SHALLOW GROUND

A naked man completely covered in blood wanders through the woods and presents himself at the door of a police station about to close. The man has no injuries and cannot express himself in any way, but he seems to exert a strange influence on anyone who comes into physical contact with him. Exactly one year earlier, a girl had been tortured and killed in those same woods, and her killer had not been identified. The sheriff, still tormented by the idea of not having been able to save that girl, tries to shed light on the identity of the man just found. «Shallow Ground» is a small low-budget film that has achieved moderate success with both the public and critics in a short time; however, watching the film, one is somewhat surprised at how a similar product has managed to receive so many accolades, as there are few qualities that can be identified, both in terms of content and technical aspects. Director Sheldon Wilson had a brilliant idea: a naked man covered in blood wandering through the woods. Around this simple figure, visually rendered effectively, an attempt was made to build a story that could seem minimally plausible, but it is evident that the operation did not yield noteworthy results: the plot jumps from one event to another in a sometimes random, sometimes clumsy manner, and the screenplay has too many holes that even compromise the understanding of several events. Too many are the questions that flash in the viewer's mind at the end of the viewing and too many are the parentheses left open; not to mention some characters who suddenly seem to become important in the development of the story, but then exit the scene as if nothing had happened. Wilson, also the author of the screenplay, probably realized at some point that his «great idea» did not have much potential to make a feature film, so he decided to insert a subplot featuring a mysterious killer who stuffs his victims, but the way the blood-covered man is linked to the killer is not entirely convincing, just as the identity of the killer and the conclusion of the film are not convincing. If we add a static pace and a repetitive structure, as well as a handful of inept actors serving one-dimensional and stereotypical characters who deliver B-grade comic book dialogues, one wonders what is salvageable in this film. The figure of the blood-covered man and the mystery surrounding him stand out, with a strong visual impact and capable of piquing the viewer's interest (although the explanation of his identity is somewhat disappointing); and some sets, such as the sequence in the killer's house of horrors, in whose basement there are so many stuffed cadavers that would make Leatherface's lair envious. However, that's where it stops. In conclusion, «Shallow Ground» turns out to be a confused, clumsy film narratively and somewhat pretentious; with a more articulated story and a good screenplay, it could have turned into a good film.