‘The Passenger’ movie review: Join Jacob Scipio and Lou Llobell on the highway to hell

One of my favourite parts of The Passenger was when Tyler (Jacob Scipio) rigs up a makeshift screen to watch Roman Holiday with his fiancée, Maddie (Lou Llobell), in the woods.

Since The Passenger is a horror movie and the couple’s road trip has turned into a living nightmare with a demonic presence stalking them, the cosy, romantic scene dissolves into abject terror as shots of handsome, stalwart Gregory Peck as Joe the journalist and the lovely Audrey Hepburn as Princess Ann are superimposed on fleeting images of a gaunt face and wildly grasping skeletal branches.

It is such a fascinating scene, where modern terror is layered with a timeless, charming romance to present a two-tier, sweet little horror movie.

At a time when horror movies are mean-spirited and gross (no more pedicures after Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, thank you very much), Norwegian director André Øvredal’s The Passenger actually comes across as wholesome.

It can even be the perfect date movie, where one clutches one’s date’s arm at all the thrilling bits (and there are many) and come out of the cinema solidly entertained.

The opening sequence is also dreadfully thrilling. Lucas (Miles Fowler) and Daniel (Alan Trong) are driving down a lonely highway at night when one of them is killed by an unseen force. The other flees and repeatedly sees a strange man (Joseph Lopez), on the side of the road and suddenly the man is beside him in the car… dan tana…

Elsewhere, Tyler and Maddie have decided to quit their boring desk jobs, get a van and head out to the great outdoors. Tyler loves the van life; Maddie not so much, and once they see Lucas and Daniel’s car and the terrible accident, they are stalked by the evil Passenger.

There is something elegantly simple about the road, belief, a vehicle eating up miles and an implacable creature along for the ride. Saint Christopher, the patron saint of travelers, is invoked as is the Code of the Highway. The movie is grounded in the little things; there is no yelling and screaming or mutilations and decapitations.

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Melissa Leo as a veteran of the road, Diana Marsh, lends heft to the proceedings, while Scipio and Llobell (Gaal Dornick from Foundation) are charming and have us rooting for them to make it through.

There are all kinds of road movies, from the romances and buddy movies, to thrillers and cautionary tales. The Passenger is an engaging romance rubbing up against elemental evil. With fuel prices going stratospheric, The Passenger is a horror story in more ways than one.

The Passenger is currently running in theatres