Review: The Passenger (2023)

The Passenger (2023)

Not rated

Score: 4 out of 5

The Passenger is my final Popcorn Frights movie before moving to Massachusetts, a film that they held a special sneak preview of last Friday night that's not quite a horror movie, but is absolutely horror-adjacent. It's a low-key crime thriller that, after its shocking opening, is a very talky, naturalistic slow burn as it explores the lives of its two main characters, both of whom have considerable darkness in their pasts weighing them down and setting them on the road to where they are now. It's a movie where you kind of know how it's gonna go, but you find yourself enjoying the journey anyway, not least of all thanks to Kyle Gallner carrying the film on his shoulders as its superficially charming yet unhinged villain. It's not an instant classic, but it's certainly worth a watch.

The film starts with Randy Bradley (who usually goes by just his last name), a twenty-year-old employee at a fast-food joint in a small, podunk town in Louisiana. His boss wonders what the hell he's doing in this job, his co-workers bully him, and the janitor Benson... well, today he went out to his car, grabbed a shotgun out of the trunk, and murdered everybody inside, sparing only Bradley seemingly because he sympathizes with the poor guy. It's not over for Bradley, though, as Benson forces him to help hide the bodies in the freezer, clean up the mess he left behind, and then join him on a long drive through town as he hopes to make a getaway.

I wasn't kidding when I said that Gallner carries this movie. His Benson is a guy who lives with his mother, owns at least two guns, listens to punk and metal on his car's stereo, blames others for his failures in life, and is presented as a lout beneath his superficial charm, quick to anger and mistreating everybody around him, including Bradley even as he tries to be friendly with his captive. His mom, as much of a lazy bum as she is, figures out in no time that he probably crossed a line he can't go back from the moment he arrives at his house with Bradley in tow. We all know a guy like Benson, and the only surprise is that he didn't shoot up his workplace sooner. Gallner dominates every scene he's in, at times to a fault as he completely overshadows Johnny Berchtold as Bradley. Berchtold's performance is subdued, but it works for the character, first as he's being harassed by his co-workers and then as he's practically frozen in terror in the face of Benson, looking for a way to let others know that this guy is a murderer without tipping him off. A lot of the film revolves around him learning to overcome his own insecurities and ironically stand up for himself in exactly the manner that Benson wishes he would, just not in a way that Benson would like him to do at this very moment. Once I heard Bradley's big speech outlining the reason why he turned out such a sad sack, I was able to figure out exactly how his and Benson's stories were going to end, but even then, it made me want to see exactly how it was going to play out, given that it doesn't quite telegraph everything.

Helping me along on that journey was the portrait that director Carter Smith painted of the film's small-town Louisiana setting. I'm familiar with towns like this, and it's the kind of place I can easily imagine producing men like Benson and Bradley who've seemingly given up on life in various ways. It was probably the most dour and uninviting I've ever seen the modern South depicted on screen, a grim yet appropriate backdrop for Benson's antics. (I will say, though, as a former substitute teacher in Florida that elementary school they visit in one scene was oddly nice for a public school in a Southern state.) The whole movie had an aura of doom to it, like you're trapped there with Bradley on this out-of-control ride that's probably going to end badly for a lot of people even if he manages to find a way to stop Benson.

The Bottom Line

There's not really a whole lot to say. The Passenger is a low-stakes but gripping thriller anchored by an outstanding lead performance from Kyle Gallner, one in which the experience is more important than the details. Check it out when it hits streaming or VOD.