Director Report Card: Danny Boyle (1994)

3. Shallow Grave

Nearly 600 years before, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote “The Pardoner's Tale” as part of an unfinished little project known as “The Canterbury Tales.” The story – of travelers setting out to find Death, uncovering a treasure chest, murdering each other in their greed, and ironically fulfilling their original mission statement – would set in place one of the most timeless morals in all of literature: The love of money is the root of all evil. Countless authors have been inspired by the same premise over the centuries. One such example was John Hodge, a med student from Glasgow with ambitions of becoming a screenwriter. After running into producer Kevin Macdonald at the Edinburgh Film Festival, Hodge whipped up a script called “Shallow Grave.” The manuscript found its way to Danny Boyle, who quickly decided that this was the project that would allow him to make the leap from television to film. Upon release in 1994, “Shallow Grave” would become the highest grossing British-made film of that year, creating the foundations for the careers of its director, its stars, and its screenwriter.

In a spacious flat in Edinburgh lives three young professionals: Journalist Alex, doctor Juliet, and accountant David. They review applicants for a fourth flat mate, almost as a joke, before Juliet is charmed by the mysterious Hugo. Not long after moving in, the others find Hugo dead of a heroin overdose. They also find a large suitcase full of millions of dollars. After much debate, the decision is made to keep the money and split it amongst themselves. David is given the grisly task of dismembering Hugo's body, which is then buried in the woods. Alex and Juliet enjoy their newfound loot, while David grows increasingly paranoid about the money. He's right to be concerned, as a pair of ruthless criminals are on the trail of the cash. It's only a matter of time before the flat mates are found by the crooks, the first of several violent incidents that will tear the three friends apart and see them scheming against each other.

A year before "Shallow Grave" was released, a novel with a similar premise would be published. Scott Smith's "A Simple Plan" also concerns a trio of friends who come across millions of ill-gotten gains, their decision to share the money soon going horribly wrong. I'm not suggesting Hodge and MacDonald were ripping off Smith's book and doubt "Shallow Grave" had much influence on Sam Raimi's film adaptation four years later. Both are variations on the aforementioned themes set forth by Chaucer and "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," a likelier inspiration for both. However, Boyle and Raimi's films are connected by a similar approach to the discovered caches of money. In a classic film noir tradition, the millions are treated almost as a cursed artifact, an object that introduces a malignant force into an otherwise functional relationship. David immediately knows the money is bad news and is reluctant to take it. The other two see an opportunity and it's a tempting one. There aren't many among us who wouldn't benefit from a suitcase full of hundred dollar bills to dropping in our laps. Money makes people do insane things and that is where the true power of stories like "Shallow Grave" or "A Simple Plan" lie. It's easy to daydream about suddenly becoming rich but it's just as easy to imagine how badly it can fuck your life up too. They say money changes people and, when combined with shaky secrets and criminal pressures, it's inevitable that this situation will go badly. 

At the same time, the stolen cash is not the Apple in the Garden of Eden, a sudden intrusion of corruption into an otherwise balanced, innocent situation. In another amusing coincidence, "Shallow Grave" would debut at festivals a few months before another program about photogenic young people somehow able to afford an improbably roomy apartment began airing. "Friends" would definitely focus more on the wish fulfilment aspect of the fantasy of being young, attractive, and living in the city with your best pals but "Shallow Graves" feels almost as unlikely at first. I don't know what rent was like in Edinburgh in the nineties but the film's central location strikes modern eyes as absurdly nice for a starter apartment. Would a journalist, an accountant, and a recent med school grad be able to afford such a place? This flat has a loft, for God's sake. That a big bundle of discovered cash is what drives the plot certainly suggests economic pressures are weighing on these three. At the same time, they treat the possibility of a fourth flat mate moving in as a grand jape. The opening montage shows the characters using the interview process more as an opportunity to mock strangers than as a chance to split the bills more evenly.

That's an establishing character moment for another reason too: These three are kind of assholes. All throughout the first act, Juliet ignores incessant phone calls from someone, the suggestion that this is some past romantic partner she's trying to avoid. The three attend a doctor's ball, Alex seeing it as a chance to raise a little hell in public. David is much, much more reserved by the other two bring out his impish side as well. Being young and hot brings with it a certain cockiness. "Shallow Grave" uses that youthful energy to skirt the misbehavior of its protagonists, allowing the film to tactilely acknowledge that these three are jerks without making them horribly unpleasant to be around the whole time. After all, if the main characters where good people, they probably wouldn't chop up a body and dump it in a freshly dug hole somewhere. The knowledge that these three are all ready willing to compromise whatever morals they have, that they mostly see other people as means to an ends, adds to the tension later in the film. 

There's another kind of tension throughout "Shallow Grave," that gives it a little more in-common with its benevolent American sitcom counterpart. The moment we are introduced to our three leads, the question hangs in the air about what kind of relationship they share exactly. There's an evident sexual tension between Alex and Juliet. She teases him by flashing her breast before taking a shower or with an enticing dance at the ball. At the same time, there are suggestions of an attraction between David and Juliet as well, her feminine wiles being used more than once to push him around. It's not only a sense of competition between the men over the sole female in the house. One scene sees Alex lounging about in a dress and make-up, showing his attitude towards his own sexuality and gender is relaxed, at the very least. Alex and David share more than a few intense looks of their own. It quickly becomes apparent that everyone in the house wants to fuck each other, with some more aware – and more willing to use that information to their advantage – than others. If the dead body and bag of money had never shown up, this situation probably would've been more like any messy roommates break-up, with lots of sexual tension and romantic entanglements. That set-up already adds a sense of suspense to the story before things start to get grisly. 

And things certainly do get grisly. Like many glossy thrillers to come out in the nineties, "Shallow Grave" hovers between the realm of Hitcockian suspense and a more blatant form of horror. From early on, the story generates the feeling of a series of chain reactions that will soon spin out of control. Small choices – opening the flat to a fourth roommate, deciding to keep the money, drawing straws to dismember the body – build atop each other until the characters find themselves in a nightmarish situation that they built for themselves with their own greed and selfishness. Tight pacing goes a long way towards making the viewer feel caught up in this cycle too. By the time the criminals have tracked down the three protagonists, terrorizing them in their own home while David lurks ominously in the shadowy loft, "Shallow Grave" has comfortably moved beyond the polite categorization of thriller and into the nastier borders of horror. There are lingering close-ups of bloody saws in the tub, frantic nightmare sequences, and red backlighting right out of a Bava movie. 

The most bracing scene in "Shallow Graves" involves the disposal of the body. The drawing of the straws is fraught with seasick tension as David, the meekest of the trio, gets stuck with doing the nastiest work. While the most graphic violence is kept off-screen, the sound of the saw working through the bones – a high-pitched squeal, like glass on glass – is grosser than any gory effects ever could be. That speaks to the level of technical skill that was put into "Shallow Grave." Boyle was clearly determined to take everything he learned from his years in television and apply it to his big screen debut. He clearly sought out the best collaborators. Nigel Galt, Colin Nicholson, and Paul Conway led the sound department so I'm going to give them credit for creating that distressing sound effect during the burial scene. It's far from the only upsetting folly work on the film. An electric drill boring through a ceiling, a whack on the kneecaps with a crowbar, a knife slicing into a body: All make you cringe, going a long way towards making "Shallow Grave" a far more disturbing picture than it probably would've been otherwise. 

While the film makes a deliberate choice on how much violence it shows you, that doesn't make it a reserved film. The first shot of "Shallow Grave" is a racing close-up of asphalt as the road speeds by. Boyle brings the same kinetic energy to the film that was notable in his later TV work, with energetic editing and a propulsive soundtrack. (Including the solid score from Simon Boswell, though electro band Leftfield contributes the propulsive main title theme.) Cinematographer Brian Tufano fills the movie with constantly surprising shots. A face thrust into a tub of red water makes for a sudden shot. The spiral staircase inside the flat becomes a shadowy, bottomless pit in one sequence. As much as "Shallow Grave" constantly feels like it is moving, there's a scene of stillness and contemplation to many of its shots as well. Colors are used exquisitely throughout, the flat being painted in bold yellows and blues that are increasingly encroached upon by blood reds and ominous darkness. The discovery of Hugo's corpse is accompanied by a shot, carefully lit and colored with a precise depth to it, that recalls classical paintings like "The Death of Chatterton." It's clear that a careful consideration was taken into every shot, every camera movement, every placement in the frame to ensure that the film made as much of an impact on its viewer as possible. 

I feel like someone who knows more about classical art history than myself would have a lot to say about "Shallow Grave." The use of architecture seems significant as well. The building chosen for the exterior shots of the flat makes it look like a medieval tower or prison. While the shape and form of the sets create a casket-like sense of enclosure, hinting at the metaphorical prison the gang will soon be building for themselves before the shit hits the fan. Close doors reoccur throughout the film as a symbol, bringing to mind the final closed door of our lives, the casket lid shutting tight before we go in the ground. Or maybe Boyle and his team were just trying their dumbest to ensure "Shallow Grave" didn't feel like a stage play. Boyle and Hodge got their start in the theater. Considering most of the film takes place in one setting and a few shots position the characters in front of the precisely designed walls, as if we are looking at the actors in stage before a backdrop, the temptation to compare "Shallow Grave" to a stage show is there. Intense editing and carefully constructed visuals ensures that the film never feels stage bound, perhaps a deliberate move by Boyle to prove that he has grown past his theatrical and television roots.

Obviously, a well chosen cast was another element to the film's success. This was only Ewan McGregor's second film credit but he already knows how to get the viewer's attention. There's a mischievous glint in McGregor's face as Alex, the character feeling like an almost fey-like mythical creature dropped into a modern setting. This is further evident in his gender fluidity and the way he repeatedly refers to everything around him as a game. He reduces the gnarly task of cutting up the body to a game of straws. He watches and guffaws at an idiotic game show in another scene. That he insists on goofing around even when things get increasingly grim further shows this aspect of the character. Alex isn't a modern Puck though. Transferring those same aspects into a regular human being reveals a charismatic and energetic troublemaker who is also a borderline sociopath, someone who is happy to screw over anyone if it amuses him and only sees other people as pawns to toy with. 

Not that Alex is alone in manipulating the people around him for his own gains. If "Shallow Grave" is a noir, then Kerry Fox as Juliet is our femme fatale. While not a classical screen bombshell, Fox has an alluring and enticing sexuality to her throughout. Her little smirks or a tilt of a head, a teasing of a sexual availability that is never actually fulfilled, makes her exactly the kind of woman that drives men crazy. Notably, the only time she actually sleeps with anyone is a blatant act of manipulation, drawing attention to the skillful way she is playing the men against each other. Caught between these two manipulators is Christopher Eccleston as the mild mannered, neurotic David. He looks the part with his pale complexion and Herbert West glasses. While Eccleston is excellent as a stiff nerd pulled around by two schemers, he is less convincing as someone who snaps and becomes a brutal killer. That represents the weakest aspect of "Shallow Grave." I never quite buy the character's transformation. It's as if the act of slicing up one body is enough to break his mind totally. It plays like a narrative shortcut, to ramp up the tension for the final act, and is one of the few artificial moves in a script that is otherwise very natural feeling. 

Considering the nineties was a boom period for classy thrillers and indie cinema, "Shallow Grave" came along at just the right time. The film was successful in theaters but would reach its true audience on video and cable television. That's where I first saw it and I imagine that's true for a lot of people. It's the kind of film with a premise that invites humble expectations, which makes it all the more impressive when it ends up punching far above its weight class. I think certain elements of the film hold up better than others. The cast works fantastically, the script is sharp, and the director brings an astonishing amount of style to the execution. I do wish some of the dramatic changes in the second half were a little less sudden. Nevertheless, "Shallow Grave" still leaves the viewer with the right kind of morbid brain rush today as it did when brand new. [Grade: A-]