Who wants to sit shotgun for Paramount Pictures‘ new horror film Passenger? The studio turned the key on an official trailer for the new firghtfest from André Øvredal (Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, The Last Voyage of the Demeter) on Tuesday morning, which includes a couple of jump scares for the director’s latest foray into the supernatural.
What’s Passenger about?
Here’s the official synopsis for Passenger, courtesy of Paramount Pictures in association with Domain Entertainment:
“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.”
Passenger stars Jacob Scipio (Bad Boys for Life, The Outpost, Maintenance Required), Lou Llobell (Foundation, Voyagers), and Melissa Leo (The Fighter, Prisoners, Frozen River). André Øvredal directs Passengers from a screenplay by Zachary Donohue and T.W. Burgess, with Jenny Hinkey, Nathan Samdahl, Pete Chiappetta, Anthony Tittanegro, and Andrew Lary executive producing.
The Legend of Frankie Fingers
As today’s Passenger trailer states, 130 million people take road trips every year. 15,400 of them are never seen again. We’ve all heard of The Passenger, or the “Vanishing Hitchhiker,” right? According to Jan Harold Brunvand‘s non-fiction novel The Vanishing Hitchhiker, the story of this chilling phenomenon dates back to the 1870s, with reports of similar events in England, Ethiopia, Korea, France, South Africa, Tsarist Russia, and in America among Chinese Americans, Mormons, and Ozark mountaineers. The tale revolves around a disturbed hitchhiker who mysteriously vanishes from the vehicle during the trip. While Øvredal’s Passenger takes liberties with the original urban legend, you can easily draw a straight line from one to the other. I’ve always found this tale particularly unnerving, and it’s one of the reasons I’ve never picked up a hitchhiker after I gave a dude named “Frankie Fingers” a ride to his house. Before we dropped him off, he ducked into the woods next to his house and gave me a pricey subwoofer for my car as a thank you for the ride. Wherever you are today, Frankie, I hope you’re doing alright.
Are you excited to ride along with Passenger for André Øvredal’s next horror film? What do you think of today’s trailer? Let us know in the comments section below.
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