SHALLOW GROUND

A remote police station in the woods of rural America is closing down. On the last day, as all the remaining files and equipment are being moved away, a naked teenage boy shows up. He’s drenched head to toe in blood and refuses to speak a word. His face seems familiar to everybody. As he sits, goresoaked in the station, blood oozes from his body like the fluids of a stigmata, running across the floor, driven by a dark, secret purpose. The cops ask questions, check prints and pile through records. What they find seems too impossible to be true. Unfortunately for them, and for quite a few others, truth can be stranger than fiction. The past has a memory and they are in for one hell of a reckoning. The supernatural revenge bloodbath Shallow Ground is easily one of the most original horror films of last year. What this independent lacks in budget, it more than makes up for with style, intelligence and invention. The Super16mm steady cam cinematography evokes a frenzied and pervasively creepy atmosphere of death and decay. Writer-director Sheldon Wilson, who debuted in 2001 with the thriller Night Class, is clearly a talent to watch in the coming years.