Review of The Toll

The Toll (I) (2020)
3/10
Starts Out Great, Ends Terribly
6 May 2021
The film is about a female passenger spending a night with a suspicious male Taxi driver in a demonic hellscape. A hellscape created by the Toll Man, he invades and disrupts the mind and won't let them out, for the toll he seeks is something primal.

Frankly, I really admired its aspirational tone, and the supposed themes it was trying to deal with (like trust, loneliness and confronting the demons of the past) since the 1st act is terrific, and the 2nd act is decent, with enough intrigue mystery, and drama. But in the 3rd act, the final confrontation becomes an absolute abomination as everything that was established (the characterization, the themes, the emotional set-ups for Spencer), completely get undone by a superficial and generic psycho ending that made me very angry. Not because I expected something, but this film aspired to stand out from the crowd, with its interesting and emotionally resonant characters.

5 stars less for a terrible 3rd act.
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