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[Blu-ray Review] Danny Boyle’s Hitchcockian ‘Shallow Grave’

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The bold, brave attitude of the 1980’s dried up in British cinema after the turn of the decade. The energy and vision behind sci-fi films like Brazil, The Long Good Friday, The Company of Wolves, and anything by Bruce Robinson, along with many others, was replaced with a desire to make bland period pieces and movies about stuffy folks. Beautiful and wonderfully acted maybe, but completely safe; it was like filmmakers suddenly lost their balls and didn’t want to work with challenging, engrossing material. It seems like a good bit – but not all, there are some exceptions – of the industry’s output revolved around being prim, proper and noble in the English countryside instead of addressing what a post-Thatcher society was or how it made people feel.

When Danny Boyle’s first feature, Shallow Grave graced the big screen almost two decades ago, it was a big hit and, more importantly, it started a change; at the time, it was the equivalent of hearing punk rock at the Grand Ole Opry. The three roommates’ distinct flaws – Alex (Ewan McGregor) is a crude journalist, David (Christopher Eccleston) is uptight and reserved, and Juliet (Kerry Fox) is a little too flirty with both men – are all amplified when a dead body and a suitcase full of money enter their lives. And with the entrance of wealth comes backstabbing, greed, and the use of violence, deception, and sex against one another. Three friends are suddenly three enemies, with Juliet playing both sides of the field, and David becoming a neurotic, violent hermit. Their love of money surpasses their love for each other, and cohesion turns to chaos.

John Hodge creates some fantastic character moments in the script and effectively showcasing the ever growing rift between the roomies, leaving the plot fairly basic and full of Hitchcockian devices – it definitely feels a little stale eighteen years later. Shallow Grave is more about the character study and in that department, it excels thanks to three phenomenal performances. Boyle’s sense of humor and style is easy to spot here, especially in the opening monologue and nighttime crawl through the woods (complete with electronica score), but he wouldn’t really define himself until Trainspotting a few years later.

A/V

Shallow Grave’s new 1080p transfer, supervised by director of photography Brian Tufano, is of the high quality we’ve come to expect from Criterion. There’s a lot of detail and clarity, especially in the outdoor scenes, with a noticeable boost in browns and reds. There’s a really nice color contrast in the film; it starts out bright and saturated looking in the colorful, textured apartment and once things start going downhill, it gets more muted and drab looking. There’s a few instances of artefacting, but it’s very sporadic and not a big issue overall. The DTS-HD 2.0 soundtrack is crisp sounding, with clear dialogue. The limitations of the production leave the film without much oomph aside from the electronica bits scattered throughout, which sound louder than anything else and are the highlight of the track. The audio isn’t bad, it’s just not anything special.

Special Features

Commentary – The first of two tracks, ported over from a 2009 release, features director Danny Boyle discussing how he got involved with the film, how his style and techniques evolved over the course of the shoot, and even some fond memories of the production. There are some random tidbits and stories in there too, such as when he lived with the three main actors before the shoot in order to rehearse and develop chemistry between them. The second track, recorded for the Criterion release, has screenwriter John Hodge and producer Andrew Macdonald chatting about the state of British cinema at the time of Shallow Grave’s release, and how they think the film affected it. There’s a really nice contrast between the tracks – one emphasizing British films and the other just the film in question – without much overlap, so a back-to-back pairing isn’t entirely out of the question.

Interviews (28:55) – Newly produced by Criterion, this interview compilation features actors Kerry Fox, Christopher Eccleston, and Ewan McGregor chatting about their recollections of the production, as well as how it affected their careers. Like the commentary tracks, there’s quite a bit about how much it affected the British film industry at the time of its release.

Video Diary (8:58) – Shot by Kevin and Andrew Macdonald, the video diary tracks the duo as they try to secure funding at the 1992 Edinburgh Film Festival. They try passing the script to Robbie Coltrane and Michael Winner, among others, and even chat with a cigar chomping Samuel Fuller a few times.

Digging Your Own Grave (29:48) – A half-hour making-of documentary from 1994 shot by Kevin Macdonald, which starts with some overlap from the Video Diary featurette. Casting, set design and production are covered, mostly from Boyle and his producers’ perspectives, leading up to a market screening at Cannes.

Trainspotting Teaser (1:14) – Already in production on Trainspotting when Shallow Grave was hitting video in the UK, Boyle and Co. decided to include this teaser to give everyone a little taste of what would be, and still is, the director’s best film.

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‘Herencia Diabólica’ – 1993’s “Mexican Child’s Play” Finally Has a Blu-ray Release [Review]

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Did you know that there is a Child’s Play-inspired film from Mexico? If you didn’t, you can thank Vinegar Syndrome’s new label Degausser Video for making 1993’s Herencia Diabólica available for the masses to watch. Or at least for the VS hardcore fanbase, Chucky completists and anyone else who needs something like this in their lives.

Director Alfredo Salazar, known for his writing connection to the 70s Santo film series, also serves as the writer here to bring us a film seemingly inspired from the Child’s Play franchise. While it has been recently labeled as the “Mexican Child’s Play” (there’s a special feature on the disc with that very title), the killer doll concept is where the comparison should start and end. Despite having some seeds planted by that franchise, Salazar delivers a story that blossoms into something unique.

Tony (Roberto Guinar) receives a letter informing him that his aunt has died, and he has inherited her estate in Mexico. He quits his job and uproots his life in New York with his wife Annie (Holda Ramírez) to relocate south of the border and move into his new crib. Now I know what you’re thinking, what person just quits their job and drags their wife to another country without having reliable monetary income? Tony does, everyone, Tony does.

And what’s the first thing they do once they arrive in Mexico and check out the estate? They hit the bedroom, naturally. We are treated to a sex scene with an erotica song that feels like a knockoff of “Sadness” by Enigma (remember them?). Sounds fun and all, but the scene takes place completely in the dark and we see absolutely nothing. Maybe that’s why the sexy-time tune was pumping, so we could know what was exactly going down.

While Tony goes on a job interview, Annie explores the estate’s grounds in a tedious chore to experience, going room by room, plodding along. But it does lead us to her discovery of our antagonist—the evil clown doll, Payasito! Of all the things in the house, she decides to bring this monstrosity down to show Tony when he gets home. What an exciting way to celebrate (sic)! Then out of nowhere, she spouts off some exposition about rumors that Tony’s aunt dabbled in the dark arts and now we know where our title Diabolical Inheritance (the English translation for Herencia Diabólica) originates. For those of you who keep score for things like that.

Before proceeding with this review, you really need to visualize what Payasito looks like to truly embrace the rest of the film’s shenanigans. While Chucky resembles a cute ginger child, Payasito resembles a small clown that is much larger in stature than Chucky. That’s because Payasito is performed by an actor (Margarito Esparaza) in clown cosplay whenever he’s on the move (like Mannequin 2), and makes some really horrible facial expressions. Chucky dresses in “Good Guys” overalls and a striped shirt, but Payasito wears a new wave Santa hat while sporting a Sgt. Pepper jacket and Peter Pan tights. As you can now tell, he is quite beautiful.

Back to our story, Payasito begins to spook Annie cerebrally until she becomes unnerved to the point of having a complete mental break down, making her easy prey to eliminate. She dies but the unborn child survives, with Tony believing that her death was caused by her mental instability. Fast forward some years later and the couple’s surviving spawn has grown into child Roy (Alan Fernando), who at this point has already bonded with Payasito to help him over the loss of his mother. Dun-dun-duuunnn!

Meanwhile wealthy Tony remains single, still grieving his late wife, until his blonde assistant Doris encourages him to move on with his life and start seeing other people. And by other people, she naturally means herself. As the old Kanye West song lyric goes, “I ain’t saying she’s a gold digger…”, and it seems that she might be until we learn more about her character. Doris is played by the stunning Lorena Hererra who has an extremely extensive resume in Mexico, and she carries most of the film quite well during the feature’s second half. The singer and former Playboy centerfold for their Mexico edition is by far the most recognizable face in the cast.

Doris and Tony do indeed hookup and she moves into La casa de Herencia, where she does her best to impress Roy and lessen his obsession with the doll. There is a scene where they go to a nearby park without Payasito that is filled with famous fairytale figures, such as Pinocchio, Cinderella and King Kong! What, you didn’t know King Kong is a fairytale? Me neither. But Roy continues to be obsessed with Payasito after their trip, much to Doris’ chagrin.

Her actions to separate him from Roy gets Payasito angry, setting up the film’s most memorable scene. We already know that Payasito is a devil doll like Chucky, but now we learn he also has the power to invade people’s dreams like Freddy Krueger! Does Payasito enter the dream world and concoct a creative way to kill Doris in her sleep? No, he harnesses his power to sexually assault her instead. Yes that actually happens. After she awakens, Doris grabs the doll and tosses him into a lake, only to find him waiting for her by the time she gets back to the house. So now we know he also maintains the ability to “transport” like Jason Voorhees too. This doll is the total package!

More insanity happens before we close out the film with the longest victim chase sequence ever. It makes the previously mentioned painful house search scene seem like an eyeblink. It feels like it’s the film’s entire third act, filled with so much padding that you could soundproof an entire three-story house.

So how’s the transfer? Considering it was created using a mix of VHS and film source elements from 1993, they did one heck of a job! The work they put into it is especially noticeable in the dream invasion sequence, with the pulsing multi-colored psychedelic visuals. Super trippy stuff. Even the film’s score provides a pretty chill vibe, during the times when Payasito isn’t on the prowl.

If anything you read has piqued your interest in the very least, you should give it a shot. But if not, it is best to leave this doll on the shelf.

Herencia Diabólica is now available to purchase at VinegarSyndrome.com.

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