Returning to Boston from a girlie weekend in Mexico, best friends Mel (Mad Men’s Peyton List) and Jules (Cameron Goodman) get offered a ride home by two young guys. Turning them down, the girls head for the last bus, but miss it. A helpful shuttle driver (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’s Tony Curran) offers to take them into town. When the two guys realise their ride isn’t coming, the driver allows them to board the shuttle – but only reluctantly. Now why is that? Joining the foursome is a suited gent of a nervous disposition. But, as the driver switches on the ignition and sets off into a rain-soaked night, you just know these passengers are in for a terrifying ride into hell.
There’s a lot going for this debut feature from writer-director Edward Anderson. The set-up is believably chilling, the atmosphere reeks of fear, and the characters are likeable. But while the movie moves at a decent speed, it fails to shift gears smoothly. Once the passengers realise their driver is a nutcase, they become pawns in his plan. But what plan? Well, that's not revealed until the end, and while Anderson wants to shock with his twist ending, he just ends up confusing the audience along the way. In fact, so frustrating is Shuttle, you spend most of the time listing all the opportunities the passengers have to escape or turn the tables on their captor than enjoying the ride – but maybe there’s a drinking game in that.
Shuttle certainly delivers in some gore-tastic action sequences, but it doesn’t put the joy back in joyride. To paraphrase the film’s tagline, ‘The only thing more terrifying than not knowing where you’re going is learning you have to wait 106 minutes to find that out’.
Released 4 May http://youtube.com/v/8kobmtKcpsI
