Shallow Ground (2004)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

Sheldon Wilson

Writer:

Sheldon Wilson (writer)

Release Date:

28 April 2005 (Russia)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Fear your past... it will find you.

Plot:

A naked teenage boy covered in blood appears at a remote sheriff's station one year after the brutal unsolved murder of a local girl...

Plot Keywords:

Woods | Small Town Sheriff | Public Nudity | Flashback Sequence | School Bus

Cast

Timothy V. Murphy	...	Jack Sheppard
Stan Kirsch	...	Stuart Dempsey
Lindsey Stoddart	...	Laura Russell
Patty McCormack	...	Helen Reedy
Rocky Marquette	...	Boy
Natalie Avital	...	Darby Owens
Chris Hendrie	...	Albert Underhill
Tara Killian	...	Amy Underhill
Myron Natwick	...	Harvey
Steve Eastin	...	Detective Russell
John Kapelos	...	Leroy Riley
Christine Avila	...	Mrs. Underhill
Ori Pfeffer	...	Curtis
Victor Campos	...	Bus Driver
John MacKane	...	Passenger #1

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence and gore, nudity and some language.

Runtime:

97 min | Germany:93 min (DVD version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Germany:18 | Singapore:M18 | Singapore:NC-16 (edited version) | Malaysia:(Banned) | Finland:K-18 | Sweden:15 | Australia:MA | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Deco Filmworks

Goofs:

Factual errors: The sheriff carries a Ruger Mini-14 rifle throughout the film, however there is never a magazine in the weapon. Though Ruger does make a version of the rifle with a fixed internal magazine, you can clearly see the open magazine well in a few shots; he's carrying an empty weapon.

Quotes:

Stuart Dempsey: Things haven't exactly been normal around here, you know what I'm saying?
Detective Russell: Things haven't been normal anywhere for the last 24 hours.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Mortuary (2005/I)

Soundtrack:

No One Leaves

Better than good, but not quite great.

First off, let me say that the reason I gave this movie a 9 out of 10, is because I'm basing it off of my own personal horror flick scale. I almost always have to lower my standards a bit for horrors. So I rated it a 9 as a horror film.

Anyways -- At the start, I thought Shallow Ground was going to be another cheesy knock-off horror flick, and boy, was I wrong. It had its expected cheap scares, and some that were very original. I wouldn't quite call it scary, but more along the lines of really creepy. Given that the movie was on a low budget, they pulled out some great actors from the wood-works, I was very impressed. The story was, well.. unique, but not entirely -- yet it was very well written, and I have a hunch that the writer got exactly what he wanted (hopefully that all made sense). This movie will keep you interested as long as you have an open mind to latter day horror films. All-in-all, this was definitely one of the better horrors I've seen in a long time. It's just a shame I didn't know about it until a year after its release. It's worth a watch, trust me.

Oh yeah, and don't let your kids watch this one.