BLACK CAB (2024)

Black Cab (2024)
Directed by: Bruce Goodison
Written by: Virginia Gilbert
Starring: George Bukhari, Nick Frost, Synnove Karlsen

BLACK CAB (2024)
Directed by Bruce Goodison

After a disastrous night out with her abusive fiance and friends, Anne and Patrick hail a black cab to drive them home but soon realise the nightmare evening has only just begun.

In Shudder Original BLACK CAB, Nick Frost stars as cabbie Ian, who, on first appearance seems quite a sound individual. Sensing that Anne isn’t completely safe with fiance Patrick, whose coercive and intimidating behaviour clearly has her rattled, Ian very quickly puts Ian in his place and offers to drive Anne home alone and kick out Patrick so he can find another taxi. In many ways, Ian’s approach is what you’d want from a cab driver – someone who’s looking for you and not turning a blind eye to the clear torment she’s being subjected to. But like all good thrillers, Ian is not so squeaky clean himself and we discover a dark side to the jovial family-man.

After being so used to Nick Frost playing comedic characters, it’s fantastic to see him play Ian, a role in which he must inhabit two personalities – a chatty cabbie and a man on the edge. He’s the biggest draw of this film and it would be very empty without his engaging performance as unfortunately Synnove Karlsen has little to do in her role as Anne except to sit back for the ride, much like the audience.

In the first half of the film, we gain a real sense of threat from Ian, who seems both in control and and unpredictable at the same time. You can sense he has a plan with the way he handles his passengers and converses with such ease, but there’s also a feeling of chaos lingering in the background, just beneath the surface, indicating that perhaps he just may be a little out of his depth.

BLACK CAB transitions from hostage thriller to ghostly chiller but unfortunately this combination doesn’t quite work. The haunted element of the movie struggles to have any impact, and as BLACK CAB transitions into its supernatural storyline, the momentum of the storyline crawls to a halt and can never quite jumpstart back into gear. It takes a threatening situation and turns into something fantastical that is hard to take seriously, especially given the lead up to the revelation, as the two stories feel mismatched in both genre and feel.

The film’s strengths lie with Frost’s portrayal of Ian as an unexpected threat, not knowing what he has in store for his passengers. If the movie’s story had kept to something more akin to a survival thriller instead of dipping its toes into haunted territory, I think this would have worked more in its favour.

Nevertheless, BLACK CAB has shown a different side to actor Nick Frost and shown that he can be more than just a comedic persona he’s renowned for.