The PASSENGER Trailer Turns a Road Trip Into a One-Way Ticket to Hell
If you thought road trips were all playlists and pit stops, Passenger is here to ruin that vibe. Director André Øvredal, the mind behind Trollhunter, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, is back with another nightmare-fueled journey.
This time, he trades haunted houses and folklore for open highways and something far worse riding shotgun.
Øvredal’s last film, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, took a small slice of Dracula lore and stretched it into a full-on horror experience at sea. Now he’s doing something similar with a road trip setup, and it looks like things go south fast.
The film follows a couple played by Lou Llobell and Jacob Scipio, who set out on a van life adventure that quickly spirals into something terrifying.
The trailer drops a stat that sets the tone: “130 million people take road trips every year; 15,400 of them are never seen again,” which sounds like the kind of number you don’t want to think about while driving down an empty highway at night.
From there, things only get worse. The official synopsis teases what’s waiting for them out there: “A few weeks into their van life adventure, a young couple witnesses a horrific accident that leaves the driver dead. Soon they’re being pursued by a demonic stalker who’s impossible to outrun and follows them wherever they go.”
This looks like a twisted blend of The Hitcher and It Follows, with a relentless presence that doesn’t care how fast you drive or how far you run. It just keeps coming.
Then there’s Melissa Leo, who shows up as a mysterious figure who clearly understands more about what’s happening than she’s willing to share. Whatever rules this thing plays by, she seems to know them. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like a simple charm or roadside prayer is going to save anyone here.
What makes Passenger stand out is how it taps into a very real fear. Being out on the road, miles away from help, where anything could happen and no one would hear you scream. Then it adds something supernatural that refuses to let you go.
Øvredal has a knack for building tension in tight spaces, and putting that skill inside a moving vehicle with no escape route feels like a perfect match.
Passenger hits theaters on May 22, and it might make you think twice before taking that next late-night drive.