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Shallow Ground (2004)

Director: Sheldon Wilson

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From Time Out London

A frustrating mix of the familiar, the surprising and the downright daft, Sheldon Wilson’s ambitious, underachieved horror movie ultimately squanders its best ideas. A naked teenage boy covered in blood wanders out of the forest into a remote, soon-to-be-closed sheriff’s office. Carrying a red-handled knife used to kill a local woman one year before, he meekly submits to imprisonment but will not speak. The local law officers are clueless, in both senses of the word. Is the boy a serial killer, or the manifestation of some malevolent supernatural force? More confusing than intriguing, the shambolic plot is thrown off-kilter by irrelevant subplots, obvious red herrings and clumsy flashbacks. The prisoner bleeds from his eyes and ears, half-naked women are strung up and butchered, a macabre dinner party of mummified corpses is discovered. While the orchestral score and forced sound design hint at a fertile dam-burst of dark disturbance, this ‘Shallow Ground’ ultimately proves arid. ‘No One Leaves’ is scrawled in blood on a window. Even so, you may be tempted. 

Author: NF 2005-07-26 13:03:39

Time Out London Issue 1823: July 27-August 03 2005

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Shallow Ground

Cast & crew

Director: Sheldon Wilson

Cast: Timothy V Murphy, Stan Kirsch, Lindsey Stoddart, Patty McCormack, Rocky Marquette, Natalie Avital, Steve Eastin, John Kapelos full cast

Genre(s): Horror, Thrillers

Duration: 97 mins


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