Carter Smith’s The Passenger takes us through one of the strangest horror stories in recent times. With Kyle Gallner and Johnny Berchtold in the lead roles, this 93-minute-long film is an exciting thriller with an unpredictable plot.
The Passenger revolves around Randy and Benson, two fast food workers who work at the same dreadful place. Randy’s timid and anxious personality leads him to be bullied by all of the other employees every day. Benson, who was an eccentric quiet guy eventually snaps and ends up killing the employees who bullied Randy.
Benson takes Randy with him on a scary killing spree where Randy never knows if he will make it out alive of this chaotic horror. While The Passenger does have an intriguing plot, many critics have disliked the ending and other elements of the film.
The great acting from Kyle Gallner and Johnny Berchtold makes the film more impactful, who play the roles of Benson and Randy respectively. Besides them, the cast of The Passenger includes Liza Weil in the role of Miss Beard, Billy Slaughter plays Hardy, Matthew Laureano plays Chris, and Jordan Sherley plays Jess.
The Passenger 2023 Filming Locations:
With cinematographer Lyn Moncrief, the filming for The Passenger began sometime around April 2022. The major filming location for this Carter Smith horror was New Orleans, Louisiana, US.
New Orleans, Louisiana:
The Passenger needed vintage filming styles and locations to add to the horror of the film, and most rural parts of Louisiana were used for such locations. Benson takes Randy captive and forces him to watch silently as he kills anyone who comes in their way.
Most of the time Benson and Randy are together when they’re on the road moving from one place to another. The Passenger’s crew had to arrive in New Orleans during the spring season to film all of the road scenes. Natural light and vintage filters played a huge role in adding the slow horror atmosphere to The Passenger.
Cinematographer Lyn Moncrief reveals that they had to shoot all of the scenes on location, instead of using a stage or projecting some kind of screen for the shots. New Orleans may have the perfect deserted remote roads for filming The Passenger, but the weather is usually unpredictable with it often raining during the night in spring.
Besides the various hurdles that come with filming on the road, Lyn and the actors also had to stay wary of a tornado that was heading their way. The Passenger’s crew returned to blocked roads the next day, making the shooting a bit more tedious.
However, the tornado made the weather dark and grim, which was perfect for The Passenger’s scenes. These New Orleans roads often ended up changing to green once there was enough rain, so the actors and the production team had to wrap it up before something like that happened.
Carter’s vision for the horror film was an early 2000s America, with a bleak and barren environment in all of the scenes. The car and road scenes had to be prioritized first so that they could complete the filming before the land turned green with flora.
It’s only the diner scenes and a handful of other scenes from The Passenger that are full of color. New Orleans, located in Southeastern Louisiana is a melting pot of all kinds of diverse and interesting cultures. Its barren lands after fall often give it the true American atmosphere that most filmmakers would go for.
Besides films, New Orleans has also given birth to various popular inventions like dental floss, cotton candy, and various other things. Its large parks, museums, restaurants, and ports have attracted many visitors over the years. The huge city also offers picturesque views of the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain.
Despite the beauty surrounding New Orleans, it happens to have three times the average crime rate in the US. It’s a place that’s entertaining with a lot of activities to engage in, while also having a dark side to it.
This is the reason it has been a popular filming spot for crime series or movies like True Detective, American Horror Story, The Killer, Five Nights At Freddy’s, and The Highwaymen.
This sums up the known locations for The Passenger, now available to stream on Prime Video.
