2024, Bruce Goodison (Then Barbara Met Alan) -- Shudder
Full disclose; watching after October, but inserting into the empty spots, just because.
It had a lot going for it. OK, maybe not a lot lot but it had Nick Frost going for it, and the idea of working a kidnapping thriller into a traditional British roadside ghost story sounded like a fun idea. But then its like they had no idea how to end the movie, so ... they just shit the bed instead.
Wow. Crass. I get that the world is falling into Lowest Common Denominator but aren't we supposed to be better?
So, Anne (Synnove Karlsen, Last Night in Soho) and Patrick (Luke Norris, Poldark), and Jessica (Tessa Parr, Father Brown) and Ryan (George Bukhari, After the Flood) are out having dinner. There is immense tension in the room, primarily between Patrick and Anne, and we learn that Patrick is staying with Jessica & Ryan while he and Anne sort things out. Then he announces "we are getting married!" and things go downhill. Obviously, Patrick is a lying, cheating asshole.
The evening ends and Anne is calling a cab, a ... black cab. Ian (Nick Frost, Shaun of the Dead) pulls up in his cab, Anne gets in and Patrick piles in behind, drunk and angry. There is some initial combative interaction between the couple, which isn't helped by Ian interjecting himself into it. Then he pulls down a dark alley saying he needs to make a phone call and the couple notices they cannot get out. And then Ian zaps Patrick with a cattle prod he bought on the Dark Web.
Ian is unhinged. Ian is hostile. He initially felt sympathetic to Anne but once the ruse is past, he is nasty and angry. He also has a little bit of history with her, having driven her home from a pre-natal examine at the hospital, a baby appointment she didn't tell Patrick about.
The story dribbles out while a mostly unconscious Patrick lies on the floor of the cab, the two of them zip-tied and Ian ranting all the while. A ghost story, a woman and child who died on the side of the road, who Ian encountered and now blames for his sick child. Ian's not having much luck contacting his wife, but it is the wee hours of the morning. We are getting visions, through Anne's eyes, of one... maybe two ghosts? One is on the side of the road, one sits beside Anne. What is their connection? Is this all a conspiracy? Did Anne and/or Patrick do something in their past? Did Ian do something in his past? Lots of questions, lots of potential, and an incredible performance by Nick Frost.
And then... fuck that ending. Anne escapes but... becomes the ghost? Ian was not trying to sacrifice Anne's baby because the ghost was haunting him, but he was the threat to his own child all along? Anne did lose her baby but... why? Other than that drive home, how did a random roadside ghost end up connected to her? Ghosts make deals with random cab driving loonies? And seriously, it goes from Anne running out into the night to her... becoming a ghost? And Ian just drives off into the night?
Yah, fuck this movie. I mean, should a movie be forgiven when it provides a passable ghost story and a passable tension filled thriller but then fails on the final delivery? No, I don't think it should beyond acknowledgement of some passable technical prowess and acting, because they let this go to air in this condition. Maybe they considered the ending to straight forward and wanted a "twist" or maybe they just couldn't figure out how to end the fucking movie so went for something that would generate 900 "... ending explained" articles on shitty (soon to be AI written) pop culture blogs. And for that, fuck 'em.
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