For some the open road presents escape and liberation; for others a spiral of avoidance and delusion. Either perspective can be a trap. The couple in this film present a gulf between viewpoints, and there’s potentially an interesting examination of a relationship whose motivations are in diametric opposition. Unfortunately, the characters aren’t deep enough to explore this with any nuance, their backstory existing simply to illustrate the divide.
It is undeniable that director André Øvredal can frame a shot, and there are genuinely striking scenes strewn throughout this meandering road trip. His tension-building and atmospherics are expertly crafted. Where he falters, with diminishing returns since The Autopsy of Jane Doe, is in delivering a gripping or cohesive narrative. The film throws ideas at the screen rapid-fire, and some of them land: demonic hobos, van-life societies of nomads, haunted mobile homes, hidden codes. None of them stick before the film jumps to the next idea. The hobo arrives with a rulebook, but the rules hold for about three seconds before they're jettisoned for a new mythology with its own rules, which is then abandoned in favor of copious jump scares.
Now, being fair, the jump scares are extremely effective. Paired with Øvredal’s fantastic framing and atmosphere, the film delivers real jolts and thrills. The problem is less with quality than with oversaturation. There are so many. Like a lifestyle in constant motion, it is exhausting, and we are all along for the ride.
A passenger doesn't steer. From set piece to set piece, the characters are propelled to their next clue or encounter. No choice ever costs them anything, so nothing accrues, not even injuries. Leaps in logic and logistics will baffle, but everything is hand-waved by the shifting rules. Then, after all that road, the film ends abruptly: thematically nigh-unrecognizable from where it began. In the end, it chooses its side of the opening question: it never stays with an idea long enough to be trapped by it, which is avoidance with better cinematography. Whether the titular passenger is the demonic hobo, Maddie questioning her life choices, or the audience questioning theirs for watching, the road leads to the same place. Tedium.