Shallow Ground (2004)

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:

Public Nudity | Small Town Sheriff | Teenager Nudity | Interrogation | Suspension

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:

Malaysia:(Banned) | Singapore:M18 | Germany:18 | Finland:K-18 | Singapore:NC-16 (edited version) | 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

ALMOST a very good movie...

This strange horror offering has a blood-spattered teenage boy showing up at a police station. What happened to him, and how does this event tie in with the murder of a girl the previous year? This off-beat little horror film came out of the blue (for me at least), because prior to seeing it in my local video store, I'd never heard of it. I rented it, and let me say that while it's not the best horror flick I've seen lately, and it certainly does have it's fair share of problems, it's definitely a breath of fresh air from most of the crap released into cinema these days that people call "horror". Considering it's tiny budget, "Shallow Ground" pulls off some pretty impressive stuff. The film is shot on 16mm but looks great visually, I was shocked afterwords when I found out it WASN'T shot on 35mm. The actors were hit and miss but that's to be expected from a film of this caliber. Steve London's score is very good too, nicely dark and foreboding. One of the best aspects of the film though are the great make-up effects by Patrick Magee. There's lots of disgusting-looking corpses and blood, and the death of the Helen (Patricia McCormack) was great. There's almost no CGI used in this film (thank God) and horror fans will most certainly be pleased by the gruesome set pieces on display here.

Still, there's some stuff that didn't work so well too. The plot takes a long time to unfold and really isn't that interesting. The characters were mostly 1-D, and the ending, though cool, makes no sense whatsoever. This is an odd little horror film, certainly not bad but not *quite* great either. Still recommended, though, as it most certainly is unique and well-done.

7/10.