Friday, August 14, 2015

100 Scariest Movie Moments: #91 Shallow Grave


Having completed and reviewed all 100 of these films, I found there was only one review I really regretted, and it was the very first one I wrote. My original review of Shallow Grave was literally just three-pages of fanboy gushing about how much I loved the movie, along with way too much on my personal interpretation of the plot. The results felt more like a college film school essay than a review, so I decided to take another crack at it.

The story is about three flatmates in an unnamed British city; Juliet Miller (Kerry Fox), David Stevens (Christopher Eccleston), and Alex Law (Ewan McGregor). The three of them have a darkly idyllic life. They're young, and they're quite successful for their age. David is an accountant, Juliet is a physician, and Alex is a journalist. Furthermore, they form the perfect circle of friends, with all three of them being complete assholes who take joy in amusing each other and antagonizing outsiders.

Their favorite form of entertainment is advertising for a fourth flatmate, and then humiliating people with bizarre and personal questions in the interview. This eventually brings Hugo (Keith Allen) into the story, a somewhat older, charming man, who somehow entices them into actually taking him on as a flatmate.

The brilliance of this movie is that it has enough twists and mood shifts to keep surprising the audience, while also remaining completely logical in it's narrative. Throughout the film we get cutaways to two of Hugo's associates hunting for him, and we expect the three protagonists to end up in a crossfire. Then, Hugo dies of a drug overdose leaving a suitcase full of cash, and the three bury him out in the woods to avoid turning in the money. They decide to mutilate the corpse to prevent identification, and draw straws, with David as the loser who has to do it. This causes David to become increasingly paranoid and unhinged, locking himself in the attic with the suitcase. Naturally, the two associates show up looking for the money, but David is unexpectedly able to dispatch them both with little trouble.

This represents the real turning point in the film: David is going crazy. The film becomes a conflict between Alex and Juliet on the one hand and David on the other, as both vie for the money. At the same time, Juliet and Alex want to avoid bringing in the authorities, while also keeping David's growing lunacy under control.

This movie is almost like an inversion of the modern jump-scare film. Terrifying things are treated with casual disregard, being discussed coldly by the characters. Hugo's death takes place off screen, as does the mutilation of his corpse. Instead, the fear comes from the actors, who manage to portray revulsion and terror without any over-the-top screaming. A decision is made to draw straws to remove Hugo's hands, feet, and teeth to prevent identification before burial, and David is chosen. Eccleston shows his disgust with a simple “I can't do it!” Then, he does it anyway, contributing to his psychological decline throughout the film.

The movie's tone is all over the place, between comedy and drama. That, combined with the acting talent of the cast.  (What do you expect when you have the Doctor and Obi-wan Kenobi together?), sell everything. Both the black comedy, and the performances, serve to get you to like and care about characters who are objectively terrible people. If there's ever been a film that demonstrates the fine line between comedy and horror better than this, I have yet to see it. The finale confrontation is even revealed to be a big punch-line, in which all three main characters wind up screwed in one way or another.

This is a film that I recommend without reservation. While it's not easy for me to make a list of my top ten favorite movies (I struggle with a top three), if I ever did, this movie would be on it. It's an experience everyone needs to have.

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