I have a low-budget horror film in trying to write, and it involves a twisted game of something similar to Cash Cab, but with deadly consequences (and it's Uber/rideshare, not a cab). It starts off as small and innocent fun (like, say, someone answers a question wrong, and the driver gives them a blow-up bat to bonk them on the head with), but maybe turns deadly when the person gets to strike three. After strike three, maybe the driver locks all the doors and windows, and a cage comes up between him and them, and the driver hands them a big, spiky bat. One friend is given the decision: hit your friend over the head with the bat, and he'll be given his strike three as well. He doesn't, of course, and he's killed instead. Want something really contained, and preferably low budget. I have some ideas for other plot points. Maybe all the windows are tinted and soundproof. Maybe the driver gets pulled over for a busted taillight, and a sense of doom falls over them when they bang on the window, only to realize they can't be heard, nor seen. Maybe something with spikes coming out from one of the floormats? A REALLY heated seat? I dunno, just looking for ideas. Probably 6 passengers total in a 7-seater, or maybe even 7 (and he finds a creative way to kill the front seat passenger).
There are numerous problems with your plot. Horror works by playing on and exaggerating people's rational fears to irrational proportion. First, it's not scary. At all. You're focused entirely on the traps and hoping that if people see a little blood and gore, they'll be scared. I'm going to tell you that they won't be. What makes even outlandish plots like the original Saw work isn't the outlandish traps, but the psychology behind the killer. How methodical everything was planned. How there were a thousand ways he could have messed up, yet he did. That's why when you watch a horror film involving a serial killer, you're just like, "Whoa! Nothing is stopping this guy. He's way too smart." Second is that by trying to go for the ride share app, you've got some serious issues trying to get people like me, who use Uber, to suspend our disbelief. Your killer is stupid. A ride share app? You mean something that tracks when the people get into his car, when they get out of his car, and exactly what route he takes? Oh, and it also has the picture of the car and its license plate as well as telling me where exactly the car is at all time as soon as I order it. That's stupid. He's going to get caught in literally ten seconds. All the riders have to do is call 911 and the jig is up. Everything is literally tracked. So, get creepier. Smarter. Ride shares don't have a set schedule. What if, he uses the ride share app to know where people are being dropped off. He uses that information to perform the kidnapping. No you don't get the killer car idea, but you at least have a plausible plot! Or there's a new rideshare app that's less than Uber and Lyft, but what they neglect to tell riders is that there's a very serious security flaw in its security: it's stupid. What if instead of a fancy tracker like Uber and Lyft, it has a system where the driver calls the person as soon as they arrive and describes their car to them. He figures a way to hack the ride share's app and pose as the driver. Now, the police don't know where the guy is at because he's not being tracked by the rideshare. And now, the plot plays off of two rational fears: corporations cutting corners to save money and getting into the wrong car for a rideshare.
All fair points! Perhaps it's similar to a cab where he just sits outside a busy with other cabs, and waits for people to hail him. Big sign that's all flashy with a sign that says "CashCar" or something? And maybe the cell signal is killed in the car.
I'd agree that the plot isn't terrifying in a suspenseful way, but the OP asks about a low budget way to bring about some gore, so with that, I'd go in a dark comedy cheesy sort of idea. The guy gets into the car, all sorts of walls seal off the back seat and it turns into a front loading death washing machine sort of thing, where you see the passengers spin about into garbage disposal blades, with all sorts of sinew, organs, eyeballs, screaming faces and whatnot turning about and then the doors falling open for a beet salad stew to pour out. The guy finalizes the fare on his cell phone, drives off, opens the sun roof, goes through the car wash, then goes to pick up the next passenger for the next round. Lather, rinse, repeat. It's like a house of horrors. Just disgusting stuff, but not really scary. Increase the disgust by having him eat/swallow/spit out some of the gore or have it get matted in his hair or something. Go super dark by throwing in some sort of sexual act into the mix. Go even darker by... Nah, I'll stop there. You've got to decide what you're trying to achieve here. If it's absurd psychopathy, you can go the direction I've suggested. If true horror/suspense, go with Kalisto. Just my two cents worth while supposed to be working here at my desk.
Does it have to have a game aspect because Squid Game? I-Spy is one we can all relate to. Or that one where you have to make words out of the car in front's numberplate. If they make a mistake, just eject them out of the roof.
Just hasn't been done before, and I think it has potential. Not really going for Saw, moreso Circle or Would You Rather. Contained stuff with no overarching plot, and just plain old killing. Really low budget.
Personally I would have him use a localized ride-share app as, others have pointed out, Lyft and Uber are pretty micromanaged. He could hook his passenger seat up with a stun-gun like device powered from the engine and activated by a switch, drive the victim to a location and kill them at his leisure.
Haven't seen squid game. Have had this idea for a while. Perhaps if it was actually just a cab (and not an Uber), which are oftentimes hailed rather than on an app that is tracked, there wouldn't be that glaring problem with the plot. The whole game part is supposed to play off of Cash Cab with Ben Bailey. But instead of answering questions for cash, they're answering them to live.
I don't think it's a horrible idea but might be better for something closer to 'Phone Booth', 'Buried', or 'Brake' as the closed nature limits varied gore. Jigsaw at least had multiple rooms to create new traps, etc. So I think it might be better if it's something like Phone Booth where the driver starts with mundane questions like "Who invented the printing press?" but then it progresses to "what were you really doing during your daughter's piano recital, Stu?" and the wife is like "Honey what's he talking about?" "Nothing, I was working late at the office, like I told you. Stop the car now, we'll get another ride." "I'm afraid I can't do that, Stu. You've only gotten one wrong answer."
I thought about the targeted stuff, but I think randomization would suit this particular medium better. Just a group of drunk friends coming back from a night on the town. Probably college-aged.
There was a case a few years ago where a girl was murdered by someone. He posed as an Uber driver, but wasn’t. She was drunk and got in the wrong car. you could use something similar. He cruises around the college bars with an Uber sticker, waiting for a group to flag him down. Hand wave the cell phone away with a cell phone jammer, and there you go. I think you should consider using aspects of the car for the death. The seatbelt pulls tight and asphyxiates one passenger. Another tries to get out the open window, and the window closes, severing his head. Takata side airbag with a hair trigger. Front seat with memory position, folds the front passenger into the dash and crushes him. I like those because they are all normal parts of a car that are abnormally powerful. But some other thoughts, trap door in the floorboard, passenger falls into the undercarriage at highway speeds. Spike from the cargo area through the back.
The seatbelt is a good one. Thought about the folding seat, just not sure how feasible it'd be, being so strong as to crush the person by folding them on themselves. Perhaps each wrong question pushes the seat further, until he finally purposefully answers incorrectly to stop the pain. I dunno.
I think it's a crazy idea that just might work. So let's start with the lure. How does he keep them from getting suspicious? What if his steering console has all the controls that will trigger the traps? For example, his cruise control triggers one trap and his ac control triggers another and the radio button triggers a third? Just a thought But here's the big thing. Control. We can have the gruesome death traps, but let's look at control. Because that's where the psychological horror will come in. That's where the teases are going to come, and that's where the audience is going to learn to fear this guy. This guy sounds like someone who gets off on being in control. So how is he going to control them. For starters, he can begin by locking their seat belts. Seat belts already have a mechanism in them that "locks" but it can be undone. What if his seat belts are triggered to lock people against their seats? Now they're stuck. So, next is the first line of defense, which is the cell phone. Sure, you can do a signal blocker. But let's think about this. What if in order to call for his cab, they can download an app. That app will also download a virus that will disable their phone. And now their phone can be a trap. He can overheat them like those infamous Samsung phones. They put it to their ear to call for help and all they get is a high pitch screech. Texts are returned with an automated cryptic messages. Note, I'm taking things associated with safety, seatbelts and phones, and turning them against the people. In fact, that can be his game. They receive these cryptic texts and those have the clues to solving the puzzle and beating the game. Except there's no way to win. And what if, every time they try to talk to him, he doesn't speak. Like he doesn't acknowledge them or anything. Now the fun begins
Rewriting the idea a little here, but how about a story similar to the movie Collateral- Spoiler for the movie: An assassin forces a cab driver to drive around the city while he carries out multiple hits. His eventual goal is to kill the driver and pin the murder spree on him. So instead of the whole story being within a cab, you get them to play the game outside while the horror man drives around. So maybe the guy he drives around is some sort of tough guy/criminal. At first the horrorman seems like a nice guy so the tough guy says he will beat up the guy that did something bad to him for money, or some small-time shit. But then horrorman keeps escalating his requests and tough guy doesn't want to play. But then horrorman sprays him with some poison shit so he has to play (he puts on a gas mask as the car gets flooded with some slow acting poisonous gas.). The horror comes from the fact tough guy has to do more and more morbid shit to survive otherwise horrorman wont give him antidote (I guess this plot also seems similar to the movie crank). Plus the horrorman could be a sympathetic character who has good reasons to get tough guy to kill people, and his original plan was to drive them in his uber and gas them anyway, but tough guy offered to help so he changed his master plan.
I'm sorry Frigocc but a Killer Cash Cab sounds like an idea that belongs on Mystery Science Theater 3000. That's not a compliment; MST3K specializes in ludicrous low-budget movies. People watch the show to laugh at how bad the movies are. I like the idea of a deadly game, but why on Earth would you choose a quiz show, especially Cash Cab? An deadly obstacle course or a cage fight would both work for this concept. Killer Cash Cabs are the sort of thing Riddler would think up after being punched by Batman too many times. This isn't scary at all its just silly.
A lot of arguably stupid ideas end up being a lot of fun. And I like people willing to be a little stupid.
An ejection seat where the roof doesnt open Lethal injection up the bottom. - Needles hidden in the seat, you go over a bump, stabbity stab. Play rap music. Show them the fare price.
I have a soft spot for seats that have an eject mechanism but no corresponding opening in the roof of the vehicle. *Clunk*
