Shallow Grave
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Danny Boyle
Kerry Fox
Christopher Eccleston
Ewan Mcgregor
Ken Stott
Keith Allen
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
When faced with a unique challenge, the relations among three young friends are changed forever. In the process, their veneers of privilege and breeding give way to what lies behind: greed, deceit and evil.
Director
Danny Boyle
Cast
Kerry Fox
Christopher Eccleston
Ewan Mcgregor
Ken Stott
Keith Allen
John Bett
Kenneth Bryans
Elspeth Cameron
Jean Marie Coffey
Tony Curren
Bill Denniston
Paul Doonan
Victor Eadie
Grant Glendinning
Colin Mcredie
Jenny Mccrindle
Victoria Nairn
Leonard O'malley
Gregor Powrie
David Alan Macdonald
Billy Riddoch
Gary Lewis
Frances Low
Peter Mullan
John Hodge
David Scoular
Colin Mccredie
Crew
Brian Adams
John Amabile
Campbell Atkinson
Stephen Barker
Sara Barr
Mat Bergel
Hilda Booth
Simon Boswell
Brian Boyne
Lewis Buchan
Willie Cadden
Kate Carin
Stuart Clarke
Stephen Conroy
Paul Conway
Tony Cook
Anne Coulter
Stewart Cunningham
Paul Curren
Sam Curren
Clive Curtis
Gemma Dempsey
Anuree Desilva
Arthur Donnelly
John Downes
Simon Downes
Richard Fettes
Gordon Fitzgerald
Colin H Fraser
Derek Fraser
Tracey Gallacher
Nigel Galt
Alison Goring
Pat Harkins
Richard Hassall
Masahiro Hirakubo
John Hodge
Carmel Jackson
Ian Jackson
Dianne Jamieson
Graham Johnston
Scott Kerry
Peter Knotts
Gina Lee
Niki Longmuir
Lee Lighting Ltd
Iain Macaulay
Andrew Macdonald
Zoe Macleod
Ian Madden
Grant Mason
Kirstin Mcmahon
Yvonne Mcparland
Ray Merrin
Saul Metzstein
Morag Myerscough
Colin Nicholson
Colin Nicolson
John Norster
Jim Patrick
Kave Quinn
Ken Richards
Derrick Ritchie
Mark Ritchie
Fran Robertson
Nigel Robertson
Roy Russell
Brian Saunders
Allan Scott
Eric Smith
Jamie Spencer
Tony Steers
James Stewart
Danny Sumison
Sarah Trevis
Brian Tufano
Brian Tufano
Dominic Turner
Karen Wakefield
John Watts
Neil Williams
Film Details
Technical Specs
Articles
Shallow Grave - SHALLOW GRAVE - Director Danny Boyle's 1994 Feature Film Debut
Over in Scotland, TV director Danny Boyle, screenwriter John Hodge and producer Andrew Macdonald made a splash with 1994's Shallow Grave,a cleverly stylized and packaged murder thriller definitely modeled after the Coen Bros.' original hit. The movie was an almost instant success, putting Danny Boyle on the path to the directing mainstream. The show also gave a strong boost to its trio of stars, Kerry Fox, Christopher Eccleston and Ewan McGregor.
Hodge's story supposes that three working professionals need a fourth roommate for their Edinburgh apartment. Juliet (Kerry Fox) is a doctor, Alex (Ewan McGregor) a reporter for a tabloid and David (Christopher Eccleston) an accountant. The trio isn't particularly friendly, as they crueally subject their interviewees to their sardonic sense of humor. But they soon choose an acceptable fellow to take the extra room. The perfect candidate Hugo (Keith Allen) dies from a heroin overdose on the very night he moves in. What's more, the trio discovers that his suitcase is packed with money. Juliet, David and Alex mull over this opportunity for more than a day before taking the risk, and keeping the money. It's the old story: fear, suspicion and paranoia soon take a toll. Juliet and Alex go on a foolish spending spree while David quietly freaks out. Convinced that a conspiracy is afoot, he stops talking to his roommates and hides in the attic where 'nobody can get at him.' Alex and Juliet try to convince David that everything is fine --- just as Hugo's murderous associates succeed in tracing the suitcase with the money.
Not unlike Quentin Tarantino, the makers of Shallow Grave keep their show aloft with stylish visuals and sharp, flashy characterizations. Juliet, Alex and David's insular relationship is a too-hip-for-you private club, the kind in which friends feed off each other's desire to be ultra-clever. The trio finishes each other's sentences and laughs at all the right moments. Individuals outside their inner circle are fair game for whatever verbal abuse they care to dish out. The main instigator of group foolishness is the sharp-tongued Alex, while Juliet draws a personal satisfaction knowing that her male friends quietly lust after her. The more serious David is forever rushing to his boring accountancy job in a foul mood. We don't really like this trio. It reminds us of people we've met, that we've perhaps consciously decided not to judge.
Most of the action is restricted to the one apartment. A large and attractive space, it is exploited very well by Danny Boyle's camera. The visuals are less mannered than those of Tarantino or the Coens, yet there is no lack of odd camera angles. The trio's midnight excursions to ditch various corpses are a foggy replay of Robert Louis Stevenson's story The Body Snatcher, with added details of gruesome dismemberment. David's retreat to the attic crawlspace seems a weird re-run of Hitchcock's Psycho. He knocks holes all over the ceiling through which he can observe his roommates, creating a forest of light beams that pierce the attic gloom. It's an instant expressionist effect.
Shallow Grave delivers the expected violent confrontations and derives more than a few thriller situations from older models. Keeping track of the cash stashed in the suitcase is an issue. When Alex is assigned to report on the police investigation of the graves found in the woods, he finds himself retracing the reluctant steps of Edward G. Robinson in Fritz Lang's The Woman in the Window.
If the point is to push English movies beyond the years of Merchant-Ivory gentility, Shallow Grave accomplishes its mission. These young adults are certainly not innocents. They do not for a moment concern themselves with moral issues; the intended message may be that their value system has been eroded by the new worship of money. In the U.K. post-Margaret Thatcher, the need for moral balance is just another sentiment to be mocked. The show is suspenseful and frequently funny: the one thing we know for certain is that the fade-out will be accompanied by a dead body or two... or maybe four.
It's easy to see why Shallow Grave's actors did well. Christopher Eccleston's unhinged accountant is just as meticulous about bashing skulls and chopping up bodies as he is making his books balance. Kerry Fox's young doctor joins in the camaraderie but always keeps something essential to herself. And Ewan McGregor's smart-talking joker shows such a knack for recklessness and antisocial behavior, we feel certain that he's compensating for some perceived inner lack. Shallow Grave may be an almost generic stash-the-cash crime story, but its depth of characterization puts it ahead of most of its competition.
The Criterion Collection's Blu-ray of Shallow Grave is a perfect encoding of this suspense hit from 1994. With the help of the filmmakers Criterion includes plenty of first-person extras. One feature-length commentary pairs John Hodge and Andrew Macdonald, while a second allows director Boyle free reign. This first feature was the beginning of a wave of hits for Danny Boyle: Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours. An interview featurette regroups the three stars to recap the production and filming seventeen years after the fact. Also present are a BBC making-of show produced during the filming and a video diary from 1992's Edinburgh film festival, showing the producers in search of financing to get Shallow Grave on its feet. A trailer is included as well as a teaser for Trainspotting; a folding insert contains an essay by Philip Kemp.
For more information about Shallow Grave, visit The Criterion Collection. To order Shallow Grave, go to TCM Shopping.
by Glenn Erickson
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Shallow Grave - SHALLOW GRAVE - Director Danny Boyle's 1994 Feature Film Debut
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Expanded Release in United States February 17, 1995
Expanded Release in United States February 24, 1995
Expanded Release in United States March 10, 1995
Expanded Release in United States March 3, 1995
Released in United States 1995
Released in United States August 1994
Released in United States January 1995
Released in United States June 2009
Released in United States May 1994
Released in United States November 1994
Released in United States on Video July 25, 1995
Released in United States September 1994
Released in United States Winter February 10, 1995
Shown at American Film Market (AFM) in Los Angeles February 23 - March 3, 1995.
Shown at British Film Festival in Dinard, France September 22-25, 1994.
Shown at Cannes Film Festival (market) May 12-23, 1994.
Shown at Edinburgh International Film Festival (Special Screenings - 15th Anniversary Digital Restoration) June 17-28, 2009.
Shown at Edinburgh International Film Festival August 13-28, 1994.
Shown at London Film Festival November 3-20, 1994.
Shown at San Sebastian International Film Festival (in competition) September 15-24, 1994.
Feature directorial debut for British TV helmer and former stage director Danny Boyle.
Began shooting September 27, 1993.
Completed shooting November 5, 1993.
Released in United States January 1995 (Shown at Sundance Film Festival (Premieres) in Park City, Utah January 19-29, 1995.)
Released in United States Winter February 10, 1995
Expanded Release in United States February 17, 1995
Expanded Release in United States February 24, 1995
Expanded Release in United States March 3, 1995
Expanded Release in United States March 10, 1995
Released in United States May 1994 (Shown at Cannes Film Festival (market) May 12-23, 1994.)
Released in United States June 2009 (Shown at Edinburgh International Film Festival (Special Screenings - 15th Anniversary Digital Restoration) June 17-28, 2009.)
Released in United States 1995 (Shown at American Film Market (AFM) in Los Angeles February 23 - March 3, 1995.)
Released in United States on Video July 25, 1995
Released in United States August 1994 (Shown at Edinburgh International Film Festival August 13-28, 1994.)
Released in United States September 1994 (Shown at British Film Festival in Dinard, France September 22-25, 1994.)
Released in United States September 1994 (Shown at San Sebastian International Film Festival (in competition) September 15-24, 1994.)
Released in United States November 1994 (Shown at London Film Festival November 3-20, 1994.)