PLOT: Facing mounting expenses, a down-on-his-luck cab driver turns to a mysterious new app to make money. The question becomes not how much money he can make, but what he’ll be compelled to do to make it. If you’ve got nothing to lose, how far would you go?
REVIEW: I will always be a massive proponent of Indie Horror. The horror genre is so pliable and doesn’t require the larger budgets of an action film or period piece. It feels like an endless well of creativity exists because the audience is so accepting of different types of film, so long as it’s horror. And if there’s one common thread in modern-day society that many can relate to, it’s freelance work. Whether it’s Uber or DoorDash, there are an increasing number of jobs where you’re “your own boss” and are paid based on the amount of work that you do. Self Driver gives the standard driver app a unique horror twist. And its pretty intriguing along the way.
Self Driver follows D, a rideshare driver who’s down on his luck and desperate to make more money just to survive the day-to-day. Nathanael Chadwick does a great job as D, really allowing us into his head and allowing a connection. If anything, I was a little distracted by how much he looked like Babish from Binging with Babish. The mounting frustration of freelance chauffeuring and its complete disconnect from an actual human experience can be quite relatable. He’s constantly being deducted money for things that are out of his control or just because he’s trying to make a genuine connection. It certainly speaks to the walls that people put up when it comes to service workers, despite them being people too.
Things take an interesting turn when D is given access to a new app, that will pay him more, but requires him to do more sketchy things. If he doesn’t obey, then he can lose it all. At one point in the story, D takes some drugs, making the film enter this “Willy Wonka on the magic river” stage. I always love it when a film goes out there with its visuals, and, given the mundane nature of what we’re seeing in the buildup, it contrasts even more, and makes the experience all the more fulfilling. I do think that it could have gone a little further with some of the dark stuff happening in the film.
Hailing from writer/director Michael Pierro, Self Driver gives us more abstract answers about its world than anything concrete. If you want to know more about this organization that runs the car service, then this isn’t the film for you. There’s just enough information to color the world, but it never goes too overboard with exposition. There’s a certain look that super indie films have that usually translates to low quality in other areas of the production. Self Driver certainly rides the line of being a bit cheap in its presentation, but it’s always on the right side of competent. Anytime I started feeling the pacing, things would ramp up, and the story would be given another wrinkle.
Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Self Driver. There was a bit of a Hostel-type feel to this mysterious organization that deals in the depravity of the world, so long as you’re willing to pay the price. But it also asks the question of how far are you willing to go for money? It can be a bit rough around the edges but I appreciate how much they were able to do with a limited budget. I guess 2025 is teaching me that I really love a good car thriller.
SELF DRIVER IS AVAILABLE ON VOD/DIGITAL ON JUN
