvredal’s filmography. For a supernatural road movie, this is utterly pedestrian stuff, stalling at every turn.
Iain MacLeod