‘Passenger’ Is a Pretty Spooky Tale of Life on the Road

May 21, 2026

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La la la la la la la la (CREDIT: Paramount Pictures)

Starring: Jacob Scipio, Lou Llobell, Melissa Leo, Joseph Lopez

Director: André Øvredal

Running Time: 97 Minutes

Rating: R for Some Fascinatingly Hardcore Gore

Release Date: May 22, 2026 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Tyler (Jacob Scipio) and his girlfriend Maddie (Lou Llobell) are living that van life, baby! But evil forces are lurking along the darkest roads. That’s a huge bummer, especially because their road tripping starts off really promising with Tyler asking Maddie to marry him. But after they pull over to help another driver in a bizarre accident, they start to become haunted by a spectral figure (Joseph Lopez) who looks like a greasy-haired preacher. His modus operandi involves hitching a ride onto their journey and then torturing them until he finally feels like gruesomely killing them. If they have any chance of surviving, they must turn to the ancient wisdom from the early days of the American roadways.

What Made an Impression?: Love/Hate Relationship: If there’s anything that Passenger gets unequivocally right, it’s the stark difference between driving at day and driving at night. The latter features wonderful vistas captured by cinematographer Federico Verardi that had me going, “I can’t wait to get back out on the open road.” Whereas the latter had me bemoaning, “I never went to get behind the wheel of an automobile ever again.”
He Is the Passenger: What’s the deal with the villain at the center of this movie, anyway? It seems like he can kill as soon as he becomes attached himself to his victims, but he really draws things out with Tyler and Maddie. Maybe he’s like a cat toying with a mouse? There are some strong indicators that arming oneself with the iconography of St. Christopher (the patron saint of travelers) can offer protection from him. But that’s sporadic at best in practice. Regardless of all the questions the The Passenger raises, it’s no question that Lopez pulls off the quiet menace with aplomb.
They Don’t Deserve to Die: Tyler and Maddie aren’t the most unforgettable horror protagonists ever, but they’re also far from the stupidest. They make reasonable enough decisions given the information that they have, and they’re generally supportive of each other despite a few conflicts along the way. Accordingly, Scipio and Llobell’s performances are sufficient for making us hope that they don’t die. And sometimes, that is adequate for delivering a satisfying tale of terror.

Passenger is Recommended If You: Believe hitchhikers are evil

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Car Scratches

This Is a Movie Review: ‘Novitiate’ is the Latest Harrowing and Also Inspiring Peek at the Inner Workings of the Catholic Church

October 24, 2017

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CREDIT: Sony Pictures Classics

This review was originally posted on News Cult in October 2017.

Starring: Margaret Qualley, Melissa Leo, Julianne Nicholson, Dianna Agron, Denis O’Hare

Director: Margaret Betts

Running Time: 123 Minutes

Rating: R for Sexuality and Profanity-Laced Anger That Can Be Suppressed for Only So Long

Release Date: October 27, 2017 (Limited)

An institution as massive and long-lasting as the Catholic Church is bound to be filled with corners that many of its members are completely unfamiliar with. Sometimes those areas are not even the ones that are shamefully hidden. They may actually be intrinsic features, but if allowed to function independently, they can involve into a weird hybrid of both doctrinaire and renegade. I was raised (and remain) Catholic, but I was born decades after the reforms of Vatican II, which rendered the most extreme practices of convents as seen in Novitiate verobten. But even if I had been a churchgoer in the ’60s, I doubt I would have been familiar with the ins and outs of the nuns’ rigorous training. And yet, this story does not feel fully alien, nor should it feel so to anyone of any background who has ever desired feelings of deep love and devotion.

This examination of religious life is mainly told through the story of Sister Cathleen (Margaret Qualley), who in 1964 is one of the convent’s new class of postulants (candidates to become nuns) who eventually become novitiates (nuns-in-training). Margaret’s ready acceptance of the convent’s extreme practices, e.g. self-abnegation, has nothing to do with lifelong indoctrination, as she comes from a family of bitterly divorced, agnostic parents (at least Mom is agnostic, Dad is never much around). Her attraction to marrying God is perhaps a desire for stability, but it is also more than that. Stirring in her is an aching for transcendence that cannot easily be explained by nurture (or lack thereof). Setting her up as the novice character to follow in this secretive world is crucial, because otherwise the convent’s frightening elements would feel almost abstract and theoretical.

As the convent is resisting the reforms of Vatican II that were then being enacted, the message is clear that this is not the right way to practice religious devotion. But that historical background of rebuke is unnecessary to make that point, except perhaps for viewers with the most hardened of souls. The training and practices – oppressive silence, avoidance of eye contact, asceticism, confession in a group setting – are reminiscent of the auditing of Scientology, so memorably approximated in The Master. Ostensibly designed to make its adherents better people and closer to God, its true effects are vulnerability and surrender to authority. Overseeing all this is the Mother Superior (Melissa Leo), who while sitting on her throne of a central chair, is reminiscent of Pan’s Laybrinth’s Pale Man.

Novitiate is powerful grist for the mill for those who decry the problems inherent to all religions and for those who remain religious but point to this as an example of the wrong way of doing things. And quite frankly, it may very well also make such a connection to the ultra-traditionalists and reactionaries, who might see this as a lament for the old, better way. It is a fascinatingly human look at all those urges, appealing both to a desire to connect to a higher power and a desire to not be wrong.

Novitiate is Recommended If You Like: Spotlight, The Master, Silence

Grade: 4 out of 5 Grand Silences