Passenger (2026)
St. Christopher, kick some tail.
Van life seems so idyllic, right? Freedom, the open road, fewer responsibilities. But it has its downsides, too. The lack of a bathroom is one. In the case of Passenger, van life can be deadly.
Ugh. And yay. This movie is so firmly in so-bad-it’s good territory. Buckle up, people, because I’m going to spoil the heck out of it.
It all opens with two guys, Daniel and Lucas, who are on a road trip, and while they’re pulled off to the side of the road so Lucas can make a pit stop, something yanks Daniel out of the car and kills him. Lucas is freaked out, of course, and drives away at breakneck speed, but he keeps seeing a mysterious figure on the side of the road that ends up getting a little too close for comfort.
Meanwhile, Maddie and Ty decide to shed their New York City lifestyle and take to the roads in their souped-up van. They’re going to put their adventures on YouTube, of course. And they’re prepared. Maddie’s got a GPS tracker and Ty has a St. Christopher medal, which he hangs from the rear view mirror.
Six weeks into their road trip, Ty is blissfully happy and Maddie is a little tired of the road, although they’re having fun. Ty even proposes to Maddie one night when they’re parked by the side of the road, which she rapturously accepts.
In spite of it all, though, Maddie begins to have misgivings about van life. On the way to Gatlinburg, they find Lucas, who’s careening down the road as if the devil is after him. Maddie and Ty call the police to come help the guy, and then they find three mysterious scratches on the side of the van. Then at a Van Life meetup Maddie meets Diana, who tells her that she’s got to learn to read the signs. Don’t drive at night. If they have to drive at night, don’t stop.
Weird stuff starts happening, of course. Ty and Maddie meet this mysterious figure who’s somehow everywhere and it’s obviously demonic. It does have a weakness, though. Maddie pushes the St. Christopher medal on the thing when it tries to strangle her and burns its skin.
Diana tells them that the thing is definitely a demon, and it latched onto them when they stopped to help Lucas. The only way to shake it off is to follow the signs to a St. Christopher church out in the middle of nowhere.
Ty and Maddie take this to heart. So much so that after a few more unfortunate encounters with this demon they raid a truck stop and buy out the stock of St. Christopher medals. The demon gets too close for comfort, though, and the medals all get sucked out of the van, but there still might be hope for these two.
Passenger is a very Catholic movie, or at least a very St. Christopher-focused movie. I’m not a Catholic, but some things still didn’t hit right. There’s all this emphasis on St. Christopher but not a priest or religious in sight. And if that St. Christopher medal worked so well against The Passenger at first, why didn’t THIRTY stop him in his tracks? Oh no, they just get sucked out of the van like dust bunnies into a vacuum cleaner.
Maybe the medals should have been blessed first? I don’t know. Like I said, I’m not Catholic.
And why do Ty and Maddie have to find an abandoned church out in the middle of absolutely nowhere? St. Christopher statues can’t be that uncommon in Catholic churches.
Anyway, the weak spots in Passenger are legion. So are the jumpscares. I counted twenty of them just in the first thirty minutes of the movie alone. Everything that happens in this movie has to be a jumpscare, even the Neighborhood Watch guy tapping on the side of the van.
And the timeline is a little funny, too. The movie opens with Daniel and Lucas meeting the demon, then we see Maddy and Ty go on their road trip, and they don’t meet up with Lucas until six weeks later. So the poor guy’s been careening down the road for six weeks? And he’s never run out of gas? Good grief.
What’s strange is that I sort of enjoyed this movie. Yeah, it’s predictable, weak and haphazard, but a lot of the mistakes are actually funny, and the movie deserves major points for coming out right at the beginning of road trip season.
St. Christopher, pray for us.
Passenger is currently in theaters. Rated R.
My grade: D
Principal Cast: Jacob Scipio, Lou Llobell, Melissa Leo, Joseph Lopez, Miles Fowler, Alan Trong, Devielle Johnson, James William Clark, Tony Doupe, Charles Leggett, June Clemons, Bonni Dichone, William Lin-Yee, Joey Freitas, Michael Hilow, Norman Lesperance, Brett Bredrosian, Jessica Cruz
Directed by Andre Ovredal.
Written by Zachary Donahue and T.W. Burgess.