La pasajera

If you go into this expecting a horror movie with suspense and scares you are going to be disappointed. I don't care for comedy-horror and this is more comedy than horror although it is poor at both. The lead actor is charming and appealing and is the best part of the film. It has character development so it takes a while to get going, but once the horror element finally kicks in it becomes obvious why the film makers didn't go for straight-up horror, they're no good at it. It is never suspenseful, thrilling or even remotely frightening. The pairing of the older lead actor with an actress who appears to be a young teen comes across as a bit inappropriate because it seems at times as if they are going for romantic. As a whole the movie just doesn't work.

Didn't really love this one. Probably my fault as I was expecting a full horror film and didn't know it is a comedy-horror, a subgenre that I usually need to be prepared in advance for it.

Probably because of the previously mentioned, the comedy bits mostly didn't work for me. Neither the scary parts. I liked however all the technical elements, including the great practical effects (fantastic creature design), the cinematography and the use of sound, integrating so well elements of the local culture. The story is very simple, even if the build-up is a bit too long, but I liked the final act.

Needless to say that I hadn't heard about the 2021 Spanish horror movie "La Pasajera" (aka "The Passenger") prior to sitting down here in 2022 to watch it. But being a lifelong horror fan, of course I had to watch the movie, regardless of having heard about it or not.

Writers Luis Sánchez-Polack, Asier Guerricaechebarría, Javier Echániz and Raúl Cerezo managed to put together a fair enough script and storyline here, though I have to say that as the movie came to an end I was left with a feeling of 'was that really it?'. So yeah, while the movie is watchable, you're not in for anything outstanding here. It is a pretty generic horror movie actually.

The acting performances in "La Pasajera" were good. I wasn't familiar with the actors or actresses here, but then again I am not overly familiar with Spanish cinema. But I will say that the cast did put on fair enough performances throughout the course of the movie.

Visually then "La Pasajera" was good. But it was a shame that they didn't go for adding more special effects into the storyline. You have to sit through about more than half of the movie before things start to escalate and happen. And by then, I think a handful or two in the audience might have gotten up and left their seats. The special effects were actually quite good for a movie such as this.

And while I did manage to sit through the entire movie, then I was only mildly entertained. It was an okay enough foray into the horror genre, although a somewhat generic one. I will not, however, return to watch "La Pasajera" a second time, simply because there wasn't enough entertainment to support a second viewing here.

My rating of "La Pasajera" lands on a bland five out of ten stars.

Not to be confused with the other horror-passenger from 2023. These two exact-titled movies couldn't be further apart. And spoiler, I enjoyed this one MUCH more.

Continuing into Ahhctober 2024, I chose another South American/Spanish-speaking horror movie (much like last year's When Evil Lurks.) Only, this one was NOWHERE near as good. Thank God for that ending tho!

This movie involves around a weird ride-share adventure with several unique passengers. Only, they happen to travel through an alien invasion turning everyone into...sorta zombies.

The lead-up to the finale wasn't bad. It was just standard with so many characters doing the exact opposite as they should to really survive a horror movie.

I just happened to love the third act. It's kinda foretold, but not really. To me, it was the perfect ending and two words to the filmmakers:

NO SEQUEL. End here. Okay, that's four words.

***

Final Thoughts: I would've certainly downgraded this movie so much more for those outlandish and stupid mistakes the characters make...repeatedly. It just redeemed itself with such a great ending.

This movie was a bit of a breath of fresh air. It was different and quirky and possess a nice light hearted air to it.

Aesthetically this movie was a real pleasure. It looked amazing and it it was chock-full of interesting and dynamic shots that I really appreciated. While the quality of the picture was lovely, unfortunately the special effects didn't quite compete. What little CGI there was looked silly and the prosthetics didn't really read super well for me either. The acting seemed great as well coming from an English speaker, I quite enjoyed the main guy.

As far as the story went I felt like it was just barely enough, if not maybe not quite there. The pacing was a little bit slow which didn't help it out all too much. It just didn't really feel like there was much of a point or purpose behind the story other than just being a vehicle for a creature feature.

That being said this really was a pleasurable experience that felt fresh and unique. 6.5 rounding down to a 6, would recommend.