SHAUN of the Dead star Nick Frost plays the role of a crazed cabbie in British supernatural thriller Black Cab.
The film opens with Anne (Synnøve Karlsen) and Patrick (Luke Norris) who try and flag down a taxi to take their domestic row off the streets after a dinner date from hell. The pair are in no mood to talk to anyone, especially not each other, when chatty and overly jovial cab driver (Frost) pulls in to take them home.
By the time they get into the car, they are barely on speaking terms, and it is obvious that this heated spat could get even more explosive if pushed any further.
However, their differences are quickly settled when they realise that the loon behind the wheel has absolutely no intention of taking them home. His pleasant demeanour quickly gives way to a more unhinged personality and when they are locked in the cab with no means of escape, it is fairly obvious that their will be no stopping for garlic and cheese chips anytime soon.
Instead, their driver takes them out to the fog-covered countryside to a haunted stretch of road which he believes will dig him out of a hole, by using his passengers as supernatural bait.
Frost, who is always the jolly sidekick, the good-natured buffoon, gives a good account of himself as a psychotic cab driver. The film itself, for all its potential, and mysterious Hitchcock-esque thrills, quickly runs out of fuel and leaves us waiting for a late bus home at the side of the road.
The plot gets stuck in first gear for most of our journey and the underwhelming ending really did leave me feeling a little fleeced.
Now streaming on Shudder, Black Cab is poorly executed and Frost, for all his menacing pep, looks more like a man in need of a big hug than he is to be slicing and dicing passengers in the backseat.
Fare enough, I suppose!
(2/5)
