Shallow Grave, a nasty, low-rent Scottish black comedy from 1994, is kind of a dry run for Trainspotting. It was the first collaboration between the Trainspotting trio of McGregor, director Danny Boyle, and screenwriter John Hodge. It was Boyle and Hodge's first movie, and only McGregor's second, and it certainly feels like a first film — it's edgy, nervy, eager to shock and to leave an impression, but also enjoyably flippant. It doesn't take itself too seriously.
