As Obsession, a micro-budget horror made by a YouTuber, continues to overperform with critics and audiences, and as another twentysomething content creator prepares to break a potential record with the release of Backrooms, here comes a stodgy by-the-book Paramount horror that feels like someone’s embarrassing dad just gatecrashed a college party. While others might be trying to innovate, those involved with Paramount’s generic schedule-filler Passenger are perfectly content to keep things lazily trucking along as they always have. Even if it wasn’t stuck in an unfortunate gen Z genre sandwich, it would still be a struggle to see why anyone would want to hitch a ride with this one.
Like February’s cursed misfire Psycho Killer, another junky on-the-road studio horror, Passenger plays like something that would have gone straight to unrated DVD back in the 2000s. It’s marginally better but similarly baffling that with all of the unproduced horror scripts stacking up on desks in Hollywood, this would not only make it to production but be warranted a wide release on a prime May weekend. I kept waiting to understand what might have nudged this one to the top of the pile, but left without clarity.
