Dead Bodies

This one scores for plot alone. Although our hero is in a dead end job, he seems to have no problem pulling tasty girlfriends, but his current one has a fiery temper, and shortly after she turns up on his doorstep with her suitcase, they have a blazing row. He tells her to get out, but it is he who leaves, giving her a shove as he closes the front door. When he returns, she is lying dead on the carpet, having banged her head. What to do now? He summonses his faithful friend, borrows his car, and takes the body out in the sticks to bury it.

Nothing out of the ordinary so far, but as he is about to finish digging the grave, he has a big shock, there is another body in it already, a skeleton. He finishes what he started, recovers from the shock, and reports the dead girl missing. Then a woman is out walking her dog when...yeah, he should have dug deeper, but it's too late now. The other body is identified as the wife of a councillor who disappeared eight years previously. He is pulled in by the police but not as a suspect as he would have been only seventeen when the first murder was committed. The widower of the first victim is now running for high political office, and this is where it gets really complicated. A photograph of his wife is planted in our hero's apartment which is duly raided, so now he is the prime suspect in two murders, but guess what, it was the councillor who actually committed the first murder, as he finds out at the police station.

Next, he hits on a bizarre plan which sees him and his trusty helper break into the councillor's home, force him to drink a large quantity of alcohol, and ingest sleeping pills. The crazy idea is to fake a suicide attempt - complete with noose and suicide note typed on his computer - then he will presumably take the rap for both murders. But they are disturbed by the detective on the case, who seeing the councillor lying on the floor half dead, finishes the job.

As if that isn't enough, there are a couple of other twists. This film is described as black comedy; the script won't make you laugh, but you won't be sorry you watched it.

I have seen Shallow Grave years ago, and *that* was one of those movies I kept in memory for a very long time. It was intense from beginning to end and with plenty of sudden twists. But all of these made sense.

I can't tell the same about Dead Bodies. Above the title is a subtitle that claims it to be "even better than Shallow Grave". This is a big lie.

Dead Bodies looses strength and gets far less convincing during the movie.

Two supporting characters for example, turn out to be a whole lot less innocent than they first appeared to be. That could work as a surprise, but it didn't surprise me. I could see it coming minutes before, and *that* is a big difference with Shallow Grave.

Another thing I have to mention is that characters in this movie often respond not very realistic. They behave like that more often when the movie gets to it's end.

I would have found it far more interesting if some of the characters would have stayed completely innocent, not knowing what is going on. It would have been better for the contrast with for example Tommy and his friend who have to carry a *huge* secret with them.

But no, for some stupid reason the makers of this movie decided that all characters should show their darkest sides. It does not work in a movie like this.

The end felt much like an open end. It left me with an unsatisfied feeling. I expected a whole lot more of it.

At first I would have given this movie six stars because it is not entirely a bad movie. I liked watching it. Most of the time.

But occasionally I saw some really poor acting and unrealistic scenes and because of the disappointing open end, I stick to four stars this time. And because it turned out to be a mistake that I have spend my time and money to it. Unlike Shallow Grave, I will probably forget Dead Bodies very soon. It is just not such a special movie.

The makers could have done a far better job with this movie. It is a shame that they did not.

I saw Dead Bodies on BBC1 at the start of the week, it was on just past midnight (i could not sleep) so i thought i would be turning off the telly half way through, however it turned out to be an enjoyable grim little drama about a guy called Tommy who by accident causes his girlfriend (sexy Katy Davis) to fall and die and disposes of the body himself...then all sorts of paranoid things start to happen.

I don't want to give away the plot or any twists so check it out, because you get a great shot of Katy Davis's bum as shes having sex in this film and it rivals Nicole Kidman's butt shot in the much better thriller Malice.

Late night on BBC1, was on my way to bed but curiosity piqued at a contemporary-set Irish film so I stayed to watch for a few minutes and then stayed to the end. I have to admit that the main attraction was the only English actress, Kelly Reilly, who is stunning to look at.

This is billed as a black comedy, which is one of the hardest things to pull off. It should be the perfect blend of horror and horrible laughs so that in the end you don't know why you're laughing - for me Martin Scorsese's After Hours (1985) is the best example. Dead Bodies is more black than comedy but the plot rattles along and spirals down towards further blackness. I didn't spot the final twists in the tale as some other posters here did so I was suitably surprised.

As a snapshot of the Irish film industry in 2003, it all seems rather worthy; it doesn't look like they spent too much on the making of it so it had a chance to make its money back. The script could've been a whole lot sharper but the acting was on the whole pretty good. I'm glad I watched it, flaws and all, tho I don't think I learnt much about Ireland today, especially their policing methods!

The main issue keeping this film from being better than what is here is the script. Not enough is allowed for development of the story to make this truly something to entice. Instead, the film follows plots and tropes of other mystery and thriller films and books. Acting us all decent, and that is what keeps the film watchable.