PLOT SUMMARY: Julia who runs a ride-sharing app company is shocked to find that a serial killer is using the app to lure victims.
With the advent of ridesharing apps, it has become more than easier to commute from one location to another because the more companies there are, the more competition there is and the more they are willing to offer discounts and special offers.
Over the years, ridesharing apps have taken a chunk of the market share of taxi cabs and one must imagine, what must the taxi drivers and companies feel? Frustrated that they are losing passengers? Irritated that ride-sharing companies have easier access to passengers through apps?
If this theme is used in horror movies, then of course, there is bound to be killings much like in the movies: RYDE and THE TOLL.
Well, here's another one.
THE RIDESHARE KILLER Movie Plot
Samantha and her friend head to a club which is hardly visited by anyone. There is some bad dancing which attracts two guys to them.
Samantha dances with Chip and then allows him to sit with her. He buys her a $20 tequila shot and now thinks it's okay to be a jerk to her.
Samantha then hails a cab through an app. Chip sees it and goes on a rant about how the apps are ruining the cab industry and tries to get her to cancel the ride. Samantha throws some attitude and leaves.
Unknown to her, the driver she called has already picked up someone and is annoyed that there is a guy in the backseat. He accuses his passenger of using a hot girl's picture just so that he could be picked up quickly. Turns out that is what ride-sharing companies do? Or is it only this particular one? Rock and Ride?
If so, perhaps it is time to get a proper photoshoot done to get a nice enough photo to put on your profile.
The passenger doesn't take kindly to pretty much being called ugly and strangles the driver. But the killer is very considerate of traffic laws when he does it. He then gets in the driver's seat and picks up Samantha who doesn't find it odd that the driver is late. And once the driver had picked up whom he thought was Samantha, wouldn't the app have shown that the ride has begun?
The killer is nice enough to drop Samantha home but then lingers. Samantha finds it weird but still says bye to him when she is near the door. Can he hear her?
When he doesn't move his car, Samantha gets nervous and starts fumbling for her keys. She just about opens it for the killer to pounce behind her and push her in.
But Samantha had looked behind her nervously just a few seconds before. Wouldn't she have seen the driver get out, or heard the car door open? There wasn't much of a driveway to the front door.
Anyway, Samantha doesn't see the killer come up behind her with a cord that he ties around her neck before taking her inside.
The next day we meet Julia and her friends Lorraine and Naomi. Naomi is a dominatrix but also helps Julia with her ridesharing app. Julia has to meet some investors and so she brings along her friends too.
At her father's house, Julia is told to be her charming self even though her investor James makes a pass at her. When Julia tries to call him out for it, he reminds her that she is in need of finances more. Julia feels harassed and knees him in the groin when he tries to touch her.
Julia's father is enraged and asks her to apologize but of course, she doesn't and storms off with her friends.
It is when they reach home and are going through customer feedback that Julia reads a message from Samantha regarding inappropriate behavior by the driver. Julia tries to get in touch with Samantha but receives no reply. They check on the driver's records but his history is clean. Julia pulls up information about Samantha's drop of location and heads over to meet her in person, dreading the fact that the police may have to be involved.
She hopes to sort the matter before it becomes a police case. As luck would have it, Julia has to get the police involved.
Turns out, Samantha was bound and strangled to death. The detectives come in and Eric Roberts makes an appearance for two minutes. The police is incompetent in these movies anyway and so the actor must have decided not to continue on.
There is no crime scene tape used, no medical examiners, no ambulance. The movie is made on a tight budget which is evident by the bedsheet laid upon the dead body. Julia asks for discretion and the police say, of course they won't tell anyone her app is being used by a serial killer.
Julia gets to have an officer stationed outside her home. We get to see the Detective just one more time when Julia conducts her own investigation. He thanks Julia and is never seen again in the movie.
One night, Lorraine spots a trespasser and finds out it is Julia's ex, a journalist, Rohan Patel. He has gotten hold of the story and Julia wonders how since the police promised to keep her secret.
She is then met with her father who tells her to call James and apologize for her behavior. Julia tells them that she was sexually harassed and there was no way she was going to do it. Her father reminds her she will go bankrupt without a financer and that she will have to fire her friends. Julia gives her father the brilliant idea of making an app exclusively for women. The drivers and passengers will be women and they will be safe because women are NOT killers.
Her father asks her to list stats and she says only 10% women use ridesharing apps. Her father lauds her idea to get rid of 90% of the market and focus only on 10. He's being sarcastic and Julia rolls her eyes. She says if she can't revive her business she will crawl back to James.
Meanwhile the killer is killing everyone left and right. No couple is safe, no police officer stationed outside the house is any match for the killer.
There are some red herrings thrown in like Billy and Chip but they are obviously not killers.
THE RIDESHARE KILLER Ending Explained with Spoilers!
Eventually the killer is done killing every side character shown in the movie and decides to go after Julia's friends. Lorraine is killed in the house, and in her last gasping breath, she screams out for Julia. Not help, or "let me go!" Nope. She is a true friend who wants to alert her friend who is blissfully sleeping while the killer is using her app to kill people.
Naomi is killed doing what she likes to do best as a dominatrix.
It's finally time for the big reveal. And the killer is none other than...James.
Which doesn't make any sense because why exactly did he want to invest in the app in the first place?
He explains how he felt bad about the cab industry losing a lot of money and was trying to besmirch her company so that people would lose faith in ridesharing apps.
Julia is the final girl and after hearing James' lame excuses to turn killer, overpowers him.
Some time later, Julia has moved on with her idea to cater only to women passengers. The ad is as offensive as it can be with a guy entering the cab only to be told with disgust that he must exit because this ride is only for women. Bye!
Julia gets in her own cab and rides off, happy to cater to 10% of the market.
The end.
The movie obviously suffers from shoddy direction and inept storytelling. The acting isn't terrible but inconsistent.
Still, if there is literally nothing else to watch, then this is as good an option as any.
Scare scale: 2/5
Check out this movie on Amazon Prime Video
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