So, a young naked boy covered in blood emerges from the woods and stumbles upon a sheriff’s office. No, this isn’t the start of a potentially funny riddle, but the opening of the lackluster and misfired “Shallow Ground” a film that though graced with an original concept, is completely botched from beginning to end. “Shallow Ground” consists of a very loud and irritating score that basically follows wooden acting, forgettable performances, and interchangeable characters I knew nothing about, and had no interest in knowing. At first, the set-up for “Shallow Ground” resembles basically any other horror film, but writer-director Sheldon Wilson attempts to become more esoteric and lays out the ground work for a more meaningful horror flick that tries too hard.
The young boy is then strapped up for some reason to a chair. These cops assume he’s maniacal because he enters the sheriff’s office and–well–ruins a picture by spraying his blood on it…? Okay. So, then we basically continue on with the same boring routine. The cops attempt to figure out who he is, and he sits in his chair gurgling, groaning, and gurgling for about forty minutes. And then the plot starts to make no sense. The sheriff’s office then receives a bulletin that more of his kind are roaming around, and are warned not to touch him. Why? Well, you’ll have to see for yourself, but Wilson’s mystery is never sure what it wants to be. Sometimes it’s a quasi zombie film, sometimes it’s a murder mystery, and sometimes it’s just melodrama. It’s scattered, messy, and completely without direction while the boring characters try to decipher his origin.
They then finger print him, and discover each of his fingers are different prints for people whom have been missing for almost a year. And a deputy discovers “If you take bits and pieces of these pictures from the victims, they look an awful lot like him.” To which I slapped my forehead and slumped in to my chair. Now, granted, there was no basic graceful way for Wilson to introduce this ridiculous plot device, so why did he? There was no way for him to introduce this plot device that was not only far- fetched, but completely over-estimates human intelligence. How did the deputy know to put these pieces together? Wouldn’t ripping up the Wanted posters basically be destruction of evidence?
It’s ludicrous plot devices such as that that make up “Shallow Ground” from beginning to end, and with the score waning over the film like a blaring stereo, I had a hard time focusing. Wilson’s direction is completely misfired with no mood, or atmosphere, and he never really knows how to set a scene to convey tension to the audience. And Wilson further demonstrates his inability to tell a story and set the proper mood with an ending that made zero sense. None of the actions of the characters ever really made a lick of sense, I mean, why did the boy channel the dead girlfriend of the sheriff? To get to the officer? Did he have a hand in her death?
Or was he playing mind games? It made no sense! If these people were getting up from their graves to exact revenge on their killers, then why? How come no one else noticed this going on? Who was the monster in the climax? Nothing ever made sense here. And from what I’ve read not even the director knew what the ending meant. When a storyteller throws in a plot device that even he doesn’t know what it means, well, then it’s a waste of time to invest in the story. Though the concept has the ability to become something truly original and scary, Wilson botches it with a boring story, wooden acting, and horrible writing, but the real slip-up ends with plot holes, giant lapses in logic, and sequences and a climax that make no sense.