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Review

Shuttle – Movie Review

  • Directed by Edward Anderson
  • Starring Peyton List, Cameron Goodman, James Snyder, Dave Power, Cullen Douglas and Tony Curran

I wasn’t expecting a whole lot out of this film, save for a standard paint by numbers horror film in which a group of disparate strangers is menaced by a crazy driver on a late night shuttle from the airport. What I ended up with was mostly that, but the film takes an odd turn towards the end and builds into what I’ve seen described in other reviews as an ending that Ëœoffers no release’. Personally, this was exactly what I ended up finding so intriguing about the film, the fact that it does start out in a rather predictable manner, but then builds into a truly unsettling and uncomfortable ending.

Mel (List) and her best friend Jules (Goodman) arrive home from Mexico, Mel still not feeling well from the trip. They are hit on by Seth (Snyder) and his quiet friend Matt (Power), but generally rebuff Seth’s advances. The girls try in vain to find a cab, and are about to take the lone shuttle that they flag down when another Driver (Curran) suddenly appears and offers to give them a ride for half the price. Seth and Matt turn up again, and the Driver refuses them, saying that he’s only allowed to make 3 stops, and already has a third passenger, but the girls vouch for them as though they were together. The Driver reluctantly lets them aboard.

Heading into the night, Matt and Mel reluctantly chat, getting to know one another mostly at the expense of their more outgoing friends, but soon they realize they’re off the main highway. The Driver assures them that they’re fine; the freeway was locked up, so he’s taking a detour, but they all have a bad feeling when he’s reaching for a map. A blown tire leaves them stranded and forced to help the Driver change the tire, just to expedite things. Matt volunteers for this duty, but once the tire is back on, the van slips off the jack and shears off the fingers on one of his hands.

The Driver makes as if to head for the hospital, but finally pulls a gun on them finally and starts confiscating cellphones. The girls steal a road flare from the first aid kit, left out from patching up Matt’s hand, but it gets set off when Andy (Douglas) struggles with them, scared of the repercussions. The Driver slashes Seth with a knife, settling him down after he puts out the fire, then drives to a remote ATM, where Jules is forced to take everyone’s cards and withdraw stacks of cash. There’s some cat and mouse-y type shit as Jules tries to create a distraction by starting a fire in the enclosed kiosk, allowing Mel to escape, but the Driver holds the door, effectively suffocating her until Mel returns, so the whole sequence is fairly anticlimactic.

Mel is dispatched into a deserted grocery store with an odd grocery list and instructions not to deviate from the list, or to draw attention to herself. I’d also mention here that at his point in the film, the Driver sounds like a low rent version of Jigsaw, from the Saw series, what with all the rules, the consequences, etc. While she shops, the Driver takes the van around the back of the store and forces Seth and Andy to go through everyone’s bags looking for pawnable merchandise such as cameras and the like. An escape attempt is made, the Driver thins the herd a bit, and then there’s a twist I think that most will see coming before we roll into the final act, much the worse for wear.

The movie actually manages to rise above all the standard trappings and shift gears into the coldly methodical and unsettling ending, which I was quite pleasantly surprised by. Okay, perhaps Ëœpleasantly’ is too strong of a word, but the film definitely moves into areas I wasn’t expecting, and I found it a little on the bleak and disturbing side, which wasn’t how I expected it to end, so that’s a good thing.

I’d actually recommend this, though the subject matter and ending that is ultimately revealed may limit the audience, as those looking for the standard slasher type film could be somewhat put off by the ending.

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About The Author

Kingmob

Kingmob has been spending his time writing online reviews for the better part of two years and has nothing but the ability to speak about himself in the 3rd person to show for it. This review and others like it can be found at Big Suck Loser and you can read about the daily minutiae that drives him slowly mad and informs his useless opinions of pop culture at his blog, Dear Bastards.

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Article Information

  • Posted: Monday, May 4th, 2009
  • Author: Kingmob
  • Filed Under: Film, Review
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

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