I don't think I have seen anything previously directed by Bruce Goodison. Nor am I familiar with writer Virginia Gilbert. Due to my reaction to Black Cab, however, I know that I won't be rushing to seek out anything else in their respective filmographies. This is a bad film, messy and disappointingly easy to predict when it tries to add a twist or two in the third act, and I would say that it's only the enjoyably unhinged performance from Nick Frost that saves it from being completely unwatchable.
Anne (Synnøve Karlsen) and Patrick (Luke Norris) are a fairly unhappy couple who unwittingly end a night out by getting into the wrong black cab (driven by Nick Frost). The cab driver soon reveals that he knows quite a bit about Anne, and he isn't shy about putting forward his own opinion of Patrick. So begins what I am sure would be described by the marketing team as "a nightmare journey through a dark night of the soul". But everyone knows that the scariest thing about a late-night black cab journey is watching how quickly the fare starts to mount up.
I'm sorry to be struggling so much to find something, anything, positive to say about this, but Black Cab is one of the worst modern horror movies I have seen. Goodison uses his budget and resources well, I'll give him that, which gives everything a professional polish, but the script, from plotting and dialogue to character development, is a stinking mess.
Karlsen tries her best in a role that really doesn't allow her to do much (although she's one of two people I hope to watch in other movie roles), but her and Frost doing good work highlights how one-note and weak Norris is. Yes, he's admittedly also suffering at the hands of the writer, but his poor performance ensures that there's only one cab passenger to really start worrying about as things take a turn for the worse. Frost manages to overshadow everyone though, transforming his usual harmless and cuddly demeanor into something much more menacing. The earlier moments make good use of his ability to chatter away in a way that seems innocent enough until he throws in some surprises that people listening to him need to take a minute to process.
90 minutes that feels much longer, things are further spoiled by an attempt to throw too many ingredients into the mix. It's a dark comedy at times, but then becomes a tame thriller, but then tries to add a supernatural twist to everything in the second half. None of it works, either separately or mixed together, and, much like the typical cab driver conversation, I can only hope that it's seen in the rear-view mirror as quickly as possible. Frost and Karlsen deserve much better. As do the film fans who may be tempted to check this out.
2/10
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