Shallow Grave (1995) Critic Reviews

Black comedy and film noir are around one another smartly and wickedly in Danny Boyle's Shallow Grave, a tense, twisty Scottish-made thriller that's going to break out of Glasgow in a big way. [24 Feb 1995]Read the full review

All of the materials are in place for a film that might have pleased Orwell. But somehow they never come together.Read the full review

Danny Boyle's glittering, deadpan, nihilistic little thriller.Read the full review

Director Danny Boyle and screenwriter John Hodge (who is a physician!) keep the action spurting forward, but their approach is oblique. We seem to be catching the odds and ends of scenes; it's as if the filmmakers wanted to make a movie in which all the expected high points were skimped.Read the full review

Taken as a whole, Shallow Grave is a reasonably enjoyable (for those captivated by this sort of thing) black comedy/noir thriller that justifies at least a portion of the praise being heaped upon it from overseas.Read the full review

In his big-screen directing debut, British film maker Danny Boyle demonstrates wit, intelligence and economy of style.Read the full review

A sky-high level of misanthropy overwhelms his film in ways that prove more sour than droll, despite the presence of skillful actors and a bizarrely enveloping plot.Read the full review

Shallow Grave, a tar-black comedy that zings along on a wave of visual and scripting inventiveness.Read the full review

This clever thriller has the juiced-up, hyperactive feel of a rock video. [07 Mar 1995]Read the full review