A Taut Thriller
Shallow Grave
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston, Kerry Fox
Director: Danny Boyle
Movie Help Web Popcorn Kernels: 
Despite its title (and some of its more explicit scenes), Shallow Grave isn't about gore. This twisty thriller is about the worst impulses harbored by a trio of friends — ordinary folks, just like you and me — and how close those impulses lie to the surface.
In this case, it just takes a pile of money to bring out the worst in Juliet (Fox), David (Eccleston), and Alex (McGregor, in the first of three films he made with director Danny Boyle). They play a trio of friends sharing a flat in Edinburgh. As the film begins, they're interviewing for a fourth, finally settling on Keith Allen's Hugo. He turns out to be a less than ideal roommate, however; one day he turns up dead in his room, with a suitcase of cash.
The plotting and intrigue start when the roommates decide to hide Hugo in the woods and hang on to his money. Both the cops and Hugo's former associates come sniffing around for clues; at first the roommates present an united front, but their trust quickly disintegrates. Eccleston's accountant decides to guard the suitcase day and night, McGregor's journalist has nightmares, and Fox's doctor makes her own vacation plans. All three are believable characters — not villains, but humans who were led into temptation and can't find any way out.
The great acting is complemented by very good cinematography (the sight of the light coming up through hundreds of holes in the attic floor made me gasp). The combination of the two kept me on the edge of my seat most of the time, wanting to see what would happen next — and scared of it, too. So if you want a true thriller, one based on plot surprises instead of gore and cheap shocks, you could do worse than Shallow Grave.
