Post by nightflyer on Nov 18, 2005 9:49:05 GMT 10
Shallow Ground
A film review by Nightflyer
Tagline: Fear your past... it will find you -- No one leaves…
Plot:
A year after a woman was brutally murdered. Sheriff Jack Shepard and the rest of his small country town folk are packing up and leaving the town they once called home. In the midst of this relocation as young boy comes to town; speechless, naked and covered in blood. Still guilt ridden of the unsolved murder from a year ago, Jack is determined to find out if this boy is linked to the murder. What he will discover though is that he is indeed linked, but in a way that he never could have anticipated.
My Thoughts:
This is one of those films that comes along every once and a while; not much money, a relatively unknown cast, and a crew that do everything from grips, camera, to clean up the rubbish when they where finished on location. This is in my book someone who is in it for the work. Someone who wants to simply tell a story the way he envisioned it. Sheldon Wilson is one of those directors and has done what very few have done before; taken a very low budget, and turned a small movie into a cult movie that will be talked about for years to come. My hat goes of to him and I hope he will continue to go far within the industry.
Cast was relatively unknown with the exception of Patty McCormack; who has over forty movies under her belt. It did not impact the movie as all actors where able to nail there parts, and with a huge variety of characters it was good to see them accomplish that. I mean we had the local drunk, a crooked cop, a guilt ridden cop, a stubborn old tenant, and then of course Rocky Marquette as Bloody Boy. In only his second acting film Rocky basically had to act with his body; for he had no dialogue. He had to get his character across to us in only action; a not so easy task I would imagine, and to do this not only near naked but to also have fake blood all over his body. The only time I have really enjoyed a character similar was the T1000 in T2; another very low dialogue character. It was amazing for such a young actor to do what Robert Patrick was able to do, and in I would imagine only half the time. Well done Rocky and it was good to here from you about your experience about filming this.
Special Effects:
When a lot of films rely on Special Effects these days, Shallow Ground only used two. Everything else was done live. Probably not the way Sheldon would have liked it, just a case of no money, but again no impact on the movie. I would have to say it made me appreciate it that much more, and in particular one scene which was done with miniatures and cut into a section of live action. The scene where the blood is traveling from the interrogation room to the main holding cells cut together tremendously, and if not for the documentary on the DVD, I would not have even known it was there.
Overall:
This movie in my opinion is up there with “Evil Dead” another low budget, unknown cast but cult movie. I believe this movie will get a following much like Evil Dead did and be remembered for years to come. It will also launch some very disserving careers in the way of the cast and crew, in particular Sheldon and Rocky. My wishes go out to them and I hope they have great careers. Just remember us when you get there. lol…
Score:
9/10