Not new to the horror genre, director André Øvredal — known for The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and The Last Voyage of the Demeter — is back with a new nightmare. His latest film, the supernatural horror Passenger, will make you rethink every late-night road trip through secluded stretches of highway. Starring Jacob Scipio (Maintenance Required, Bad Boys: Ride or Die), Lou Llobell (Foundation, Voyagers) and Melissa Leo (Prisoners, The Fighter).
The film follows a young couple who witness a horrific accident on a deserted highway. They unknowingly bring something evil home with them. A sinister entity known only as the Passenger begins haunting their van life journey, transforming their adventure into a relentless nightmare that won’t end until it possesses them both. We spoke with Jacob Scipio, Lou Llobell, and director André Øvredal abuout Passenger which is now playing in theaters.
The scenes shared inside the van feel deeply immersive, placing the audience right alongside the couple as their experience unfolds. This sense of closeness is intentional, reflecting Øvredal’s filmmaking approach.
“I’m very preoccupied with the surroundings, the sets, and the world that we’re living in. [It’s important that] we utilize the space that we’re in, really feel the space. So, whenever I come to a location or plan out something, the thing I do is walk to the very edges of the location at every direction to ask, what am I seeing here? How can I utilize this space? It’s [important] for me to make sure that becomes part of it, but also juxtaposing the world against the presence and the proximity to the actors. I really want [the audience] to be right there with the actors, I’m very preoccupied with the camera being in your face with the actors, because I want to see the pores in their skin, I want to see their thoughts and everything behind their eyes,” Øvredal shares.
The van feels like a character in its own right, becoming both a sanctuary and a trap as the horror closes in. Scipio and Llobell even gave the van a name, reinforcing the connection they share with the space that carries them through their film: “We called her Pumpkin. I thought, we have to give her a name, I was going to call her, like, Jean Claude Van Van or Dick Van Dyke. I was thinking of van names but we landed on Pumpkin. She’s sweet. But to be in that confined space, it really adds to the claustrophobia,” Scipio says.
“And we also had to learn to work in that space and our characters had to learn to live in that space together, and those parallels were really great. It fed into what we had to do,” Llobell adds.
Watch the full conversation with Jacob Scipio and Lou Llobell below.
Passenger is now playing in theaters.
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