Welcome back to Rotten Ink and to another SUPRISE “From Horror Movie To Horror Comic” update. For this one, we will be chatting about a short horror film as well as the comic book based around it, both done by Strange Films! And this is what I love to see here at Rotten Ink, a horror filmmaker turning his films into horror comics for fans to check out to not only bring attention to the film, but also give horror comic readers something new. The film and comic we will be talking about is Passenger, that was released around 2017 and has frightened viewers ever since. So if you are ready, let’s hit the dark spooky road of horror comics and see what this Passenger has in store for us in the scare department.

Let’s start by taking a look at The Passenger, a weird demon like creature who walks the roads looking to hitch a ride with unsuspecting drivers! The Passenger has many ways of dealing death. His first way is his monstrous appearance as he looks like a reptile like demon creature and when a victim sees this, they are frozen with fear leaving them open for an attack. He also has the ability to run into a moving or stopped car and place himself into the back seat of the automobile making him very hard to escape, and leaving his targeted human once more easy to attack. While he shuffles when walking, The Passenger does seem to move fast when he sets his eye on a target and is ready to attack. His main tools for killing are his claws and his razor sharp teeth that can shred human flesh and his bite can rip away flesh like a hot knife through butter. Another tool The Passenger has is his bite, which can turn his victims into a monster like himself making him also a spreader of some sort of demonic virus. The Passenger is super dangerous and as of this update he has no known weakness making him a “unstoppable” killing machine. While he might not be the most evil killer or creature we have covered here, The Passenger remains a true cryptozoology style urban legend monster that is sure to scare his victims to death.

Now that we have taken a look at The Passenger, the creature, we should now take a look at Passenger, the short film that this weird killer creature is from! And like always, we will be taking the films plot from our friends at IMDB and then I will be writing about the films production as well as my thoughts. And with that if you are ready, lets’ stick out our thumbs and see of we can hitch a ride…but not turn into this type of Passenger!

Passenger (2017)

“In a small town where monsters, evil, and secrets lurk in every corner, THE STRANGER watches from the shadows. On her way home from a night out, Lindsey will soon become the victim of an unexpected passenger.”

Passenger was a sequel to a short film called “There’s Something Down The Road” that was the first film for production company Strange Films that is run by the son and father duo of August & Frank Aguilar who have creative minds and started building their own movie universe. The film had a budget of around $500 and would be written and directed by August Aguilar, who would bring back actor Roger Gregg to play The Stranger (a recurring character in the Strange Film Universe) and then would bring on such actors like Megan Jones, Hunter Brown, Christina Wilson and Tyler McKee would be casted as The Passenger. The film would be shot around the Knoxville, Tennessee area and would have Erik Jackson doing the special effects. When done, the film would be around 6 minutes long and would feature free to use music that blended well with the film. When done the film was released in August 2017 and would show in a few film festivals and would get good word of mouth from those who seen it. The short film would be released on YouTube on July 7, 2019 and would go on to get well over 6.4k views as of this updates posting. The film was met with mostly positive reviews from critics and fans and would even get a comic book based around it. The film in 2017 was released alongside such other horror films as The Bye Bye Man, Get Out, Happy Death Day, Wish Upon, One Cut Of The Dead, Creep 2, Jeepers Creepers 3, Devil’s Trail, 10/31 and It Comes At Night, to name a few.

The Passenger is a film I discovered because of the Kickstater that August Aguilar was running for the comic book adaptation of the short film, and from the moment I saw the creature design, I knew that I had to not only back the comic and read it but also watch the short film on YouTube and when watching it…it made me flashback to the days of my friends and I making low budget horror films. What works so well for this film is the way that August uses shadows and darkness to cloak The Passenger who is roaming around the darkened streets just looking for a person to hitch a ride with, and the make up effects used for this wandering creature are really well done and makes the short film stand out from many other films on its budget level. The Passenger is a short film that I wish would be developed into a feature film sometime in the future by August that is set in a small town in Tennessee with The Passenger being an urban legend around town, and a group of friends out running the roads one night after a lame house party stumble across this twisted creature and find out that the stories are all true. I would also not tie it into The Stranger, a character that connects some of the company’s films together and just make this one a stand-alone fright feature all about the title creature. But back to the short film, I think the short film is well acted and directed and is one you should check out on YouTube as supporting indie horror cinema is very important.

So now that we have talked about The Passenger, both the creature and the short film, I think that it’s time for us to take a look at the comic based on the film. I first want to thank Strange Films for not only having this comic in stock and making this update possible, but for also making the comic as I wish more indie movie distributors would do this with their horror, sci-fi and action films. I also want to say that the comic series this is part of is called “Strange Comics” that has each issue being about a different film from August Aguilar and his Strange Films company, but we will just call this one The Passenger # 1 for this update. Like always, I also want to remind you all that I grade these comics on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comics stay to the source material, it’s entertainment value and it’s art and story. So if you are ready, let’s see what horrors The Passenger has in store for all of us as this is a first time read for me and I am very much looking forward to checking it out.

Passenger # 1  ***
Released in 2020    Cover Price $10.00    Strange Comics    # 2 of ?

In the small town of Erwin, a man is roaming around the woods when he is attacked and killed by The Stranger, a weird demonic looking creature that rips the man apart. Later that night Lindsey is driving home and listening to the radio that features a news report about all the strange things going on in the town, as she keeps driving she passes The Passenger that is at the side of the road and runs into her car…and unknown to her The Passenger is now in the back seat of her car watching as she calls her boyfriend Chris at work as this encounter has scared her to her core. As she pulls into the warehouse were her boyfriend works the late shift The Passenger attacks her and bites her turning her into a weird demonic creature like himself! As Chris comes out to check on his lady, he is attacked by the now creature version of Lindsey! As Lindsey gets done killing her boyfriend she is greeted by The Stranger, a supernatural traveler who welcomes her to this strange family, and as this is going on The Passenger is attacking and turning more townspeople into monsters like him.

What a fun quick read comic for a spooky quick watch short film! The comic’s plot has Lindsey on a late night drive when she runs into a demonic creature called The Passenger that ends up hitching a ride with her and turning her into a monster like himself, and under this weird creature’s virus bite she ends up killing her own boyfriend before joining the side of the supernatural being The Stranger. The Passenger is truly a killing machine as he starts the issue off killing a person by ripping their guts out and then goes on to infect several other people with his bite turning them into a lesser monster version of himself. The Passenger also seems like a very cold and uncaring creature that kills out of instinct and maybe a dash of hatred for mankind. Lindsey and Chris is a couple that sadly become victims when they have a chance encounter with The Passenger that leads one to be killed and another to become a monster. And The Stranger at the end appears and almost seems to be enjoying the fact The Passenger is spreading his weird demonic virus to others, its like he feels these monsters are like family and he is building an army of them. The issue has some blood and gore with the first death of an unknown man by the hands of The Passenger being the best kill as well as the goriest. The cover is really cool and eye-catching and captures the vibe of this short film, with the interior art being done by Tim Sparvero and his style is really cool and fitting…and I like how he draws The Passenger as well as the gore. This comic does a great job of fitting into the short film universe and offers a quick spooky read. I wish that The Stranger aspect would have been left out and those panels would have given us more on The Passenger and his background…but that’s a minor complaint and my only complaint besides I wish the comic was longer because I enjoyed what I was reading. So if you like indie horror comics based on indie horror films make sure to give this one a read as it’s a spooky good time. Check out the artwork below to see Tim Sparvero’s style used for this comic.

As you can see while both the film and comic are short, they both pack a frightful punch as what I think makes them both work is that they both have that small town urban legend feel as every one of them has some sort of unknown creature like this. But now that we have all found ourselves safe and sound at the places we all like to read Rotten Ink, I think that its time we part ways, but before we do I would like to tell you that our next update will get us back on track as we will be diving into the cult classic film Don’t Look In The Basement! So until next time, read a horror comic or three, watch a horror movie or two and as always, support your local Horror Host. See you next update and let’s hope that we really don’t have to see what is in the basement.