“The Passenger” is a slow-burn thriller/slow-footed thriller that pairs up a meek, aimless and dissociative young man with the fast-food employee who just shot up the burger joint where they both worked.

People died, but something about the mousey, bullied Randy Bradley (Johnny Berchtold of TV’s “Gaslit”) brings out the compassion in Benson (Kyle Gallner of “Smile” and the latest “Scream”). He limits the shotgunned-to-death count to three, orders the 21 year-old into his Benson’s Mom’s ’75 Chrysler New Yorker, and does the math.

He locked the doors on their burger joint and they hid the bodies in the back. Depending on who shows up for work to relieve the opening shift and how panicked and inept the police “in a town of 10,000 people” are in facing a triple homicide, they should have a seven hours or more head start.

“Who knows where we’re gonna be in seven hours?”

But over the course of this long day, the brutish, has-all-the-answers shooter will interrogate Randy and others and take us all on a journey that covers more psychological ground than geographical.

Director Carter Smith, a B-movie veteran (“The Ruins,””Swallowed”), takes his time establishing just how meek Bradley is — so meek that he neglected to correct their boss when he filled out the kid’s name-tag with his last name, not his first — and never ever gives “The Passenger” the pacing it needs to come off.

There are suspenseful moments. Every waitress, ex-girlfriend of Randy’s or ex teacher they meet could be a target. Benson chewing out Randy over his control-freak mother makes her another candidate for killing. Will Randy grow the guts to prove to Benson that he’s “fixable,” that can change the arc of his life?

We have seen that arc in action, Randy being bullied by the co-worker who set-off Benson and started this rampage. So we think we know the answer even as Randy asks the question.

“What does this have to do with me?“

But “triggered” is only the beginning. As is the way of these things, each young man has secrets, and they are parsed as Randy’s personality is mulled-over by those Benson insists he reconnect with.

Randy has a problem caring about anyone or feeling anything.

The Jack Stanley script, co-star Berchtold and a couple of supporting players provide a nice moment of pathos, here and there. Gallner is menacing enough.

But get past the “We’re all damaged” messaging and the ludicrous notion that this sort of trauma could be therapeutic and you’re stuck with a film that meanders rather like the spree killer who refuses to flee leave town without first “helping” Randy, a narrative with no urgency and a picture with such slack pacing that you can’t help but lose interest, and sooner rather than later.

Rating: unrated, violence, profanity

Cast: Kyle Gallner, Johnny Berchtold, Liza Weil and Kanesha Washington

Credits: Directed by Carter Smith, scripted by Jack Stanley. A Paramount VOD release, coming to MGM+.

Running time: 1:34