When we last saw director André Øvredal, he created 2023’s Dracula update The Last Voyage of the Demeter. With 2026’s Passenger, Øvredal stays within the horror genre.

On a long RV road trip, young couple Tyler Genocchio (Jacob Scipio) and Maddie Brecker (Lou Llobell) encounter a crashed car with a severely injured driver (Miles Fowler). After authorities arrive, they move on with their journey.

However, this incident doesn’t leave them behind, as it appears a dark force comes along for the ride. This creates an ominous threat that they struggle to escape.

Partly because it got not-so-hot reviews and partly because I find the vampire genre largely tapped out, I skipped Demeter. This leaves 2020’s Mortal and 2019’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark as my only encounters with Øvredal’s oeuvre.

While I liked the idea of Mortal as an unusual superhero flick, the end product became a snoozer. On the other hand, Dark brought an erratic but generally engaging horror tale that didn’t suffer from its “PG-13” orientation.

This leaves Passenger to break a “tie”, and it does. It leaves me with the impression that the meh Øvredal of Mortal seems more representative of his skills than the mostly decent director of Dark.

Passenger does start on a promising note, though, as it launches with a journey gone wrong that involves Lucas (Fowler) and his pal Daniel (Alan Trong). Normally I don’t like openings that seem to exist solely to give audiences some terror before the main plot kicks in, but this one works.

Partly that happens because Lucas and Daniel give off an appealing buddy vibe, but it also occurs because Passenger actually ties in these events to the main Maddie/Tyler plot. This allows the “scary opening” to fare better than usual.

Unfortunately, too much of what we find after that plods. In particular, much of the material related to the Maddie/Tyler relationship seems padded.

Passenger layers on complications that we don’t need. Just send two pretty people on the road to experience fright and leave out the tedious issues between the two.

I get the impression these elements exist in a flawed attempt to give the roles depth. It doesn’t succeed, as Maddie and Tyler never seem anything more than one-dimensional.

At least Llobell does well as Maddie. She brings charm and life to her underwritten role.

Scipio doesn’t hold up his side of the bargain, though. He comes across as stiff and flat through the film.

Too much of Passenger tends to seem silly or cliché. The basic premise feels workable but the end result becomes a goofy dud.

Passenger appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. As expected, the movie presented strong visuals.

Overall definition seemed good. A few nighttime shots showed a smidgen of softness, but those elements remained modest, as the film usually appeared accurate and concise.

Jagged edges and moiré effects didn’t mar the presentation, and I saw no edge haloes. Print flaws also failed to appear.

In terms of palette, Passenger went with a standard amber/orange and blue/teal orientation. Within stylistic choices, the hues seemed well-depicted.

Blacks were dark and dense, and low-light shots gave us good clarity. I felt pleased with this transfer.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the film’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack tended toward a pretty standard horror soundscape, one that tended to favor atmosphere above all else. This meant a mix with a creepy vibe that added to the material.

Occasional action scenes brought more life to the soundfield, though, and those made the track engaging. These occurred often enough to give a boost to the mix and make it involving and impactful.

Audio quality worked fine, with speech that appeared natural and concise. Music came across as bold and dynamic as well.

Effects showed nice clarity and reproduction. Those elements felt accurate and bold, and they contributed deep low-end when necessary. All in all, the soundtrack worked well for the film.

No extras appear on the disc.

An attempt to make road trips scary, Passenger enjoys a reasonably decent premise. Unfortunately, it pursues its themes in a manner that makes the end product sluggish and silly. The Blu-ray comes with very good picture and audio but it lacks supplements. I’ve seen worse horror flicks but this one lacks enough charms to merit a look.