Passenger

Van life, as it’s known, is a subject that’s ripe for a horror movie. Alone on the highway, far away from normality, its practitioners are free to go where they like, yet always trapped in the samemetal box. So it proves for our newly engaged heroes, Maddie (Lou Llobell) and Tyler (Jacob Scipio). “If we can survive six weeks on the road, we can survive anything,” says Tyler. Here’s hoping.

Sparely scripted by T.W. Burgess and Zachary Donohue (The Den), and stylishly directed by Norwegian André Øvredal (The Last Voyage Of The Demeter), Passenger takes a spooky concept, then puts the pedal to the metal so there’s no time to question it.

A fantastic opening sequence — all blaring horns, red warning lights and expertly timed jump-scares — introduces half-glimpsed antagonist the Passenger (Joseph Lopez), a creepy old man who’s given to popping up unannounced in the back of vehicles. Imagine It Follows retooled for Jeremy Clarkson and you get the idea.

Things step up a gear when the Passenger begins stalking Maddie and Tyler. Alone in an empty car park, she finds herself menaced by an ominous figure, unexplained footsteps and all manner of automotive trickery, the camera twirling tense pirouettes around her to create a sense of all-pervasive dread.

“The road can be a scary place,” warns grizzled van-lifer Diana (Melissa Leo), who might have stepped straight out of Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland. She’s not wrong. While the film is many milessouth of subtle, and any attempt at characterisation is jettisoned early on, Øvredal directs the hell out of it, skirting the idea’s potential silliness to deliver some skin-prickling set-pieces.

If things run out of steam a little during the climax — after all, most supernatural phenomena are best left under-explained — it doesn’t ruin what went before. In a strong year for original horror, Passenger is a trip to remember.