Film Review – The Passenger (2023)

Director Carter Smith was recently in command of last February’s “Swallowed,” finding compelling ways to amplify an unusual crisis of drugs and digestion. There was a creepy opener with some real tension to explore, but Smith wasn’t as confident with his conclusion, bringing the feature in for a rocky landing. It wasn’t the resolution many hoped for, but enough of “Swallowed” connected as intended, highlighting the helmer’s interest in bizarre situations of confrontation and survival. Smith’s newest endeavor, “The Passenger,” also gets off on the right foot, establishing a level of confusion and violence to power the story. However, this time, the ending matches the beginning, with “The Passenger” maintaining a consistent level of threat and furious feelings, detailing a gnarly therapy session between a mass shooter and the victim he spared with a decent sense of pace and a few stretches of real intensity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com