VOD - Saban Films’ The Toll in Theaters on Demand and Digital March 26

By Mulder, 17 february 2021

“ From ten seconds into the movie, the audience will be filled with suspense and dread. For the next 90 minutes, Cami and the audience alike will constantly second- guess themselves - is Spencer a murderer, or just a misunderstood, anxious guy? Is he orchestrating this or is there really a horrifying supernatural force tormenting them in the woods? What’s real, and what isn’t? The film examines what it’s like to live after trauma, to live with anxiety - how do you know when that sudden needling fear is just another false alarm from your brain, or if it’s an instinct that must be listened to or you’ll die? Cami has lived much of her life in fear of being assaulted or killed, and like most women, is instantly suspicious of her rideshare driver - is this just her anxiety, or is it true instinct? The Toll is a modern, social thriller in the tradition of Get Out mixed with the hallucinatory terror of films like Insidious and Sinister. It will use a confident, e?ortless style akin to Cuaron’s Children of men - raw, jarring tension mixed with vividly choreographed sequences of operatic terror. There is a minimalist style of horror popular among online horror stories and comics that has never been fully capitalized on film: it’s a cold, apathetic, even sociopathic style where the creators don’t care to protect you from the horror. The horror is intruding into the frame uninvited, and it will latch onto your brain and follow you home. “ – Michael Nader

Supernatural terror and spine-tingling suspense highlight this gripping journey into fear. When Cami orders a taxi service to take her to her father’s country home, she’s hoping for a quiet and uneventful ride. But a wrong turn by Spencer, her chatty driver, results in the car stalling on a dark and remote road. After several threatening and inexplicable occurrences, Cami and Spencer realize they are being watched—by an unseen presence that sees them as trespassers, and is ready to exact a deadly toll.

Writer/Director Michael Nader makes his directorial debut with Saban Films' The toll, the new psychological horror film starring Max Topplin (Suits) as a socially awkward driver and Jordan Hayes (House at the End of the Street) as a weary passenger whose journey together is threatened by an unseen evil. Unnerving and suspenseful, The toll explores how we deal with past trauma in our modern age.

Synopsis :
It's 1am. An exhausted CAMI orders a rideshare at the airport. Her driver: Spencer, awkward and unsettling. Her destination: Her dad’s place in the middle of nowhere. Along the way, Cami grows increasingly suspicious of Spencer's odd behavior. But this fear gives way to full-blown terror when their car breaks down on a secluded road. And they both realize they're not alone... There are people moving around the car. Leaving them bizarre messages. Putting up road signs that lead up a dark wooded trail. Suddenly the car comes under attack -- and a rock smashes through the window. Attached to a message that warns visitors must “pay the toll.” Soon, Cami and Spencer become aware it's a supernatural force haunting them: the Toll Man. A terrifying presence that creates eerie (and personal) visions of their past and future. Playing o? their worst fears. Pitting these two strangers against each other. Until they discover that for either to survive, one of them has to die.

The toll
Written and directed by Michael Nader
Produced by Max Topplin, Jordan Hayes, William Day Frank
Starring James McGowan and Rosemary Dunnsmore
Music by Torin Borrowdale
Cinematography : Jordan Kennington
Production companies : 4AM Films
Distributed by Saban Films (USA)
Release date : March 26, 2021 (USA)
Running time : 80 minutes