Shallow Grave

This incredibly slick, inventive and, at times, gruesome thriller owes a great deal to the Coen brothers' Blood Simple. It starts with a dead body and a stash of money lying in a huge flat. The deceased man's flatmates decide to dismember and dispose of the corpse (a visit to a DIY shop provides the necessary tools), and retain the money. Things go slightly haywire after that. Made by an ebullient trio of young talent - producer Andrew Macdonald (grandson of film great Emeric Pressburger), director Danny Boyle and scriptwriter John Hodge, also a doctor - the picture bursts with energy and springs some deliciously macabre surprises. Especially brilliant are the use of the cavernous flat and Edinburgh locations and the performances from Kerry Fox, Christopher Eccleston and Ewan McGregor, who are all outwardly ordinary, inwardly strange. Deservedly a box-office smash everywhere, it gave a much-needed shot in the arm to a British film industry preoccupied by Jane Austen and led to the creative trio's even more successful follow-up, Trainspotting. Comparisons with Quentin Tarantino are unfair: Shallow Grave is much cleverer.