Passenger

CURSED ON WHEELS: THE CHAOTIC, CREEPY TRUE STORIES BEHIND PASSENGER (2026)

Think the demon in Passenger is the scariest thing about it? The real horror might be what happened off camera: priests on payroll, fly invasions, shredded tires, and an actor so deep in demon mode he freaked out his own castmates.

HAUNTED PRODUCTION: PRIESTS, EXORCISTS & “BAD LUCK” GALORE

• Director André Øvredal and producer Walter Hamada say the team actually brought in a priest to bless the set twice — once before shooting and once during production — after crew members started reporting spooky vibes and weird coincidences.
• That apparently wasn’t enough: they also consulted an exorcist about the unexplained happenings, leaning into the idea that their roadside demon movie might have attracted something a little too real.
• A running theme of the shoot? Nails in tires. At least four people on the production suffered mysterious flats from nails — including the first assistant director on day one, plus more flats during additional photography — and another tire incident even hit someone at a screening the night before the film opened.
• During one early test, the team blasted The Passenger’s full-throated scream in full costume and makeup. Multiple people reportedly jumped out of their seats, turning a simple camera check into a mini exorcism audition.

THE VAN FROM HELL: FLY INVASION & ROAD-HORROR REALISM

• Melissa Leo’s character van became infamous behind the scenes when it was suddenly swarmed by flies. An exterminator was called, the pests were cleared… and then more flies came back later, earning the vehicle its own low-budget possession arc.
• The film was shot practically in real vans across five Washington counties, with very little stage work — which meant the cast spent long nights actually driving around in the dark, locked in that “haunted house on wheels” vibe Øvredal was chasing.
• That opening road scare? The production was so up against the clock that the sequence was shot in roughly 15 minutes, with a stunt performer in the Passenger getup sprinting down the road for early passes before Joseph Lopez stepped in. Fans later pointed to tiny continuity quirks in that opener as the possible scar tissue of this sprint-style shoot (speculation, but a popular talking point in reactions).

DEMON METHOD: JOSEPH LOPEZ’S CREEPY COMMITMENT

• Casting The Passenger meant auditioning a series of potential creature performers — until Joseph Lopez walked in. Øvredal recalls that the moment Lopez left the room, they knew they were done: “That’s the guy, we don’t need to see anymore.”
• Lopez’s presence was so unnerving that he reportedly stayed in character inside the van between takes, sitting in silence and breathing heavily in full demon makeup. It rattled the crew and especially the leads, Lou Llobell and Jacob Scipio, who had to sit inches away from him in a confined metal box.
• The final creature design was built around Lopez’s real face and movements, with makeup layered on rather than burying him in heavy prosthetics, so that most of what you’re seeing is performance — and only a little latex.

CASTING CHEMISTRY, ONE-SHOT TERROR & THE BOB ROSS BATTLE

• Øvredal says they cast Jacob Scipio and Lou Llobell almost in tandem, reading them together and clocking their chemistry early. They saw more people for Maddie, but “very early on fell in love with Lou,” and once she was in, the central couple was locked.
• Oscar-winner Melissa Leo doesn’t usually jump at horror, but she reportedly leaned into the gruesome bits and loved it, making her brief appearance a bit of prestige splatter.
• One major set piece was staged as a single long take over about 200 feet, meticulously rehearsed with a stand-in before Llobell stepped in for the real thing. Multiple takes were shot, but only one could survive into the film, cranking the pressure on cast and crew.
• In the most unexpectedly wholesome-cursed subplot, producer Walter Hamada became obsessed with having a Bob Ross item in Maddie’s van as a symbol of “home.” The team had to write a letter to the Bob Ross estate explaining the thematic use and wait for official approval — which they finally got, celebrating it like they’d landed an A‑list cameo.

NERVOUS BREAKDOWNS & SCREAMING AUDIENCES

• In press chats, the team has alluded to at least one intense scene that left an actor genuinely shaken, with one piece teasing that an “actor broke down during the shoot” amid the relentless night work and emotional strain.
• At early screenings, outlets like Collider bragged that audiences actually screamed out loud at certain moments — the kind of reaction that suggests all those late-night van rides and real-location headaches paid off in pure, primal jump-scare dividends.

If the demon in Passenger seems a little too convincing, it might be because the production spent months living like their own cursed road-trip victims: flat tires, blessed sets, haunted vans, and a Passenger who never really left the vehicle.