Film Review : Passenger (2026)

In 2026, when horror is thriving beyond belief, we have Passenger to remind us of the slop that we’ve so often gotten thrown into theaters.

We follow Maddie and Tyler who after giving up their jobs and lifestyles to live in a van and travel encounter a grisly car accident. After noticing 3 markings on their van though Maddie soon starts to see something that appears to be following her. As the hauntings continue on they soon have to figure out what is going on and the mystery behind these 3 markings that don’t see so random anymore.

The premise itself has legs to stand on and could work but just falls so flat here. Our characters are so bland and not likable at all really. The backstory for our entity is pretty simple but never goes much into detail with much to say. We get no backstory on travlers, these camps Maddie and Tyler discover who seemingly all know about this entity, or anything of the sort. Its like a Stephen King story without any of the fun parts of it.

What the film does go all in for is the attempt at jump scares. This is a film that should be studied for its trailer which was an A+ in marketing. Simple and scary. Too bad its the opening of the film pretty much and then just drops in quality. Now we do get a few great looking shots here and some cool moments but it just feels old. Nothing here feels like a fresh take and most of the scenes here could be swapped with any of the other similar films of the this nature from the last decade even.

We just get rinse and repeat moments that continue on here with attempts at loud noises and dark moments to gain that jump scare while the tension never really had a chance to build. Its a shame because I said before the film is shot beautifully in parts. The cinematography here is fantastic to the point where at times it almost becomes a waste for what it was used on.

In the end though Passenger even at 90 minutes feels like a chore to get through. Did it help that it came out around the time of films like Obsession and Backrooms, no, but it also doesn’t help that from the start it just feels so outdated.

Score :

1 / 5