The trope of the haunted highway exists around the world, and writers Zachary Donohue (horror movie The Den) and T.W. Burgess (author of graphic novels Early Haunts and Malevolents) are big fans.
“Usually these haunted road stories are about someone who died on that road and is now haunting it – about a specific haunted road,” shares Donohue. “We wanted to make it broader, something scarier, and just demonic. Where every road is haunted, and they’ve always been haunted.” Adds Burgess, “We wanted to do something totally different. It’s not just a ghost of a road, but something more malevolent and more all-encompassing.”
The two began exploring the typical things that might plague drivers, like becoming lost, losing a sense of time – even flat tires – and asking themselves, “What might that look like as a scare?”
Lou Llobell with the Passenger in Passenger
Photo credit: Paramount Pictures
In Passenger, after a young couple witnesses a gruesome highway accident, they soon realize they did not leave the crash scene alone, as a demonic presence called the Passenger that won’t stop until it claims them both turns their van life adventure into a nightmare. Starring Lou Llobell (TV series Foundation), Jacob Scipio (Bad Boys for Life, Bad Boys: Ride or Die) and Oscar winner Melissa Leo (The Fighter).
The mysterious entity in Passenger is not a creature, says Donohue. “He doesn’t just come out and kill you. Part of his mythos is that he wants to torment you, to ride you the whole distance you can go, until you break down, literally,” often causing his victims to crash themselves into their own deaths.
Producer Walter Hamada (The Conjuring, It) was impressed with the scares Donohue and Burgess wrote into the story. “They did a great job picking out the kinds of iconic road trip moments, things you take for granted – putting on a seat belt, rearview cameras, fixing a flat tire – and subverting them,” says Hamada. “Basically, what we strove for was how to ruin a road trip for people everywhere. How do we make people think twice, if they’re going to go on a road trip?”
Director André Øvredal (Troll Hunter, The Autopsy of Jane Doe) loved the scares too. “The horror and suspense scenes were very inspiring – the tension, the mood and the tone. The fact that we’re doing a haunted house with a moving home!” he laughs. “Just the idea of this highway myth, that can affect anybody who’s driving on highways, how it can infiltrate their lives – and become not only an obstacle, but a symbol of the obstacles in their relationship, as well.”
Lou Llobell and Jacob Scipio in Passenger
Photo credit: Paramount Pictures
The religious aspect of the story was something Øvredal also found appealing. “It’s about two people just trying to fit together, in a way, and make life work for them together,” he says. “But then to have this kind of religious battle going on between St. Christopher and this demonic entity, in over their heads, is like an eternal battle. It was a really intriguing aspect to the film that was always there, but that we leaned into, as we were developing it.”
One key storytelling device has to do with a mark The Passenger leaves on a targeted victim’s car. “We were always trying to figure out how that would look,” explains Donohue. “The Passenger will mark the car with something – but we didn’t know what that mark would look like. In an early version, it’s just a marking. Then Walter [Hamada] was pushing us about, ‘Well, what is that marking?’ And then he just came up with the idea of three scratches.”
Lou Llobell and Jacob Scipio in Passenger
Photo credit: Paramount Pictures
Adds Hamada, “So if you stumble upon these scratches on your vehicle, you’ve been marked by The Passenger. It’s demonic, like a signature. The three slashes are sort of an affront to the Holy Trinity. It shows up in a lot of stories about exorcism and demonic.”
Get ready to go on a road trip when Passenger opens only in cinemas May 27. #PassengerMovie
Photo and Video Credit: “Paramount Pictures”
