Parents' Guide to Passenger

While this is a low-key, commonplace horror movie rooted in jolts and shocks and little else, director André Øvredal gives it enough style and emotional pull to make it worth hitting the road for. With Passenger, Øvredal sets things up right away during the prologue, in which one traveler searches around the empty car for his vanished friend, the camera lurking in a circle, leaving the possibility that something shocking will enter the frame at any moment. Another sequence, in which Maddie walks across a huge, almost empty parking lot at night, the concrete shimmering with wetness, is even better. Again, the camera circles her, making that huge, wide-open space feel claustrophobic and dangerous. A third sequence cleverly uses a video projector, which is in the process of playing Roman Holiday, as a makeshift flashlight.

When they're not being stalked, Maddie and Tyler have real conversations that, even if they don't reach the level of Tennessee Williams, at least sound honest. They tease and they disagree, but they listen to each other, which is refreshing. The movie also paints an interesting picture of the culture of van dwellers, people who are perpetually on the road. The monster, which, vaguely resembles the "Tall Man" from Phantasm (1979), isn't terribly interesting (and doesn't really warrant sequels or a franchise), but it does give us the creeps when it leers and hisses suddenly. All in all, Passenger won't change the world for any horror hounds out there, but it does its job, and it's worth the ride.