SHALLOW GROUND (2004)

At the same time a killer is stalking Shallow Valley, the local sheriff's station is in the process of packing up shop when a mysterious young boy, naked and entirely covered in blood walks in. Add a sheriff (Murphy, whose accent has taken a trip around the world by the end of the film) plagued with guilt over the murder of his girlfriend, a suspicious looking hunter (Kapelos), a few brief moments of naked flesh, some bizarre fingerprints, and even more bizarre blood, and you've got a crazy story worthy of an episode of The X Files (You know, the ones they did in between the "big-conspiracy-that-goes-nowhere" episodes?). McCormack, formerly "The Bad Seed", plays the local feisty elderly woman, and the lovely Avital is a medic.
Despite winning a few minor awards, I was surprised to read some of the negative reviews that this horror/sci-fi pic has garnered on the Web. I was expecting a belated Scream wannabe, and ended up not only surprised that it was different, but that it was quite interesting too. And hey, there was some naked flesh, not something to be sneezed at, even if it is of the tied-up-and-covered-in-dirt variety. That's not to say that the film has no flaws, it has a fair few. The acting, principally by the leads, is astonishingly flat, and their characters never really engaged me as much as they should have. Avital (who reminds me of a cross between the lovely Annabeth Gish and Jenna Morasca from Survivor) and Kapelos are the only exceptions, but whilst the former has an immensely likeable presence, the latter, whilst lively, is far too hammy so that the audience is immediately alerted to his function in the plot. The actors also never seemed terribly surprised by all the weird goings on, and given how freaky the film gets, it's a pretty major flaw. The use of flash-cuts in dream sequences or visions is also a major pet peeve of mine. I just don't like them, although they are done in a somewhat interesting way here.

The film has a really nice look to it (especially for a low-budget affair), the director and cinematographer clearly know their stuff, with a quite colourful look to it all. Also, the opening scenes of the film are quietly tense, we know something is going to happen, but aren't sure what or when. Thankfully, the 'what' question is kept unanswered for quite a while. And hey, any film that starts with the image of a bloodied, naked young boy sure makes one sit up and take notice. What really kept me watching this film, though, was the story. It kept coming up with such strange ideas that whilst highly unlikely, were fascinating nonetheless.
This isn't just some PG 13-aiming, assembly line horror film, it is in fact, quite an original film, made on a reasonably low-budget. Kudos to writer-director Wilson for actually having some damn ambition, something sorely lacking in the genre these days. And if you like your films bloody, well, there's quite a bit of the red stuff on display here (though it looks as though Raspberry Jam was going for a pretty cheap price at the time), and there's some particularly choice gore towards the end. It looks like we've finally moved away from the slasher genre, and here's hoping the sequels and remakes, and Americanisation of Japanese horror films ends soon as well.

But before you go ahead and think I'm going to give this film a really good score, I have to admit that the film's last ten minutes are mostly so bad that it hurts the film's overall value. Whilst it has some nice gore, it must be said that these final moments didn't make a damn bit of sense to me. I seriously think you need to be a member of MENSA to work it all out, much like the final stages of The Fog remake. Overall though, this is a good-looking and more than watchable low-budget film that is at least trying to give us something out of the ordinary. Better performances, and a script re-write would've helped immensely, but it's worth a look anyway.