Things are shaky between Ann (Synnøve Karlsen) and Patrick (Luke Norris) even before they climb into a cab driven by Ian (Shaun of the Dead‘s Nick Frost). But their standoff over whether or not to rekindle a relationship derailed by his bad behavior shrinks in importance when they realize Ian hasn’t picked them up by accident, and has no intention of taking them where they want to go. His dark agenda gradually comes into focus as Black Cab progresses, though the journey to get there is more haunting than the destination.
Ian drives a traditional cab, but Black Cab taps into modern anxieties that’ve grown along with the prominence of ride-share horror stories. Thanks in no small part to real-world nightmares, “Uber from hell” is building up its own cinematic subgenre at this point. But Black Cab also draws upon older fears while building its plot; early in the movie, Pat tells a classic “friend of a friend” yarn about a young woman who thinks she’s being chased home by a murderous fellow motorist, only to realize he was trying to warn her about a maniac lurking in her back seat. (It’s a variation on the same tale that opens 1998 slasher Urban Legendwith good reason: it’s a creepy, creepy scenario.)
Later in the film, Ian shares a ghost story that blends two classic tales: the “vanishing hitchhiker” (see: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Unsolved Mysteries) and La Llorona, the weeping mother figure from Mexican folklore. This element ties into a secret Ann has been keeping from Pat as she decides whether or not to give him another chance—she’s pregnant, something Ian is aware of and which ties into his unwholesome interest in the couple.
Black Cab does a decent job building tension even though most of it takes place crammed inside Ian’s cab; it makes creative use of the side and rearview mirrors to make the visuals more dynamic, and the rainy night brings additional atmospherics, especially as Ann becomes more desperate in her predicament. Less effective are the story’s attempts to build suspense; Black Cab is one of those movies that starts off with a prophetic dream that almost immediately comes to pass, so we’re primed to expect Ann’s about to get caught up in something worse than Ian’s hollow apologies. The supernatural jump scares also don’t bring much to the table, especially when they start to feel repetitive. And when Ian’s malevolent intentions finally come to light, the pieces don’t quite fit together—they certainly don’t deliver an ending as satisfying as that ol’ “killer in the back seat” tale.
Directed by Bruce Goodison and written by David Michael Emerson (with additional material by Frost and Virginia Gilbert), Black Cab does have one important thing going for it. It offers a rare leading role for Frost (Hot Fuzz, The World’s End, Fighting With My Family, Truth Seekers)who’s more often seen in supporting roles, often as comic relief. Here he’s unmasked as a frightening antagonist early in the story, but it’s still continuously disarming because we’re accustomed to liking the characters he plays. Ian only appears to be friendly; once his facade slips off and we realize he’s kidnapping Ann and Pat, he alternates between acting caring and cruel, though his version of “caring” is still extremely off-putting. It’s a fantastic performance by Frost, made even better by how surprising it is.
Black Cab arrives November 8 on Shudder.
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