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Now, everyone knows how bad 80's movies can get and this movie is no exception when it comes to girls with bad hairdo's & clothes and bad 80's pop-songs. And the first half hour is pretty tedious in displaying all that. Four girl-students get going on a road-trip towards sunny Florida. At some roadhouse, they briefly meet two boys (also with a stupid 80's outfit) and make a rendez-vous with them at the next truck-stop, the next day. Of course, when being back on the road, their car breaks down because of a flat tire. Naturally, one of the stupidest girls took out the spare tire before they left, in order to make room for the baggage. Then one girl has to pee, goes in the woods and... is witness to a murder. At this point we are half an hour in the movie. But after that, the movie turns into a pretty misogynistic violence-movie set in some backwoods-town. We immediately know who the killer is (we see him commit the murder), but it still is a nice surprise when we (very soon) learn a bit more about his identity. He instantly (and secretly) turns into a serial killer determined to kill off all the girls. And when he becomes aware of the fact that the girls are on to him, he becomes an even more cunning bastard.Now, this isn't exactly a slasher movie and there isn't much gore in the movie. Mostly, the girls are being strangled or just shot dead (there's a nice head-shot in it). The acting is barely tolerable, but that doesn't matter. Even the pretty bad directing and editing doesn't matter. And the soundtrack or cinematography aren't gaining any points either. The subplot with the two boys at the truck-stop leads to nowhere. That blond deputy Scott is a complete moron. And those repeated close-ups of Tony March naked, sweaty, hairy chest didn't do me any good either. But here are the cool things: on many occasions it seems like one girl is gonna make it, but she doesn't. And sometimes help is on the way, but they always arrive too late. Yep, you got it, it goes from bad to worse for our poor girls. And the writer did good by not drawing out a protagonist amongst the girls. That way you have absolutely no idea who's going to die next. And just when you think you know who might make it 'til the end of the movie, you can think again. Also cause for applause is the fact that a lot of boobies are displayed here on several occasions (even right away in the opening-scene during a pretty senile shower-scene-spoof reminiscent of the one in PSYCHO, only this one is better for only one reason: the afore-mentioned boobies!). And probably the best thing (something which I didn't expect): the ending is really good. Abrupt, but good, including a typical 70's & 80's freeze-frame-shot. And we all know what that means, don't we? It's because of those few cool things, that SHALLOW GRAVE receives that extra point it so desperately needs.
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