Review of Shallow Ground (2005) by Jordana R — 21 Oct 2005

Since it's coming up on Halloween, it's going to be mostly horror most of the time. (I've got a few netflix coming that aren't horror and I don't feel like reorganizing the queue.).

Now, The Hollow, probably got a better rating than it should have because I watched it immediately after The Fog, and also because I enjoy the Sleepy Hollow story. It felt pretty ABC Family, but with some foul language and implied sex. The premise is Ichabod Crane's great-great-great-great grandson has just moved to the modern-day Sleepy Hollow. He's in high school and is just trying to fit in and pick up a cheerleader when some crazy guy starts calling him "Teacher" and telling him he's got to face the headless horseman. Everyone in town thinks this guy is a drunk, so no one heeds his warnings. Until the haunted hay ride when the Headless Horseman shows up with a ridiculous glowing pumpkin head and people start getting decapitated. Then the "teacher" must take a stand. I thought it was fun.

But Shallow Ground was actually creepy with an interesting story. In a remote town, everyone's packing up to move away because a new damn has just been completed. It's never clear if the area's going to be flooded, or what, but everyone's leaving all the same. At the police station, the boxes are being loaded into the car when a naked teen-age boy shows up, covered head to toe in blood. He won't speak, and everyone he touches starts acting very strange. Also, when the officers run his prints, each finger pulls up a different person who went missing within 100 miles of the area. Curiouser and curiouser. The kills were bloody. There's some gore. And quite a bit of mystery. I didn't recognize any of the actors except Stan Kirsch a.k.a. Richie from the Highlander series. I definitely recommend this one.