Shallow Grave

For the album by Swedish folk musician The Tallest Man on Earth, see Shallow Grave (album).

Shallow Grave
Shallow Grave film poster
Directed by	Danny Boyle
Produced by	Andrew Macdonald
Written by	John Hodge
Starring	Kerry Fox Christopher Eccleston Ewan McGregor
Music by	Simon Boswell
Cinematography	Brian Tufano
Editing by	Masahiro Hirakubo
Studio	Film4 Miramax International
Distributed by	Buena Vista International Gramercy Pictures PolyGram Filmed Entertainment Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Release date(s)	22 December 1994 (1994-12-22) (Australia) 6 January 1995 (1995-01-06) (United Kingdom)
Running time	92 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	$2.5 million
Box office	$2,834,250

Shallow Grave is a 1994 British black comedy thriller film that marks the directorial debut of Danny Boyle with an original screenplay by John Hodge.

The film also provided starring roles for the then relatively little-known actors Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston and Kerry Fox.

The production was funded by Channel 4 television and the film distributed by PolyGram Filmed Entertainment who as with their other releases generated a large amount of publicity for the film on a limited budget.

Plot

David (Christopher Eccleston), a chartered accountant, Juliet (Kerry Fox), a doctor, and Alex (Ewan McGregor), a journalist, are three friends who share a flat in Edinburgh. They need a new flatmate and, after a sequence of interviews, in which unwanted applicants are rejected with calculated cruelty, take in the mysterious Hugo (Keith Allen). When Hugo suddenly dies of a drug overdose, they discover that he has a very large amount of cash in a suitcase. The three decide to keep the money and to dispose of Hugo's corpse in the titular shallow grave. The three flatmates plan to bury the body out in the forest and keep the money. To prevent the body from being identified, they decide to saw off and incinerate the hands and feet, smash in the face with a hammer, and remove the teeth.

Meanwhile, two unnamed gangsters (Peter Mullan and Leonard O'Malley) are seen in a bloody pursuit of the case, coldly killing three men in the process.

David reluctantly decides to join the scheme after evaluating how dull his accounting job is and after much pleading from Alex. In the meantime, the body remains in the room and "starts to smell." The flatmates decide to draw straws to determine who will undertake the sawing and the smashing of the skull. Filled with fear, David is unlucky and draws the short straw. Although nauseated by the task, he reluctantly obliges. Immediately after the incident, David becomes entrenched in a fit of depression. Paranoid that the police are on to them and that his flatmates are after the money, he locks himself in the attic with the suitcase full of money, faking an excuse to stay off work. When the gangsters arrive at the flat, they force their way into the loft, but are killed by David, who promptly leads the disposal of their remains next to Hugo's grave.

However, soon after, the police — in the form of Detective McCall (Ken Stott) and Detective Mitchell (John Hodge, also the film's writer) — visit the residence to interview David, where their suspicion is obvious. The fact that the police find the bodies and then interview the flatmates sends David into an rage because he warned Alex earlier the grave was not deep enough. By this time, David is convinced that the police know everything; his rage intensifies Alex's fear and suspicion of him, which results in the total isolation of each individual. All the money, except for that spent during a short, extravagant, and insanely happy shopping spree, remains untouchable, by reason of either fear or guilt.

As David and Juliet are about to leave the flat with the money, but without Alex, a confrontation erupts and David stabs Alex through the shoulder with a knife, pinning him to the floor. Juliet then stabs David in the back of the neck, killing him, and, after forcing the knife further through Alex's shoulder, leaves with the suitcase of money.

Arriving at the airport for her flight, Juliet discovers the case is actually full of bundles of newspaper, cut into the size and shape of banknotes, obviously placed there by Alex and she screams in horror. The film then cuts to Alex, still pinned to the floor, with a police photographer taking pictures of him as he smiles. The camera pans down to reveal that the money is hidden directly beneath him, under the floorboards, with his blood dripping onto it.

Cast

• Kerry Fox as Juliet Miller
• Christopher Eccleston as David Stephens
• Ewan McGregor as Alex Law
• Ken Stott as Detective Inspector McCall
• Keith Allen as Hugo
• Colin McCredie as Cameron
• Victoria Nairn as Visitor
• Gary Lewis as Visitor
• Jean Marie Coffey as Goth
• Peter Mullan as Andy
• Leonard O'Malley as Tim

The film is Ewan McGregor's first major film role, alongside Christopher Eccleston and Kerry Fox. The supporting cast is led by Keith Allen, Peter Mullan, and Ken Stott.

Production

Shooting for Shallow Grave lasted for thirty days. The tight budgetary restraints during filming meant many of the props had to be auctioned off for them to afford sufficient film stock.

There has been much discussion as to whether Alex is actually dead in the final scene and his laughter is imagined. However, Danny Boyle makes very clear in his commentary on the 2009 Special Edition Blu-Ray/DVD^{[citation needed]} that Alex is not meant to be dead. Boyle stresses that a line of Alex saying hello to the detective was actually added in post-production to hopefully clarify this fact.

Filming locations

The crew shot predominantly at Glasgow rather than Edinburgh, which is where the story is set, since Glasgow film fund gave them a £150,000 grant.

Locations in the film include:

• Flat 6 North East Circus Place, New Town, Edinburgh
• Hospital scenes were filmed at Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley, Renfrewshire
• ceilidh scene Townhouse Hotel - 54 West George Street, Glasgow, Strathclyde

Reception

The film received positive reviews. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Shallow Grave has a 'Fresh' rating of 71% based on 42 reviews. The film grossed a total of $2,834,250 in the USA.

Soundtrack

Shallow Grave
Soundtrack album by Simon Boswell
Released	1995
Genre	Electronic, Jazz, Rock
Label	EMI Records
Producer	Simon Boswell
Danny Boyle film soundtrack chronology
Shallow Grave (1995) Trainspotting (1996)

Track listing

1. Leftfield – "Shallow Grave" – 4:38
2. Simon Boswell – "Shallow Grave Theme" – 3:30
3. Nina Simone – "My Baby Just Cares for Me" – 3:38
4. Simon Boswell – "Laugh Riot" – 3:02
5. Leftfield – "Release the Dubs" – 5:45
6. John Carmichael Band – "Strip the Willow" – 3:12
7. Simon Boswell – "Loft Conversion" – 5:45
8. Simon Boswell – "A Spade, We Need a Spade" – 2:41
9. Simon Boswell – "Shallow Grave, Deep Depression" – 4:49
10. Simon Boswell – "Hugo's Last Trip" – 5:39
11. Andy Williams – "Happy Heart" – 3:11

External links

• Shallow Grave at the Internet Movie Database
• Review at Cult Fiction.