Shutter (2005)

Perfect cast and a good story

Great Film overall

Good start, but then it gets ruined

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Once you've seen a few Asian horror films you begin to notice patterns emerging, most galling is that often the main horror element is a placid-looking girl in a white dress with long straight black hair, who lost her life in some unjust way but has come back to haunt either randoms or somehow-related peoples.The Ring, The Grudge, Tale of Two Sisters, a few more I've now forgotten about, and add Shutter to this list too.I was still happy to go with it if the pic was well-made, with some good scares and uneasy moments, but to be honest the scares are very standard predictable jump fare: increase in tense music -> protagonist looking uneasy -> loud bang accompanying a brief flash of zombiefied Asian girl (in a white dress).The narrative jumps about quite randomly in ways that only make sense at the end of the film, and it's the end which saves this from being a poor experience. It's not quite on the high-end dread level as the climax of an otherwise quite dull Ringu (6/10) but it's spooky enough to be satisfying. On the other hand the ending reveal also made me chuckle a little, so not exactly scary.The two main female actors are also very average, with the male character being an utterly pathetic figure: it's not quite clear how he was written, but I just wanted to punch him in the face.Generally there's nothing memorable on offer here, tho' there could've been: the idea of polaroids showing us apparitions is a potentially fantastic concept, covered effectively by the Fatal Frame (Project Zero) series of games on the Playstation 2 console, which was very likely the source of inspiration for Shutter (tho' the game I believe used Camera Obscura). Speaking of Fatal Frame, a film was made last year, but seems very obscure: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3684484/ Back to Shutter: to be fair there is one nice scene which stands out: the photo-flip series showing the apparition moving towards something. Again it could've been so much more: if you've seen Paranormal Activity 4 and always thought they didn't maximise the potential of those X-Box Kinect lighting scenes, then you'll be thinking similar here.Regarding the language: as ever, you should watch a film with its original audio as long as subs are available. The beginning is almost impossible to keep up with the quick-fire banter, but shortly afterwards it's fine. Thai sometimes has Korean-ish inflections, but mostly reminds you (if you, like me, have never heard Thai before) of Vietnamese.Worth a watch if you're addicted to typical Asian horror and are interested in how Thailand does it.Not worth your time if you're a horror fan looking for unique scares or original story.

I have been watching horror movies for about 20+ years and I have seen all the blood and guts stuff from Hostel to Irreversible all the August Underground films, Martyrs, Inside, Scrapbook, just about all the extreme torture horror stuff and any and everything this genre has to offer believe me that isn't what true horror is about, but this is.When it comes to horror I believe a film should instil fear and dread and actually try to frighten the viewer, and this my friends does just that.Along with it's counterparts Ringu, Ju on, Kairo, The Eye, and so on this is in my opinion the best of that sub genre and one of the most outright frightening films in existence.Overall I won't give anything away just to say get in a dark room late at night put the DVD in on a big screen with the sound up and watch it by yourself.You be the judge.

I admit I saw this movie after a long time of its release date....before watching this movie I was under the impression that Asian horror flicks are more about the graphic and visual and less about story line up....well I have no shame to say that I was proved wrong!! this movie on one hand scared me to the core of my spine ...on the other hand..changed the impression of Asian movies which kept me from watching them uptil now.This movie is aboutan Asian guy and his girlfriend.The guy is a photographer.The startingis quite slow..but the movie builds up afterward.He captures some unexplained light and apparitions in his photos..after he accidentally hits agirl who came in the way when he along with his girlfriend(Jane) were travelling at night.Jane asks him to get down and check on her ..but he ignores.They try their level best tocome across a scientific reason for the photographs but to no avail.Jane however is more than keen to find the truth behind the 'what appears to be a girl's apparition' in one of the photograph and ends upin a biology lab where she makes the first contact with the ghost of the girl.In the lab, she also finds a college photo of a groupof friends in which there was a girl who bears a strong resemblance with the girl whowas haunting them. She also spots her boyfriend standing right next to her in the photograph.Jane confronts him and finds outs about a college secret which he hid from her all this time. After that what happens was .....Go watch it!!!

'Shutter' starts off with a group of friends celebrating graduation. Young photographer Tun (Ananda Everingham) and his pretty girlfriend Jane (Natthaweeranuch Thongmee) have been drinking and while driving their way home, they accidentally run over a young woman (Achita Sikamana) who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Shocked and terrified, they flee the crime scene and from then on are haunted by guilt except that guilt isn't the only one haunting them. Now one may be expecting a more sophisticated and refined Thai version of 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' but comparing 'Shutter' to trash like that goes beyond mere insult. Now there are plenty of jump moments that may give the impression that it's your typical East Asian horror movie but just hang on and let the layers of the story slowly unravel for there is far more depth than what it initially appeared to be. Nothing is as it appeared to be. The writing is clever and Pisanthanakun and Wongpoom's direction is brilliant. The camera-work, light effects, cinematography, special effects and score are first rate. The scare 'jumps' may have been a tad overdone and perhaps toning it down a little would have helped. The intense atmosphere is well maintained. Everingham and Thongmee are great and Sikamana is impressive in a small role. Overall, 'Shutter' is an cleverly layered film and those looking for something more than mere momentary fright ought to see this.