Passenger

Mr. Pat

15 hours ago

6 min read

Historic Downtown Waterville held trick-or-treating last night, and we got our first taste of the festivities. Lincoln is going as Caine from "The Amazing Digital Circus," Kali is a dancing bear and Dear and I are concessionists. A local free press even stopped to get our picture. The event was fun, and it's always a pleasure walking through Waterville; it's such a pretty small town. But before we said our first "Trick-or-treat," I watched...

Passenger (2026)

Yay! I found a movie that really scared me! With the movie I have planned for Halloween being more good than scary apparently, I took a shot on this one, and I'm happy to report it paid off! The movie starts with two friends driving down an empty road in the middle of the night when one of them has to use the bathroom. While he's peeing in the woods, he hears the car horn going off. Assuming it's his annoyed friend, he goes back to the car and sees his friend missing, and every single door and the trunk are open.

From there, we get a jump scare that took me by surprise: a shadowy figure in the woods who keeps showing up on the side of the road no matter how fast the car is going. Then we're treated to another, even better, jump scare! At this point I'm like, OK, movie! I see you there."

From there, we meet our two main characters: Tyler and Maddie. They're b/f-g/f and gave up their lives to join the van life. They quit their jobs, sold their stuff and decked out their van so they can live on the road; the horn even has the theme song to Hawaii Five-0! While out on the road, they come across the accident of the two men from the beginning. They stop and call the police, while Tyler goes to check on the car. He sees one of them crawling towards him before he's yanked back into the car. When Tyler goes to check, he finds the man slumped over the wheel before the airbag goes off and nearly knocks his head off his shoulders. That's not an exaggeration, by the way; it's a particularly gruesome death. Unbeknownst to Maddie and Tyler, they have been marked by a demon known as "the passenger," and the thing is now going to follow them until it's had enough of screwing with them and then will kill them.

It's a pretty straightforward premise, but I was very impressed with all the things they added to flesh out this thing and the rules surrounding it. St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers and drivers, plays a pretty big role in this movie. For starters, one of his medallions is a big plot point, and the demon actually traces itself back to St. Christopher. In the movie, they tell a story where St. Christopher was traveling with a priest, but when they came across a cross, the priest recoiled like it was in pain and fear, and that's how St. Christopher realized it was actually a demon. It also explains why the demon in this movie was dressed like a priest.

The actual legend is a bit weirder than that. In short, Christopher, a big, burly former soldier, was looking to serve the most powerful ruler. When he found a king scared of the devil, he teamed up with the Lord of Darkness. They were out and about one day when the devil saw a cross and instantly showed fear and distress. That's when St. Christopher realized that God is even more powerful, so he turned face and followed God instead. Like I said, it's weird.

Anyways, the movie then follows Tyler and Maddie as they realize something is following them and it means to do them harm. There's a neat little thing where anywhere the demon is following, it leaves three slashes, like Wolverine's claw marks. Then, while our two heroes are shopping in a tourist trap, she finds a book that has a hobo traveling guide that shows signs that travelers leave to send a message as to what's ahead, and the three slashes mean run; there's evil nearby. The movie was perfectly fine without these explanations, but I love the little things they did to further flesh out what's going on.

As an aside, outside of being stalked by a demon, this movie makes the van life look awesome. I can imagine everyone, at some point, has daydreamed of just dropping everything and traveling the country. Maddie isn't as keen on it as Tyler is, but it just seems so much fun having the freedom to just go wherever you want without having to worry about going to work. They even go to this van festival, with vanning celebrities, and at the end they burn a wooden carving that says "BURNING VAN." Awesome!

Back to the movie, the demon itself is very scary. There are a lot of times where it's just standing somewhere in the background... menacingly! And when he does show up, it's incredibly effective. When talking about scares, I have to mention my two favorite things about this movie. While they're at the vanning festival, the celebrity tells them the best place to sleep overnight is at a 24/7 gym because there are hot showers and no one is there to hassle you. So Maddie leaves the gym first and is walking in a mostly empty, and dark, parking lot. As she's strolling in the dark, she keeps hearing footsteps walking after her and, later, running towards her. When she turns to face whatever it is, it's gone. That's not the best part, though. When she turns back around, their van is further away. This happens three times, and it's so chilling because this is your first look at just how powerful this thing is. Not only that, but it's like a 3-minute, unbroken shot. Every time the camera would turn, they'd have to hurry and move the van before the actress turned back around; it is incredibly effective. It took them 17 takes to get it right, and they ended up nailing it.

The other scene I loved is awesomely unique. Tyler had secretly set up a projector out in the woods so they could watch Roman Holiday with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. Naturally, the demon ruins their fun and starts being spooky with the noises. Tyler is shining his flashlight, but it doesn't cover a very big area. So Maddie picks up the projector and uses that as a flashlight. She starts spinning it around, and it's so off-putting seeing Gregory Peck in the outlines of the trees and occasionally landing on the demon. At one point, she starts spinning it quickly, and it acts like a zoetrope where you can see the movie play out until it lands on the demon and Peck is projected on him until he literally becomes the demon. It's a little difficult to put what happened into words, but I absolutely loved that scene.

I thought this movie was great. Even the ending was pretty wonderful. In order to stop them, the demon is putting obstacles in their path, like littering a field with body bags, forcing them to drive over them, but they see the signs from the hobo travel guide painted onto structures, so they know they're going the right way. There's also a moment where they're so close to their destination, and the demon is on their hood trying to get to them. The camera cuts to a very wide angle to show the struggle as they get closer to their destination, and at some point, Maddie must have hit the horn because all of a sudden the theme from Hawaii Five-0 blares from the horn, and I can't explain why, but it 100% works and makes the scene even better.

As for the finale, also loved it. How everything gets handled makes complete sense and is very satisfying to watch. There's a lot to like about this movie. I loved our heroes; they had such good chemistry, and you find yourself rooting for them hard. Unlike Evil Dead Burn, where I didn't care about any of them and wasn't invested in their survival, but Tyler and Maddie are very likeable people. They work as a team, they're loving and it doesn't take too long for Tyler to realize that Maddie isn't crazy.

I said it before, but this movie is scary, and I was so pleasantly surprised to stumble upon it on Paramount Plus. I even watched it during the day, and it still got to me. It also uses quite a few jump scares, but they're fun and not gratuitous; they make sense for the plot and are incredibly effective. The movie was directed by André Øvredal, who did the terrifying Autopsy of Jane Doe, the very fun Trollhunter and the entertaining Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. I think he's quickly moving up my list of favorite directors.

Maybe I'm overrating it a bit, but you have no idea how happy I was to find a movie that scared me.