- Directed by: André Øvredal
- Written by: Zachary Donohue, T.W. Burgess
- Stars: Jacob Scipio, Lou Llobell, Melissa Leo
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 37 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_qj1YjI5a4
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
A young couple living van life on the road encounter a car accident and end up unintentionally picking up a passenger while they are at it. It might rely excessively on jump scares, but it’s quite good anyway. The main duo is really good together, and it’s well made. We were both entertained.
Spoilery Synopsis
Lucas and Daniel drive along the empty road late at night, and they’re both bored. They whine about Lucas’s dry mouth and needing to pee. Not long after, Lucas has to pee, so they stop. When Lucas gets back to the car, Daniel is gone and the car is all scratched up. Suddenly, Daniel flies into the windshield, dropped from high up. Danil gets back in the car and speeds away, but he keeps passing the same man on the side of the road, over and over. Credits roll.
Maddie and Tyler pack up their big-city apartment to live in a van. They start their big road trip. Six weeks later, they’re living the mobile lifestyle, stuck in traffic and missing out on their reservations. Tyler proposes to her, right there in the van. Suddenly, a neighborhood watch guy bangs on the door and makes them move. They drive on, another hour to a motel.
A car with a crazy driver overtakes them and passes; it’s Lucas, from earlier. He passes and crashes the car not far ahead. The couple stops to help. Lucas starts to crawl out of the car, but something pulls him back in. Maddie hears something moving around out in the woods.
They get to the motel for the night, but there just might be something hiding in their van. In the morning, they find a claw mark just like the one on Lucas’s car.
The couple goes to a “Van Life” meetup, and there’s a lot of people there. Maddie notices a whole bunch of “Missing” posters on the wall. She meets a long-term van person, Diane, who vaguely warns her to stay off those lonely roads.
That night, after leaving a gym, Maddie runs into some creepiness in the parking lot. The Passenger attacks her in the van, and she scares it off with Tyler’s St. Christopher medal. The dashcam that showed the man before, doesn’t work now. She tells Tyler, who doesn’t really believe any of this.
Maddie buys a book that discusses “The Hobo Code” and learns that three slashes means “Not Safe,” and there’s a whole bunch of lore behind that. The van has three deep gashes in the side that won’t buff out.
Maddie’s ready to go back to a normal life, but Tyler’s talking about working remotely forever. She’s hesitating marrying him because of the van thing; it’s not fun anymore. They’re just about to break up forever, when Tyler finally sees something unnatural. They run inside the van, and the creature shakes the whole place crazily.
Tyler can’t find his keys, so he gets back out of the van to look around for them. He sees the creature again, and now he understands what Maddie’s been telling him. “This thing latches onto you when you’re on the road,” Maddies explains. “Some people call him ‘The Passenger’.”
Maddie wants to contact Diane, who seemed to know about the creature and warned her. They get a flat tire, and suddenly the bolts go missing. Something drags Madddie off while Tyler is stuck under the van.
Maddie wakes up next to a car accident, where a car hit a motorcycle. Tyler catches up to her, no, it’s really the monster. The real Ty shows up just in time to break the spell, and they drive off.
They arrive at another camper meetup, looking for Diane. Diane just wants them to get out of here, as do all the many other campers. They all know about the trouble. “He’e the highwayman from Hell. It’s demonic!” There’s a St. Christopher church that might offer protection and weaken its powers. She offers to take them there. The demon killed Diane right there in front of them.
Suddenly, it’s night again, and they’re still out on the road and almost out of gas. Maddie notices more Hobo Code symbols and follows them– off the road. They pass a bunch of old, deserted cars, all with the creature’s claw mark on them. Also, there are thousands of dead bodies in sheets ,but Tyler doesn’t think those are real. They all go “squish” and “Thump” as the van drives over them.
The demon appears inside the van and torments Tyler before being thrown outside. When she reaches the holy grounds of the church, the creature starts to smoke and steam. She drives right through the wall of the church, with the creature on the hood, and he’s not happy about it. She ends up impaling him on the St. Christopher statue’s sword. The demon melts in front of her.
The church explodes in fire, and Maddie gets out of the van to escape. She meets up with Tyler. Still, they’re out in the middle of the desert with no van or supplies. Somehow, the police show up (why? how?). Maddie and Tyler agree to get married and buy a normal house.
Brian’s Commentary
It’s the “Van Life” horror movie. The YouTubers all make this look like a fun lifestyle, but the movie shows the other side of it. Living in a van, your life will be full of overloud jump-scares.
It looks good, it’s very well paced; the acting is good. Overall, I liked it a lot, but there are a lot of jump scares.
Kevin’s Commentary
It was heavy on the jump scares to make them a little predictable and annoying. Other than that, it’s a movie that moves well, and I thought the casting was excellent. There wasn’t a lot new here, but I enjoyed it.
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