I have no idea your circumstances. None. You could be a billionaire. Unlikely, but could be. You could be a drifter. You could be a dentist or an elf or a yeti. Whomever you are, if you get to the point where going to a “24-hour fitness” is your very best move, you need to re-think your life. I’m pretty sure I can say that categorically.
And yet, this is the best choice for engaged couple Maddie (Lou Llobell, whose name has a 1:1 ration of Ls to all other letters combined) and Tyler (Jacob Scipio). They should probably both be overjoyed they’re in a film at all. Any enjoyment of being young, unemployed, and roaming the country at will is dampened considerably by the fact that they have attracted a demon.
I knew they should’ve taken that left turn at Albuquerque!
It’s kind of hard to spot the demonic motivation, exactly. First, the creature attaches itself to a guy who stopped in the middle of a woods for a pee. There’s only about two million trees in these woods, and you just happen to pee on the random one that hosts a powerful and spiteful evil entity? I suppose if he didn’t, there wouldn’t be a movie, now would there? We never really see the full corporeal form of the villain. We just know it can do man-manipulating magical evil, it likes to kill, and it likes to be a Passenger. Lousy backseat demon.
Truthfully? Sometimes a lethal demon is better than: “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?”
The demon makes a critical error when the first host drives into a tree, but -lucky for it- soon Maddie and Tyler 
come along in their “fuck you, society” RV. Their plan is to drive the open road and … live off dumpsters? I’m not sure how their anti-society pledge has been funded exactly. Doesn’t matter; they’ve attracted a demon and shortly after recognizing such, they’re given the advice to hang out in 24-hour fitness parking lots because those places don’t kick out RVs and you can always go inside to avoid your infestation. That is one Hell of a life plan.
Passenger is creepy more than scary. We get a handle on what this entity can do long before we get an idea of scope or desire. This is definitely a film for recluses and sociopaths to say: “I told you so.” Does that make it great horror? No. But it does make it slightly more fun than average horror, if a tad irresponsible. If the lesson were “don’t be a drifter” or “don’t drive a gas car,” maybe I’d give it a bump to thumbs up, but the film doesn’t seem to be saying much of anything other than: here’s an evil thing these poor doofs have to deal with. Good luck!
In the backwoods of forgotten morass
A demon just got up off his ass
It attaches to a car
And travels very far
Because it doesn’t want to spring for gas
Rated R, 94 Minutes
Director: André Øvredal
Writer: Zachary Donohue, T.W. Burgess
Genre: Cautionary tales … ?
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Horror junkies
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People who like long car trips
