The Passenger (2023) - Movie Review

What do you get when a couple of millennials make an homage to the 1993 Michael Douglas classing Falling Down?

A tense, bleak thriller that left me wanting more.

Let’s discuss.

The Passenger is a 2023 Drama/Thriller brought to us by writer Jack Stanley and director Carter Smith. Don’t know their names? It’s understandable. Jack Stanley has done literally nothing else you’d know about. Carter Smith is a music video director with a love of horror, evidence by both his efforts directing 2008’s The Ruins and 2022’s Swallowed.

Blumhouse often takes chances with new or unknown writers and directors. Some credit them for having the courage to give nobodies a shot. Others (like me), think they’re struggling to put out the volume of film required to fulfill their streaming contract with Netflix. No matter what you believe, the results of the courage / onus of volume needed has resulted in an overall lack of quality in recent years.

Which is why the house that Blum built isn’t held in the same regard as studios like A24.

The Passenger is one of the outliers.

The film focuses on Randy, a man so unassuming and unremarkable that he allows everyone to call him by the wrong name for years without even considering correcting them. He’s meek, quiet, and lacks any will to act on his own desires. There are emotions in him, but he’s terrified of ever acting on them. His life is lived in quiet desperation. But when his shift on Saturday results in his colleague Benson brutally murdering their coworkers and taking him on a road trip, he’s forced to confront the events that shaped him as a person. Will he decide to finally step up and live his life, or will he just be another body put into the ground? Find out in The Passenger.

This is a film that you, the viewer, will either love or hate. I don’t think this is a movie with any middle ground.

It’s an experience in tension. Not fear.

This isn’t a scary movie. It’s not a horror film in its classic form.

This is a psychologically trying, emotionally disturbing experience.

That’s not to say it’s gross, gory, or features torture. There is blood, the is a little gore, but this film is frightening in its restraint. It’s unflinching in the reality of it all.

Anyone around you could be armed, they could have had the worst day of their life, they might snap, and you might die. There are no guarantees in life that the person you’re arguing with isn’t mentally disturbed.

There are no heroes in this, no villains, just people dealing with trauma.

AND that is horrifying.

The script is loaded with exceptional dialogue and the acting is superb.

Johnny Berchtold knocks it out the park playing a character that could have been wooden and lifeless.

but let’s be real…

This is Kyle Gallner’s film. Gallner burst onto the scene officially in 2022’s masterpiece of cosmic horror, Smile. While he was a supporting player there—he gets his time to shine and the room to flex his chops in this tour de force performance. He has the intensity of Sean Penn, but he has the charm Penn normally lacks. He’s special and I can’t wait to see his next contribution to the horror genre.

The film is shot beautifully and the lighting is immaculate in every scene. The fact that the world in the movie mirrors our own, where anything can happen, and a smart phone is in every pocket—makes every scene a don’t blink affair.

Please support this movie.

It’s currently streaming free on Shudder.