The Toll is a Canadian Horror Thriller film directed by Michael Nader. It stars Jordan Hayes and Max Topplin in main roles and was released on 26th March 2021 on VOD.
Spencer (Max Topplin) works for a Uber-like company and is a driver and chooses Cami (Jordan Hayes) as her next passenger as she was only 2 km away and it was really late, nearly 2 AM. She puts her destination and Spencer tells her it's going to be a long ride in the depth of woods. Suddenly in the middle of nowhere, Spencer hits a man, that doesn't look like a man, it was like a slender man. But when Spencer gets out of the car to see whether that man is okay or not, he sees no one. The car's battery dies, the cell phone battery dies and they are left stranded in the dark path and that's when they realize that they're not alone.
We have seen plenty of films like this, the best I could recall is The Monster released back in 2016 and The Strangers: Prey At Night and a lot more films where the driver ends up killing their passengers just for sport. But this film takes the same path tells a totally different story. The film is so engrossing, I can't tell how many times I jumped out of fear watching the film. It gives you a fully immersive experience with only two characters in the frame.
Spencer is not good with peoples and keeps bow and arrows in his car and lives in a constant fear that one of his passengers might be a serial killer whereas Cami, tired after a long flight and tells that she is also afraid to get in the cars of strangers. With a crisp 75-80 minutes runtime, The Toll doesn't waste time showing them chit-chatting and gets on the track where it starts to deliver ample thrills and horrors where it never fails to amaze.
You keep praying as you'll think that film might dip in the second half, usually, it happens with movies that takes off with a great start and fall flat in the end. But it doesn't with this one. The film is all about the two characters, whatever supernatural is happening is related to the two. There's a scene where an old woman stops for them but she says she can't help them as they are not here, even if the police come they will find the road empty, they are in "his" world. And my heart starts to pound faster. In fact, the climax is also shocking and a surprise. The Toll is a gem.
Jordan Hayes as Cami and Max Topplin as Spencer are good but nothing extraordinary. That's the only thing that keeps stinging is the plain acting.
The cinematography by Jordan Kennington is exceptional. This the kind of camera work that is needed in a horror movie to keep you intrigued till the end and it uses the set to the fullest to evoke horror. The production design by Lucas Gentilcore is perfect and the background score by Torin Borrowdale elevates the impact of the scenes. The editing is also spot on.
The Toll by Michael Nader is surprisingly impressive. It's really amazing to see how it reused some of the cliched portions from the other horror films and delivered an absolutely breathtaking film that is so thrilling and engrossing to sit through. It even mentions the film's name whenever something that is already seen comes to the screen, like a group of people with a machete, or walking away but ending up in the same place like a circle. You should see it, I can't get the low IMDb rating for this film. It's a remarkably made horror film that doesn't miss a beat. Watch it if you haven't.
Rating:- 3.5/5
Now available on Video On Demand.
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