In The Toll, an exhausted Cami (Jordan Hayes, SyFy’s Helix) orders a rideshare to her father’s ranch in the middle of nowhere, Canada. Her driver Spencer (Max Topplin, USA Network’s Suits) proves to be awkward and unsettling. Cami grows increasingly suspicious of Spencer’s odd behavior and, when their car breaks down on a secluded road, they both realize they’re not alone. A supernatural force known as the Toll Man (Daniel Harroch) arrives on the scene and begins pitting the two strangers against each other.
Writer/director Michael Nader returns to familiar territory after creeping audiences out with his screenplay for last year’s Head Count, a slow burn little chiller of a film that doesn’t get talked about nearly enough. The Toll takes a similar approach to the narrative, moving things along at a very deliberate pace before things really fall off the rails for our protagonists. Unfortunately, the two characters at the center of The Toll aren’t able to sustain the plot like the group of college students at the center of Head Count, making for a sometimes engaging and sometimes laborious viewing experience.
While Nader directs The Toll with a confident hand, his screenplay all too often plays like a first draft. Though running a brief 80 minutes, he doesn’t seem to trust his audience to figure out what is going on. Clunky expository dialogue fills most of the second act. For example, Orphan Black‘s Rosemary Dunsmore drops in for a brief cameo solely to tell the characters (and thus, the audience) exactly what is going on and what the characters have to do to get themselves out of their situation. It’s just one of a handful of examples of the film not trusting the audience to figure things out for themselves.
The real missed opportunity here is to delve deeper into Cami’s history of sexual trauma and how that informs the person she is today. It’s a bit tricky to discuss specifics without entering spoiler territory, but suffice it to say that the film too often feels like two different films (one about a supernatural bogeyman and the other about sexual trauma) that never truly mesh well together. As a consequence, neither film is given enough attention to make much of an impact. You’ll end the film simultaneously wanting more frightful appearances of the Toll Man and more depth to Cami’s backstory.
Still, Nader is able to work quite a few effective chills into The Toll. The Toll Man himself is an appropriately menacing boogeyman, and Nader employs a wide variety of scare tactics ranging from jump scares (i.e., surprise appearances in car windows) to creepy messages to a looming sense of dread that permeates most of the scenes. Hayes and Topplin play well off of each other and make for an entertaining duo to carry you through the film, though the stilted dialogue frequently does them a disservice.
The Toll attempts to kick-start a new sub-genre of horror to mixed results. Though it employs some effectively creepy imagery and two decent lead performances, it can’t manage to overcome the shortcomings of its script, which too often likes to undermine the viewer’s intelligence. The brief 80-minute runtime and Nader’s directorial skills are enough to merit a slight recommendation, but don’t feel like you have to pay this toll.
