The Passenger Review: Blumhouse's Latest Horror Is Lean, Mean, And Bloody
"There's something about you. There's something fixable. I believe that." So says Benson (Kyle Gallner), a fast food worker turned serial killer in "The Passenger," Carter Smith's lean, mean, bloody machine of a horror movie. Benson is speaking to Randy Bradley (Johnny Berchtold), his nervous, timid, frightened coworker. The two men are on a road trip through hell, and a road trip through Bradley's past. Benson has taken it upon himself to "fix" Bradley, and while his methods are questionable — and bloody — his assumptions about Bradley are not wrong. Bradley is the type of guy too frightened to correct people who get his name wrong; he's a sad, quiet bundle of nerves, haunted by an unfortunate incident from his past — an incident that has seemingly informed his entire shabby existence.
A melancholy horror blankets this movie — it's a frequently nasty piece of work with a kind of sadness in its heart. And ruin and despair seem to be the name of the game; the characters traverse a rundown landscape where everything and everyone seems to be going out of business. A trip to the mall reveals countless stores abandoned or foreclosing. It's a dead-end town they forgot to close down, and the characters travel through this world with tired, weary attitudes.
When we first meet Bradley, he wakes at the crack of dawn to drive to his job at a fast food joint called Burgers Burgers Burgers. Fine dining this is not — the place, with its hideous orange-yellow-white color scheme, looks trapped in the '80s (and it looks like it hasn't been adequately cleaned since that decade, too). Bradley's coworkers are bullies, except for Benson, who seems to keep to himself, mopping the floors with his head down. And then everything changes — after a tense confrontation between Bradley and another coworker, Benson retrieves a shotgun from his car and proceeds to kill everyone in the joint. Everyone except Bradley.
Gruesome actions
"The Passenger" is a stripped-down affair; a film that plays its cards close to the vest and doesn't worry about ever showing you its full hand. Jack Stanley's script is economical, only giving us the info we need and never concerned with all the minute details. This could've backfired and turned the film into an exercise in slightness, but "The Passenger" makes the most of its bare-bones story, drawing you up into its weird cat-and-mouse game going on between its leads.
Gallner, sporting a fuzzy sweater that looks incredibly comfortable, is an agent of chaos; a menacing, unpredictable live wire; a landmine that has yet to be dug up, just waiting for someone to walk into the blast zone. He's matched by Berchtold's frightened performance. Gallner's Benson is aggressive while Berchtold's Bradley is passive, and that could've resulted in Gallner's performance overshadowing the work Berchtold does here. But both actors equate themselves nicely, fully embodying their respective, very different characters.
Or are they really so different? After killing their coworkers, Benson more or less takes Bradley hostage, dragging him along on a little road trip through town. Why is Benson doing this? He insists he wants to help Bradley — to shake him out of his timid headspace. But why? What is driving his bloody rampage? Maybe he sees something of himself in Bradley. There are hints at a traumatic past, but "The Passenger" wisely doesn't try to psychoanalyze its psycho killer. It wants his gruesome actions to speak for themselves, with just a hint of mystery.
Queasy tension
A queasy tension runs through "The Passenger." As Benson and Bradley go from one location to the next, one has to brace themselves for the potential horrors to come. Nothing quite comes close to the blood-drenched opening of the film, but it's that very act that enhances the tension. We've seen what Benson can and will do, and now we're just waiting to see what he's going to do next.
Things come to a head when Benson forces Bradley to visit his second-grade teacher (Liza Weil), with whom he shares a somewhat tragic past. Will this visit shake Bradley out of his life-long stupor? Or will it result in more violence? The unpredictability only enhances the tension and horror, and we can only sit back and watch. These scenes are fine exercises in building tension, aided by Gallner's scary, game performance.
We don't quite know why Benson is doing what he's doing, but then there's the question of Bradley. In some respects, he's a hostage, being forced along the journey by Benson. But you get the sense that even if Benson wasn't packing a gun, Bradley would still go along for the ride. He's too meek to say no; too self-loathing to stand up for himself. In this respect, Benson really is helping Bradley, shaking him out of his shell. Unfortunately, such actions result in a body count.
Running from dawn to dusk, "The Passenger" draws us into its world and takes us along for the ride. This isn't the most sophisticated horror pic, nor is it doing anything particularly new. And yet, the effectiveness cannot be denied. This is a tight, snappy, simple little thriller that never overstays its welcome and doesn't skimp on the horror, with two strong performances guiding us through all the bloodshed.
/Film Rating: 6.5 out of 10