Kerry Fox
Three well-to-do Edinburgh flatmates acquire a suitcase full of cash when their mysterious new lodger is found dead. Conspiring to dispose of the body, the trio soon become suspicious of one another and their distrust ultimately proves their undoing...
This Britpop thriller is, for some inexplicable reason, one of my mother's favourite films, which I think speaks volumes about my home life.
Returning to Danny Boyle's 1994 debut after some time, I was somewhat disappointed by its tricksy editing, smarmy humour and unappealingly arrogant protagonists. Ewan McGregor's subsequent ubiquity means that it doesn't take long for his chirpy Highland charm to wear thin and become an annoyance. However, the film has barely dated and is still an intense, taut suspense piece, much more claustrophobic than, say, Sam Raimi's A Simple Plan (1998) for being largely contained within one apartment. Some motifs here would be echoed in Boyle's next outing, the mega-hit, epoch-defining Irvine Welsh adaptation Trainspotting (1996), such as the pounding techno theme by Leftfield and the clockwork baby seen crawling across the floorboards. Boyle may not have been Britain's answer to Quentin Tarantino, as he was hailed in 1994, but he did finally cement his place in the international mainstream with the multi-Oscar winning Slumdog Millionaire in 2008.
I think the real reason to see Shallow Grave again is for Christopher Eccleston's utterly terrifying performance as David, the accountant who takes to living in the loft, unable to cope with reality after dismembering Keith Allen's corpse. Look out for Ken Stott as a quirky detective with writer John Hodge at his side and actor/director Peter Mullan playing one of the grimey hoods seeking to reclaim the money (the total value of which is never disclosed, incidentally).
The story, about a friendship gradually eroded by greed, may be one of the oldest in the world and go back on screen to at least The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948) but it's still a damn good one.
