Passenger (2026)

Passenger (2026)

After stopping at the scene of a terrible accident on a remote highway, a young couple traveling in a van witnesses a fatal crash. They are soon hunted by a presence—a demonic stalker who relentlessly follows them everywhere, making it impossible to escape. Their road trip turns into a nightmare.

It’s so hard to bring something new to the horror genre. We’ve reached a point where we expect way too much, and nothing really surprises us anymore.

The rules in this movie are pretty arbitrary. I don’t really understand them! I didn’t quite get at what point the protagonists can’t be outside at night, or whether they’re safe at gas stations. Basically, too many things are illogical or contradictory.

It’s a shame, because the movie is still really good for a full hour. But I can’t ask people to watch the first hour and then turn it off without seeing the ending!

The last half-hour runs out of steam. In these kinds of movies, the first victims always die horribly and pretty easily. Meanwhile, the main characters are constantly spared, as if they were born under a lucky star. There’s a pretty ridiculous explanation for this here—something about how the spirit or entity enjoys traveling with this particular couple and doesn’t want to end their lives just yet.

Otherwise, there are always serious injuries, but the characters keep on running. And, personally, if something pops up in my car and tries to kill me, I wouldn’t get back in. In these movies, after a traumatic event—supernatural or not—the characters carry on with their lives and resume whatever they were doing.

Director André Øvredal is far from having created an excellent film. It’s not even good, actually!

There are plenty of jump scares. They’re classic and not too annoying. They don’t come as a surprise, but they still make you jump. The most jaded viewers will say: I thought the introduction was pretty good, but the rest is boring as hell. The movie isn’t scary, and the only horror moments are riddled with predictable jump scares sprinkled with clichés galore.

Too bad! There’s a gory scene that’s unnecessary, but it’s as if they felt they had to pull off extraordinary and realistic special effects. Yay!!!

They argue about nothing for hours. The haters wrote things like:

1. I saw it last night with my boyfriend, and this movie was so bad that people in the theater gradually got up and left. This movie is just predictable; every scene is boring, slow, cliché, and makes no sense. In short: terrible, don’t go see it!

So, just because people walk out of a theater doesn’t mean the movie is bad. I’ve always found it amusing when people use the fact that others didn’t like it as proof that they must be right!

2. Don’t bother with this movie—as they say so well in the movie itself! One of the worst horror movies, if not the worst I’ve ever seen. Totally terrible! At least wait until it’s available to stream.

So… the worst movie? No, there are clearly much worse ones!

The next review is driving me crazy!

3. Really? It’s a “woke” horror movie. They crammed it full of jump scares and pointless details. Seriously, skip it! Go rewatch Obsession! You’re better off watching that eco-friendly movie!

Yet another right-winger calling the movie “woke” just because there’s no white hero! Yet another narrow-minded person taking the opportunity to bash environmentalism just because they didn’t like a movie and felt like they wasted their time! And the worst part? They’re recommending Obsession… which is clearly one of the worst movies of the last two years!!!

It’s always interesting to see where the critics are coming from. Do people even think before they write? I already have to correct their comments, since these angry trolls are, of course, incapable of writing properly.

In short:

A very mediocre feature film. The parking lot scene and the first few minutes were the best parts of the movie. A sort of urban legend—somewhat far-fetched—is running rampant on the roads. An evil, murderous passenger invades cars that have the misfortune of stopping—even just long enough to take a bathroom break. The two lead actors could have been convincing, but they do no more than the bare minimum of their jobs. The story’s pacing isn’t always consistent, and too many slow moments end up spoiling the plot. The passenger is rarely seen, and his image as a ghost haunting the roads eventually grows tiresome because he takes so long to appear. Aside from a few jump scares that work well, the movie isn’t really scary, to be honest.

In closing:

It’s worth noting that it didn’t play at my local theater, but I finally got around to seeing it.

The beginning really got me hooked; the mood sets in quickly and the concept is interesting. The night scenes add a lot to the atmosphere, but they aren’t always very logical. The characters aren’t supposed to go out and wander off, but they do so when a tire blows out—and not in the most subtle way. But we all know that heroes in horror movies aren’t supposed to be smart!

The more the movie went on, the more I found it to be a run-of-the-mill film. You can figure out pretty quickly where it’s going, and it lacks a bit of surprise. The characters didn’t really leave an impression on me, and I didn’t feel attached to them. I also wish the concept had been explored more fully. The ending left me feeling a bit unsatisfied. It’s a shame, because there were some good ideas at the start.

All in all, I think this is a movie I’ll quickly forget… which leads me to strongly advise against watching it.