TOLL BOOTH (Vimeo)*****

 

By Cal

Link: https://vimeo.com/326145983 

Available until: Unknown

Toll Booth is an award-winning film which isn’t strictly theatre, but I found it through a streaming site so that’s good enough for me. More than good enough.

Terry has a new job working in a toll booth. He’s worked in a toll booth before so he knows what it’s all about. He’s never worked in a toll booth with scary rumours before, but as long as they are just rumours, there’s really no need to worry… is there?

The toll booth is set in a very lonely place. It’s very dark. Phil, who gives him the keys, isn’t the most relaxing person to be around. And as for the people who drive through the toll…

Martin Stocks has written and directed an incredibly atmospheric film. It is filled with tension right from the first moment and although it is a film rather than a play, I get that theatrical sense of really living through every moment with Terry. Martin builds up the atmosphere really well and creates characters who are… on the eccentric side, but still completely believable as the kind of people you could meet on a dark night (but you really don’t want to).

One thing Martin has done in the direction which really shows how successful the film is is that there are a number of moments that could have turned the whole film into a comedy, but the atmosphere has been created so well, the tension doesn’t lessen – if anything, it increases – and it all becomes part of the horror.

The idea is brilliant because it is the sort of situation where you could, realistically, meet all sorts of people. The script is great – there are no more words than is realistic or necessary because so much is in the visuals and the other sounds.

Andrew Shire is excellent in the central role of Terry – he builds up the tension perfectly and keeps the atmosphere going and knows exactly how long to keep his audience waiting for the next moment. Also, without saying a lot, he also gives the strong impression of the sort of man Terry is – he seems the type who is good at getting himself into bad situations (slight understatement there), but I do think he means well, which helps to make him relatable as a character. This is really important because it means I care enough to be worried about him.

The other characters make only brief appearances, but Steve Wright is an unnerving Phil, Suzanne Celensu and Elizabeth Coombs are great as two contrasting female drivers. As for Peter Nixon who plays another driver, I’ll be dreaming about him tonight and not in a good way. A very nicely-judged bit of characterisation, which could easily have gone too far or not far enough.

A great film, but perhaps one to think twice about watching on your own.