source: Shallow Grave

Shallow Grave

A dirty sheriff, decent kills, and a headshot! This above average thriller gem is totally worth your time. The abuse of power in this movie is more relevant than ever! Truly a film that will give you angst and anxiety!

A car load of gal pals take a trip to Florida for spring break and accidentally witness a murder along the way which sends them running for their lives. Obviously shot for little money and featuring a no-name cast, it's surprising how much this film can get under your skin. While you might not recognize many of the actors, they mostly all do a credible job selling the situations they've found themselves in. There's just the right amount of sleaze and gore, but it's more about the suspense which is well orchestrated and the story goes to some interesting and unpredictable places.

The beginning's not too promising -- a bit of college hi-jinks involving a quartet of over-aged sorority girls -- but then the girls head for spring-break in Florida and things improve. They become entangled in murder in a small Georgia town and while the plot turns are fairly predictable, they are carried out more efficiently than in many other movies boasting "name" casts and big budgets. True, the subplot featuring two young men, (also heading for Florida), goes nowhere, and the ending is abrupt and unsatisfying, but all in all this is one of those items found on the dusty back shelves of a video store which is actually worth watching. Acting honors go to Tony March's bare chest which is shown to splendid advantage in several hot and sweaty close-ups.

Four college coeds are on their way to Florida for vacation and pass through a small Georgia town where one of their number watches a couple have sex in the woods, argue and then the man kills the woman. It just so happens that he's the town's sherriff, which means that they're trapped in the town overnight and perhaps headed to an early demise. This is the kind of movie that starts like a comedy and progressively gets meaner, nastier and much sleazier as time goes on and any hope of a happy ending starts running out. Director Richard Styles has going to be the film's producer and never intended to actually be directing, but he did and turned out something unique in the slasher genre; the killer shows signs of remorse, but he knows that if he wants to keep his position in town, everyone in his way must die.

Going in with no expectations, I was taken by surprise by how well made and suspenseful this movie turned out to be. The stakes are high, the characters are mostly interesting and/or relatable, and you're never sure where the story will go next. Makes me not want to take any road trips through the south.

Thought it might seem to be a routine slasher film on the surface, Shallow Grave has a lot more than meets the eye and moments are bone-chillingly effective as a crooked cop goes after college girls who witnesses him kill a woman. You might be surprised how involving and intense this one gets.

Four friends head off to spring break in Florida, but get a flat tire in the middle of Medley, Georgia where one of them witnesses the local sheriff murder a woman. Now, they're on the run and who will take their word for it over the sheriff. Shallow Grave rarely takes the traditional way out and you're never sure where it's headed. From the first scene of the movie that calls to mind both Psycho and the corny opening movie-within-a-movie moment from Blow Out, the filmmakers are playing with our expectations in a way that would make Hitchcock proud. It takes a traditional slasher film set up of party-loving teens breaking down in the middle of nowhere and makes it frighteningly realistic and plausible. Shallow Grave doesn't have a franchise-ready iconic killer, but it's all the more frightening for it. It also has a main foursome of likable young women who don't go out of their way to grate our nerves or make unrealistic choices to drive the plot forward.

Shallow Grave is an engaging solid film and a unique mix of genres. Unexpected, but it surprisingly had more potential after all said and done. Could've been tighter, with choices good and bad. The deputy not acting on his suspicion's a flaw, but it isn't that simple of a choice. It's lose lose for him, it's only the two of them, there isn't anyone he can approach with it. Any sort of defiance or confrontation will result in his death, he has to be willing to kill the sheriff to proceed. It also shouldn't of been so difficult to get away from the sheriff on foot, he was walking slow while they ran or had the option to. Especially Cindy who just stops and sits in the car, sees her friends walking in the distance and opts to yell and not run after them. The film ends without conclusion too... Does the sheriff kill her and then the deputy and why did the two guys not follow the ambulance heading in the direction they were looking for the girls either.