FSK-18 horror new to the home theater: this 80s slasher is now available in its entirety for the first time

A group of young women are in the wrong place at the wrong time: the friends witness a murder, which the perpetrator notices. As a result, the students themselves have to fear for their lives. As if that weren’t bad enough, the killer is also a police officer and can therefore follow the trail of the witnesses with frightening ease.

With this straightforward premise, “Shallow Grave – Journey into Hell” courted slasher audiences in the late 1980s – and came into conflict with Germany’s youth protection system: The horror film was released on videocassette shortened to just over two minutes. Since then it was quiet around the film in this country, but now it’s back: This week “Shallow Grave” came to German home cinema in its entirety for the first time – with FSK approval from 18 years old!

Oddly enough, “Shallow Grave” skips a media generation: it has not yet been released on DVD, and no DVD edition has been announced in the wake of its HD and uncut premiere.

“Shallow Grave”: You know what I did this spring break

College friends Sue Ellen (Lisa Stahl), Patty (Carol Cadby), Rose (Donna Baltron) and Cindy (Just Kelly) want to spend spring break in Florida. Before they can get there, they have to endure a long road trip. During a stop at a diner in Georgia, they meet two handsome men. Since the chemistry is good, they want to meet again. But this deviation from the original plan has unforeseen consequences…

Making an emergency stop in the middle of nowhere and later witnessing a heated argument, the friends see firsthand how a psychopathic small-town cop (Tony March) becomes a murderer. Thus begins a restless flight from the perpetrator, for whom no means is too mean to cover up his crime…

Put together on a tight budget of around $750,000, Shallow Grave is a cheap production even by 1980s slasher standards. The cast’s filmographies are also quite narrow. Aside from this horror film, the villainous cop actor Tony March has only made seven appearances in largely unknown films. Only Kelly, on the other hand, only worked on camera on “Shallow Grave”. Director Richard Styles didn’t do much after “Shallow Grave” either.

Lisa Stahl’s biggest career has been acting on several game shows, a two-episode guest star on the cult series Baywatch, and even appearing in a dozen episodes of the offshoot Baywatch Nights. Horror fans can expect real obscurity with “Shallow Grave,” which at one point recreates the iconic “Psycho” shower scene with naked facts.