Shallow Ground

Review by BigBadWolfBoy

Now don’t get me wrong here. If I pop a movie into my DVD player and find my wolfish eyes immediately assaulted by the sight of a naked young man strolling through the woods, I do not normally clap my hands together, wag my shaggy tail, and announce to the world , “Hell yeah! That’s what I’m talking about!”

Yet I did precisely that when I watched the opening of Sheldon Wilson’s intriguing 2004 creeper Shallow Ground. Because every inch of the aforementioned naked young man is covered in blood. And he’s carrying a large hunting knife. And he’s not so much ‘strolling’ as he is ‘striding purposely forward with an intense, focused gaze affixed to his bloody visage’ while the camera glides through the woods around him.

Now that, my little horror darlings, is indeed what I’m talking about!

The Boy’s destination is a tiny police station tucked away in a corner of what looks to be the Pacific Northwest, though the location is undisclosed. The station is closing, and the officers are packing up the place and getting ready to ship out when The Boy makes his glistening entrance.

Faster than the cops can say, “Holy crap it’s Vincent Price from Masque of the Red Death!” all sorts of crazy stuff starts happening. As in, The Boy seems to be able to control the blood in which he is covered. As in, The Boy can telepathically beam images into the minds of those he touches. As in, The Boy makes like dead hippie magician Doug Henning (prior to him being…uh…dead, that is) and shows the officers that handcuffs can’t keep a real man down.

This movie made me sit up and take notice. I wanted to know who The Boy was; I wanted to know why he chose that particular police station. I especially wanted to know what the gory flashes of fish-hooked flesh that played over the opening credits had to do with it all.

I admired the way Wilson escalated the weirdness, and then escalated it some more, and then suggested that maybe I was even watching the initial stages of something apocalyptic. Just wait until one of the officers gets ahold of a series of ‘Missing Persons’ photos and decides to get creative. Another fun moment is when Officer Russell (a bland Lindsey Stoddart) finally reaches an officer at a larger, nearby town via telephone. It’s the movie’s first glimpse at the world outside and the implications within that glimpse illustrate why I had so much fun with this movie. Sheldon Wilson is trying, damn it.

Some folks have complained that events unfold too slowly, but I think the pacing works wonderfully to build suspense. Others have complained that it plays out like an episode of the X-Files, which would make sense if not for the fact that the X-Files sucked ass (zing!) and Shallow Ground most certainly doesn’t. Ha! I kid the X-Files.

Alas, sometimes you can see the legs of this movie shaking under the weight of ideas that Wilson simply didn’t have the time or money to execute properly. Most of the cast deliver lackluster performances, the primary offender being lead actor Timothy V. Murphy as Officer Jack Murphy, Captain of the Dodgy American Accent. Add to that script problems that not only leave the main characters meandering and stumbling around awkwardly during the conclusion, but that make me wonder why exactly The Boy takes so damn long getting on with his bloody business, and what you end up with is a movie that instead of being truly great, only manages to be very, very good.

There is some great camerawork here(love those swooping Steadicam shots through the woods!), gooey gore done very well, a few standout performances (from The Bad Seed herself Patty McCormack as local resident Helen Reedy and Rocky Marquette at The Boy), and a truckload of ideas and ambition. To me, that’s the strength of independent horror- the courage to explore ideas and damn the budget.

One last thing. Most folks I’ve talked to who have seen this movie scratch their heads at the last few frames. I don’t pretend to have any particular insight floating around my man-wolf brain, but I think that last ‘sting’ has everything to do with the idea that there must always be a balance between good and evil. When the scales try to tip towards one side, something must exist to keep it all even.

With a producion cost of only $72,000, Shallow Ground gives me hope for independent horror cinema. I’m hoping to hear more from Sheldon Wilson, because in my eyes he has proven himself a director to watch.

What’s that? Kaw? A killer bird movie? Sci-Fi Channel? Don’t you dare make a liar outta me, Sheldon Wilson! Guess I’ll have to watch it now.